N THE 1970s and 1980s there existed among musicians a distinct tribalism in popular music. As an adolescent, I most definitely sided with the “disco-(stinks)-rock-rules” clan. Forget about rap! That was out of the question. Today I listen to all of it and admire the best of the best — albeit much has been vetted by time and discernment. In sports the mentality is called “rooting for laundry.” It doesn’t matter who is playing for one’s team. As long as they wear the preferred colors, they represent all that is good, right, and worthy. Everyone else is the enemy. Much the same can be said for politics with no room for nuance, moderation, or reason.
Forgive this recounting of my personal background: Difficult to discern from my cherry-picked online profile (never believe everything you read on the internet!), I have an unusually broad background in music. I was heavily involved in pop song writing for decades. It still holds influence. I was deep in jazz, classical, and pop all at once. This is part of what drew me to the Berklee College of Music in the late 1980s. Bach fugues in one class, Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane in another, Stravinsky and Bartok in yet another. Sometimes these topics arose all in the same day. I loved it.
Eventually the pipe organ and Gregorian chant sucked me in for good and for life. But my feet remained simultaneously in many musical worlds.
This taught me to appreciate diverse and sometimes unconventional approaches to the creative process. While insanely passionate about the pipe organ, chant, and traditional liturgy, (I don’t apologize for that) my vantage point is disparate; my journey circuitous. Where some draw boundaries and refuse to explore, I encounter multiple vantage points. My hope is that this experience has been somewhat beneficial in serving God.
Saint Paul Warns Us
“I MEAN THAT EACH of you is saying, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 12-13)
Tribalism found its way into the Church from the very beginning, hence a few letters from Saint Paul! Among many controversies in the Church, music is not immune. In principle, we can agree there is no “traditional” vs. “contemporary” in that there is no “versus.” There is only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” (Ephesians 4:5)
Keys to the Kingdom
THERE IS A DIFFICULT lesson, and it is one of manipulation. This sadly manifests in music, liturgy, politics, and the Church. It is not prayer or service. It’s tearing us apart, and a cause for great anxiety and sadness. And quite likely, we are being played like a fiddle.
Let me explain with a story I call the “keys to the kingdom.” In 1990 or 1991 I attended the “New Music Seminar” held in Times Square in Manhattan. It was for pop artists, record company executives, song writers, and a lot of “wanna-be” pop-star musicians.
At one session, several artists and song writers expressed their dismay to a panel of radio and record company executives about what they perceived as the poor quality of music being played on mainstream radio. Maybe they were mad their music wasn’t being played. Who knows.
One radio executive on this panel in front of maybe 1,000 people exploded everyone’s minds. He dropped the veil with some harsh truth. And it was one of the most valuable lessons I ever learned. What he said shocked many musicians. But now it’s embarrassingly obvious.
He stated without a trace of compassion: “I need to remind you that in radio, we are not in the music business. We are in the business of selling advertising.”
What sells the most advertising dollars is what gets aired. Nothing personal. It’s business. And this explains much — if not all — of our polarized world, one perhaps divided by design. Division and anger — especially self-righteous anger — is good for business. Very good, especially in our click-bait world. It is also good for control. No middle ground. No Venn diagram. No dialogue. No kindness and courtesy especially. Extremes, once the outliers, become normative.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.
KEEP YOUR EYES wide open. Do not allow yourself to be manipulated. Think for yourself. Be mindful of visceral reactions whether one’s own or of others, especially responses caused by “rooting for laundry.” Do not get sucked into the vortex of tribalism, no matter how ingrained in humanity’s DNA.
More importantly, give oneself over to the service of God. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. One must rise above, forgo power, and serve the mission.
I write these things to remind myself. Stay grounded in God. The promise of truth outside of God is all a lie.
I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:
*one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4: 1-6
