Attendees of the 2024 FILO Conference — a conference for “technical artists” at churches — listening to contemporary worship music. Credit: Courtesy of Dylan Crosson
The School of Music’s upcoming “Lectures in Musicology” event will aim to strike a chord with students Monday evening.
In this installment of the weekly series, Dylan Crosson — a PhD candidate in musicology — will present a lecture titled “Audible Orthodoxies: How Contemporary Worship Music Turns Evangelical Values into Musical Style.” According to Ohio State’s School of Music webpage, the event will take place Monday from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Music and Dance Library, located on the second floor of the 18th Avenue Library at 175 W. 18th Ave.
Crosson said the lecture will explore contemporary worship music’s musical and cultural construction in evangelical churches. He said during the lecture he will examine why this music sounds the way it does, drawing on examples from popular groups such as Hillsong, Bethel and Elevation Worship.
“This is my way of trying to give people a glimpse into an evangelical worldview through the lens of music,” Crosson said. “It’s a way of understanding.”
Crosson said his dissertation explores the increasing popularity and broad recognition of pop-style worship music, even among atheists.
“Some people will mention to me that they’re not Christian or not religious, but why is it that every time they flip through the radio and hit a Christian station, they know it right away?” Crosson said. “I try to explain why church music sounds the way that it does.”
Austin McCabe Juhnke, an Ohio State professor of musicology and coordinator for the lecture series, said Crosson’s talk will analyze the distinct use of contemporary production techniques in religious music.
“[Crosson’s] work is really about a certain sound in music that is immediately sonically distinctive,” McCabe Juhnke said. “People will say, ‘Ah, this feels like worship music,’ but it might be something else as well. You want to come away with that sense of how modern music production might link two ideas of music and musical value.”
Crosson also said he will delve into deeper musical elements beyond just melody or tune, examining factors like volume, reverb and echo, which contribute to the overall sound and emotional impact of the music.
“I look at things that can appear on recorded music, so musical space,” Crosson said. “Some of that has to do with how loud or how quiet the lead singer is, or whether it sounds like they’re far away or close up because that’s all intentional. Another thing that comes from my dissertation is reverb. I talk about how some of those principles actually impact how reverb is affected.”
Crosson said he chose to host this lecture now because pop-influenced worship music is gradually becoming a shared language among Christians and across multiple denominations.
“This shared music is starting to dissolve denominational distinction in some ways,” Crosson said. “That’s probably the most shocking thing from the 2,000-year history of Christianity that you’re starting to see.”
As a whole, McCabe Juhnke said the lecture series provides an interesting look into the field of musicology. In Crosson’s case, the event will reflect years of independent research and hard work.
“[Crosson] has very keen analyses of the way this music works,” McCabe Juhnke said. “Hopefully, you’ll come away with some of the newest and most cutting-edge research on this topic.”
For more information about the lecture series, including Crosson’s specific lecture, visit Ohio State’s School of Music webpage.
