Abstract:
Music, as the form of art whose name derives from ancient myths, is often thought of as pure symbolic expression and associated with transcendence. Music is also a universal phenomenon and thus a profound marker
of humanity. These features make music a sphere of activity where sacred
and popular qualities intersect and amalgamate. In an era characterised by
postsecular and postcolonial processes of religious change, re-enchantment
and alternative spiritualities, the intersections of the popular and the sacred
in music have become increasingly multifarious. In the book, the cultural
dynamics at stake are approached by stressing the extended and multiple
dimensions of the sacred and the popular, hence challenging conventional,
taken-for-granted and rigid conceptualisations of both popular music and
sacred music. At issue are the cultural politics of labelling music as either
popular or sacred, and the disciplinary and theoretical implications of such
labelling. Instead of focussing on specific genres of popular music or types
of religious music, consideration centres on interrogating musical situations
where a distinction between the popular and the sacred is misleading, futile
and even impossible. The topic is discussed in relation to a diversity of belief
systems and different repertoires of music, including classical, folk and jazz,
by considering such themes as origin myths, autonomy, ingenuity and stardom, authenticity, moral ambiguity, subcultural sensibilities and political
ideologies.
