In Herman Melville’s classic work Moby Dick, the main character Ishmael tells of the last chapel service he attended before setting out on a whaling vessel. He details the odd pulpit used in the small chapel, which resembled a large ship’s bow. To further the nautical impression, the high pulpit could only be reached by use of a velvet rope ladder akin to the rope ladders used to reach a ship’s masts. Ishmael eventually concludes, “[T]here must be some sober reason for this thing; furthermore, it must symbolize something unseen” [1].
Ishmael’s assessment of the pulpit and its symbolism realizes the truth of nonverbal communication and its effect on the observer. Just as inanimate objects send certain messages, people convey messages apart from their words. Such nonverbal communications are referred to by communicators as meta-messages. In this article I will consider the importance of meta-messages in our communications, and the ramifications they can have on our musical worship practices.
Inescapable Nonverbal Communication
Meta-messages always attend our actual words. They are conveyed in many different forms and interpreted both consciously and unconsciously. When our verbal and nonverbal messages do not convey the same information, great confusion can ensue, even communicating unintended messages. Thus, it is best if the primary message and the meta-message are congruent.
For example, when your pre-teen daughter thanks you for dropping her off in front of the school, her tone and body language are what convey the actual message. If she’s slid down in her seat and thanks you with tears in her voice, she’s probably not crying with gratitude.
Though language is the primary element of communication, the nonverbal messages cannot be ignored [2]. In Joseph Devito’s book on communication he states, “Nonverbal behavior in an interactional situation always communicates” [3]. Thus all communication is attended with meta-messages that are capable of either enhancing or distorting the intended message.
The meta-messages of communication can also be either conscious or subconscious. Devito states, “[W]e need not be consciously aware that we are receiving messages for them to communicate meaning to us” [4]. For example, we do not usually consciously register the voice inflection and body language used by our friends in conversation. Yet both factors are incorporated into our understanding of the intended message. If meta-messages are conveyed even on an unconscious level, the forms and methods of communication need to be considered carefully to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.
From an Ancient Near East inscription on pottery to the 140-character information byte of a Tweet, the mode of communication carries a meta-message along with it. Humans interpret the use of material, space, smell, touch, time, color, temperature, light, and even silence to help them understand the message communicated [5]. As missiologist Charles Kraft states, “The interpretation of the code via which a message is transmitted itself becomes a part of the message perceived” [6]. Thus, literally everything plays a part in communicating a message. But what happens if the intended message and the meta-message contradict one another?
Because meta-messages inevitably communicate alongside our actual words, it is essential to make certain that the two messages are congruent. As Kraft notes, when an audience perceives incongruity between the primary message and the way it is conveyed it effects and alters the intended message [7]. When the method we use communicates a different message from our content, it confuses our message or, even worse, sends a completely different message than we intended. In either case our attempts at communicating effectively are stymied.
Because communication is meant to convey a message from one person to another, all hindrances to clear communication of that message must be minimized. We must realize and critique the accompanying meta-messages we are sending. An effective communicator will learn to fit the two messages together in such a way that the audience receives only one cohesive message [8]. This has many implications for communicators, not excluding communication in the area of worship music, to which we will now turn.
T. David Gordon and Meta-messages in the Church
Theologian T. David Gordon is convinced that the modern church has not adequately addressed the importance of meta-messages. In his book Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal, Gordon analyzes the music currently used in many churches. Citing musicologists, philosophers, and cultural critics, Gordon argues that most pop music is banal and trite in terms of its musical content and form. If this is so, what meta-messages are being conveyed to the church when these popular musical forms are used in worship?
Pop music is largely a product of mass media and commercial forces [9]. Because radio stations are businesses that need to turn a profit, pop music’s primary goal is to produce those profits. Thus music played on most radio stations is designed to keep you from switching stations during their advertisements.
Comparing pop music to classical or folk music, Gordon remarks that these strive “to produce what is enduringly beautiful,” where pop music is designed to pass out of fashion quickly [10]. The resulting music therefore is technically simple, trite, transient, and aimed toward the young. But churches aren’t radio stations. This means we must think more critically about what our music is communicating—regardless of our intentions.
