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Volume 6, No. 2Religion and Popular Music

Published November 15, 2020

Musician playing the guitar while wearing a rosary

Issue description

The articles of this issue explore diverse music genres, from Christian rock to metal and flamenco, all of which in some way interact with religion. In her contribution, Angela Sue Sawyer brings a song by Tracy Chapman and a biblical passage into an ecofeminist dialogue. Reinhard Kopanski explores two reveal-ing case studies of how popular music is used to express Chris-tian worldviews. And Lavinia Pflugfelder elaborates bricolages of religious motifs in heavy metal video clips.As a reference to opera – another important genre of popular music – this issue is structured as an online-journal libretto: It begins with a Praelude, which introduces some of the main arguments. The issue continues with the 1. Act. Each Act, or thematic article, is followed by an Interlude, a short music video review by Katharina Luise Merkert, Eva Meienberg and Yannick Schlote which focuses on a specific religious aspect in a music video. The section concludes with a Postlude, which offers a short synthesis and considers where we might go next.

Full Issue