“The “praise song” crowd will probably not like this book because it is not filled with one-stanza numbers having a set of seven, often touchy-feely, words sung eleven times to a new age melody.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I was wondering if you would mind explaining what makes a melody “new age,” and if you would give some examples of the songs you mean.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
I will seek to answer your questions simply.\u00a0 Right now, all my books (including the vast majority of my hymnbooks), study materials, magazines, etc., are in storage so I am going to have to give you an answer mostly from memory off the top of my head.<\/p>\n
Regarding the term “new age melody,” if you have studied music to any degree, you may be aware that there is the traditional style of musical melody and harmony of the western world, which practically all of our standard hymn and gospel song tunes follow, and then there is a more recent development known as “new age music” which blends traditional western music with elements of jazz, eastern (oriental) music, and other non-western musical forms.\u00a0 Many music stores have an entire section devoted to such music.<\/p>\n
Much of the Contemporary Christian Music movement, from which so many of the newer “praise songs” come, draws heavily upon this “new age” style of music because it’s so popular.\u00a0 You asked for some examples and, again, most of my things are in storage, but I would put practically anything originating from CCM (some CCM artists may “borrow” songs from other sources and then “new age” them up), including many groups very popular among churches of Christ such as Hallel, into this category — perhaps practically 99% (maybe that’s a little bit too high) of what appears in the majority of “new song supplements.”\u00a0 By the way, these concepts and even terms are not original with me.\u00a0 I base a lot of my observations on a detailed study of this development in church music by Forrest M. McCann, a former professor at Abilene Christian University and general editor of Great Songs Revised<\/em>, and Paul Brown, a well-known song leader in Nashville, TN, who I think may have also been associated with David Lipscomb University, that appeared in a couple of issues of the Gospel Advocate a few years ago (unfortunately, my copies are packed so I cannot give you the precise dates).<\/p>\nAlso, I want to make sure you understand that my purpose is not necessarily to pass divine judgment on the songs which I called “one-stanza numbers having a set of seven, often touchy-feely, words sung eleven times to a new age melody.”\u00a0 I do have very specific opinions about them and freely admit that I do not care for them because I find them, even with all my musical study, rather difficult to sing (and even in congregations which like them and try to sing them, my experience watching this is that they are not easy to learn), and they just do not “speak” to me as do the older hymns with their deeper content of meaning.\u00a0 However, I have no desire or intention of setting myself up as an arbiter of the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs which brethren must or must not use.\u00a0 Other people may find such songs meaningful and edifying.\u00a0 I cannot, and therefore will not, say that the kind of songs which you asked me about is sinful and wrong.\u00a0 However, I will encourage brethren to examine the songs which they sing continually to make sure that they accomplish the scriptural elements underlying the Biblical concept of “singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” and not just that they “sound good” or are popular.<\/p>\n
I hope that this answers or at least sheds some light on the questions that you asked.<\/p>\n
Brotherly,<\/p>\n
Wayne S. Walker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I read your\u00a0Review of Sacred Songs of the Church. I noticed this sentence: “The “praise song” crowd will probably not like this book because it is not filled with one-stanza numbers having a set of seven, often touchy-feely, words sung eleven times to a new age melody.” I was wondering if you would mind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[520],"class_list":["post-21894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10850,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-seventeen-year-old-conduct-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":21894,"position":0},"title":"Can a seventeen-year-old conduct worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My father is a pastor. Since we have two branch churches, my father will come to the main church only for giving a message after finishing the services in our branch church. So, he has appointed some youths to conduct songs, praise, and worship. But these people do not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45241,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/psalmois-cant-be-understood-figuratively-it-has-to-refer-to-its-classical-meaning\/","url_meta":{"origin":21894,"position":1},"title":"Psalmois can’t be understood figuratively. It has to refer to its classical meaning.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My question is regarding the use of instrumental music to worship God in relation to Ephesians 5:19. \"speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord\". The view presented on your website is that the noun \"psalmois\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2380,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-pursue-a-career-singing-pop-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":21894,"position":2},"title":"Can I pursue a career singing pop music?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can I pursue a singing career in pop music? I have an opportunity to get myself out there, but I would like to know if it is OK to pursue a career in entertainment because I don't want to lose my soul. Please, I would love an answer. I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32040,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-ok-to-play-hymns-at-home-without-singing\/","url_meta":{"origin":21894,"position":3},"title":"Is it OK to play hymns at home without singing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My question is regarding instrumental music.\u00a0Is it okay to\u00a0play hymns on the piano at home, without singing, for fun? Also, how do I answer someone who says that instrumental music predates the Mosaic\u00a0law and, therefore, is okay in worship today? Thank you so much for your time! Answer: God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42460,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/singing-to-the-lord-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":21894,"position":4},"title":"Singing to the Lord (Hickox)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Michael Hickox via The Sincere Milk of God's Word \"Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord\" (Ephesians 5:19). \"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92731,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/make-melody-in-your-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":21894,"position":5},"title":"Make Melody in Your Heart","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Text: Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16 These two familiar scriptures on singing spiritual songs are set in a context of a \"time of reformation,\" in which the carnal and earthly temple and instruments are given their spiritual fulfillment in Christ. In contrast to the Old Testament or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}