2020 | 2

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
  • Review
  • Review
  • Review
  • Review
    Music Review: Kanye West, Jesus Is King
    Price, Andre L. (2020) , S. 119-123
  • Article
    Comfort the Waste Places, Defend the Violated Earth: An Ecofeminist Reading of Isaiah 51:1–52:6 and Tracy Chapman’s Song “The Rape of the World”
    Sawyer, Angela Sue (2020) , S. 21-33
    This paper compares the personification of Zion in Isaiah 51:1–52:6 as a mother and daughter with Tracy Chapman's 1995 song "The rape of the world" where the earth is portrayed as mother. I will explore the use of rape imagery and how both pieces portray the negative effects of human activity on the earth, whether by commercial activity or war. The environmental impact of the desolation of the earth during the Babylonian exile depicted in Isaiah and its portrayal via gendered images is viewed through the lens of ecofeminist criticism. The earth itself has a voice in both Chapman’s and Isaiah’s words.
  • Article
    Combating Gender Norms with a Lipstick-Gun: Lady Gaga’s JUDAS
    Merkert, Katharina Luise (2020) , S. 34-39
    "Judas" is a track on Lady Gaga's album Born this way which was released in 2011. Given that it attracted a lot of attention not only in popular media but also in several academic works, this might indicate the potential for discussion within this specific religious theme. Many questions, including whether the message of the song intends to criticize religion or whether Judas could potentially be blasphemous, were raised.
  • Article
    What Makes Popular Christian Music “Popular”? A Comparison of Current US-American and German Christian Music Using the Examples of Lauren Daigle and Koenige & Priester
    Kopanski, Reinhard (2020) , S. 41-57
    The article discusses the question “What makes Popular Christian Music ‘popular’?” by applying different (competing) concepts of the term “popular” so as to showcase by which criteria Popular Christian Music (labelled as Contemporary Christian Music by the US music industry) can be described as “popular”. Thereby, the article compares both Anglo-American and German-language Christian songs by means of close reading using the examples of the German band Koenige & Priester [Kings & Priests] and US singer Lauren Daigle. Through the presented exemplary analyses, I argue that Christian music uses strategies of popularization comparable to secular popular music. The difference to secular music comes from the fact that the Christian message is a central genre marker of Popular Christian Music, leading me to suggest that the popularity (in the sense of reaching a large audience apart from religious/evangelistic circles) essentially depends on the polysemic properties of the lyrics.
  • Article
    Paths of Destiny: Rosalía’s Spiritual Car Ride in AUNQUE ES DE NOCHE
    Meienberg, Eva (2020) , S. 58-63
    A critical review of Rosalia's music video for "Aunque es de noche" that focusses on media-transmitted, personal spirituality, female strength and the amalgamation of religious imageries.
  • Article
    Heavy Metal Bricolage: Religious Imagery and “Religionized” Visual Language in Music Videos
    Pflugfelder, Lavinia (2020) , S. 65-85
    Popular music’s use of visual media makes its listeners also its viewers. From concert posters, tickets stubs and stage design to music videos, CD covers and clothes, material visual products are utilized by bands and fans alike to emphasize their sound, represent ideas or lyrics, self-stylize, sell the product and generate recognition for their in-group. As with other forms of popular culture, there is intensive exchanges between the fields of religion and heavy metal. Religion can appear within popular culture in the form of explicit or implicit religious themes, content, images, symbols or language; popular culture can appear in religion as the appropriation of different elements by a religion; popular culture can itself be analysed as religion, usually using a very broad functionalist definition of religion; and finally, popular culture and religion can be in dialogue. Focusing on the incorporation of religious iconography and imagery in hevay metals visual language opens questioning of the particular form of bricolage and the motivations of selection concerning individual visual elements. Which factors determine this exchange? How does bricolage help to understand the recycling and restructuring of motifs? And how does this specifically concern religious images?
  • Article
    “You Need a Big God”: Fascinating Interactions between Music and Religion
    Fritz, Natalie; Höpflinger, Anna-Katharina (2020) , S. 7-20
    The Praelude "You Need a Big God" tries to approach the thematic field of religion and popular music using a variety of music video clips to highlight the manifold interactions and interrelations between popular music and religion. Aspects like the production, distribution and consumption of music that in one or another way deals with religion, religiosity or spirituality are highly significant to understand how both cultural symbol systems affect and are affected by the other.
  • Article
    “But are as the Angels which are in Heaven” (Mark 12:25): Reimagining a Gender-Ambiguous Heaven in Dorian Electra’s ADAM & STEVE
    Schlote, Yannick (2020) , S. 86-89
    The American singer and songwriter Dorian Electra is a queer phenomenon. Their dandy appearance – the latest album is called Flamboyant (2017) – goes hand in hand with the criticism of toxic masculinity and gender binarism. One of their latest tracks, called "Adam and Steve", is a gay retelling of the Genesis story. It turns on the derogative phrase: It‘s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve that is used to imply an irreconcilable disparity between Christianity and gay love, i.e. queerness in general ...
  • Article
    "And God Is Never Far Away”: Or the Sum of this Issue
    Fritz, Natalie; Höpflinger, Anna-Katharina (2020) , S. 91-102
    This Postlude or Epilogue works as a summary of the issues insights and opens a new perspective at the end.
  • Journal Issue