Study Finds That Megachurches Heavily Influence Worship Music Scene
By Movieguide® Contributor
A Worship Leaders Research (WLR) study recently discovered that just a few megachurches are connected to all 25 of the Top Worship Songs from 2010–2020.
“After accounting for collaborations, performance history, and popularization, only six groups were responsible for the popularity of the Top 25 songs in worship music,” the site reported. These groups are Bethel, Hillsong, Elevation, North Point, Passion, and Phil Wickham, who collaborated with Bethel.
Benjamin William Hastings, who played with Hillsong United, said: “It’s kind of surreal. Like, if I ever get to be in a church and hear someone leading like a song that I got to play a part in, it’s this really surreal, beautiful moment where you’re like it feels like it doesn’t feel like mine. That makes sense. It feels like you. You create something, and then you hand it over to the church.”
“This also confirms the anecdotal fears of many local church songwriters. It seems a song written and created without the eventual support of these specific churches, would not easily gain widespread popularity in the industry and, by extension, the church,” WLR said.
“If you’re looking for a living, it might not be necessarily the way to go. If, however, you’re looking to just write good worship songs with ones that will serve your community from your heart, it turns out there will never be too many of them,” Marc Jolicoeur, a WLR collaborator, said.
Movieguide® previously reported on Wickham’s hope for the future of music: “I think all the music, it’s going to come, and people are going to keep pushing each other to make more and more, better and better and more beautiful, and I love all that. … I think we all really just want to see God’s Kingdom here on earth through the songs, and everybody’s rooting for each other.”
Shannan Baker, a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor University, will conduct ongoing research that will focus on the lyrics used in the most popular songs.
She said, “‘A lot of it is, what is God doing for me now? And what has God promised to do for me in the future?”
WLR also mentioned that they collected data on worship leaders’ views on various music sources and how they use charts and other tools to handle song releases. They will share the data later in the year.
Movieguide® previously spoke with Jonathan Douglas, a member of Hillsong United out of Hillsong Church.
“It’s pointing people to get [their] eyes off your situation and the things that you don’t have right now, and understand that we’ve got a God who’s in control who isn’t shocked by a pandemic and created us to be united,” JD said of the group’s music. “We want to gather around what we believe in and what we agree on, not what we disagree on, and just see what God can do in that kind of atmosphere.”
He continued: “There’s so many dimensions to who God is and His character. We believe that we can keep telling that story in a way that’s never been told before. We will submit our songs. That’s always a fun process when we have to make changes. But we think it’s a great process. And it’s only there to strengthen up our songs. We always want them to not just be our cool random ideas, but I think they’re powerful when they’re based on the truth of God and who he is.”
