Random Thoughts

Random Thought #1: I really like patriotic hymns. The music itself is great, and it doesn't hurt that many of the lyrics give God some credit.

Random Thought #2: First, some context. I'm not a big fan of contemporary praise songs (the kind of songs we sing in Chapel). Some of them have great lyrics and a few even have catchy music, but sometimes they seem to focus too much on emotional responses. And the repetition of a single verse over and over and over can get old pretty fast. To say nothing of the confusion that can result for the audience when the song leaders decide to improvise: repeat a few bars, drop a verse, etc. I'd rather sing a traditional hymn. That said, what follows is not intended to be a "praise-music-bashing" rant. It's just an observation that I made today.

One of the things I dislike about praise songs is their repetetiveness. Usually, the song consists of one verse and one chorus, and these are repeated between three and twenty-seven times. Why is this the case? I may have an explanation.

As most of you know, I am interested in the science of language: how does it work, why does it work that way, and so on. I think the simplicity of praise songs is a cultural necessity.

Consider the setting for praise songs: lots of people standing in a big room with their hands raised, waving, clenched into fists, or engaged in some other form of motion. These people couldn't hold a hymnal because their hands are otherwise occupied. And many of them close their eyes during a song, so they can't take advantage of the large screens on which lyrics are projected.

Result: people have to really know their songs so that they can focus on waving their hands and not worry about reading lyrics. Thus, the songs must be relatively simple, and they can't have too many different lyrics. So each gets one verse and one chorus, and the worshippers need only memorize those.