As a music minister now for four years, I have come to realize that I am making deeply theological decisions when I choose music for a church service [11]. Songs convey their messages through more than just lyrics. Concerning the non-verbal, meta-messages of music, Kraft states, “Though most of us are as unaware of the technical aspects of the musical code as we are of the intricacies of our language, we all learn to use and/or interpret the code at some level” [12]. Thus, the actual music conveys a message to us along with the lyrics. If it were not so, an eightsome reel or J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos would be worthless [13]. So the question becomes, “What message should the Bride of Christ be conveying?”
The book of Acts, the early church fathers, and the Reformers all portray the early church meetings as times of fellowship among believers and communal worship of their Creator and Savior [14]. Fellowship and worship have continued to be the purpose of church meetings throughout church history. Because of this, most hymnal committees (until recently) had up to ten literary, liturgical, musical, and theological criteria to guide them in selecting hymns that best communicated their worship of God [15]. Though all of these criteria can be met using guitars, drums and other common instruments in a manner that embraces Scripture and the great Christian tradition, some churches have jettisoned all criteria save for the ever-evolving standard of sounding contemporary.
The reasons often given to justify this criterion are unbelievers’ comfort and general familiarity. However, marketing to unbelievers’ appetites shouldn’t guide the church’s worship of God. Gordon rightly asks, “Why should the sensibilities of those who may not even know God, or the sensibilities of a commercially driven, banal culture, rule in the worship of God?” [16]
The gathering of the church body should be a place and time to worship God and celebrate our new lives in Christ. Here we are taught to put off our “former conduct” of the old man, which is growing corrupt, and to put on the new man, which is “created according to God” (Eph. 4:22-24).
However, pop music genres bring with them the world’s meta-messages, and they encourage nostalgia for our worldly conduct of life. In considering the inherent dangers of allowing our former worldly conduct to continue into our new life, missiologist David Hesselgrave warns,
In the view of the missionary, those behaviors, institutions, beliefs and values connected with the old religion and most at odds with the Christian faith need to be abandoned. Those behaviors and beliefs that give evidence of an inner change—especially those connected with conversion such as “praying the sinner’s prayer,” Bible study, prayer, church attendance and so on—need to be adopted and demonstrated. But while all this is going on the old worldview that influences all else in ways not readily observable is allowed to remain more or less intact [17].
Though all of the outward signs of conversion are present, an unbelieving worldview may remain intact if there is not an abandonment of the “old man’s” behaviors and institutions. This should cause us to carefully reflect on the meta-messages of our music. If we don’t, the result could be confusion at best, and encouragement of unbiblical attitudes and sensibilities at worst.
Conclusion
Meta-messages are an inescapable aspect of communication. They can either assist or harm our efforts to communicate with clarity. The church should neither deny their presence, nor ignore their importance. Specifically, the selection of worship music requires careful consideration since music is designed not so much to entertain, but to instruct and admonish believers in their worship of an almighty, eternal, transcendent God, to Whom all glory is due.
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[1] Herman Melville, Moby Dick: or The Whale (1851, repr. New York: Penguin Books, 2001), 44.
[2] Charles H. Kraft, Communication Theory for Christian Witness (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983), 150.
[3] Joseph A. Devito, Human Communication: The Basic Course, 3rd ed. (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), 118.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Kraft, 151.
[6] Ibid., 152.
[7] Ibid., 154.
[8] Ibid.
[9] T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2010), 89.
[10] Ibid. There is a small market for older pop music that draws on and manufactures a sense of nostalgia. Radio stations that cater to such audiences strike a delicate balance between nostalgia and obsolescence. Thus, “oldies” stations are continually culling their oldest selections and embracing more contemporary selections to retain their market share.
[11] The theological nature of hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs in the church’s worship is addressed seriously during the Protestant Reformation. For a deeper discussion of this topic see Horton Davies, The Worship of the English Puritans (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1997).
[12] Kraft, 155.
[13] Gordon, 55.
[14] For an excellent study of these historical witnesses see Calvin Stapert, A New Song for an Old World: Musical Thought in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007). See also “Musical Thought in the Early Church.”
[15] Gordon, 44.
[16] Ibid., 43.
[17] David J. Hesselgrave, “Syncretism: Mission and Missionary Induced?” in Contextualization and Syncretism: Navigating Cultural Currents, ed. Gailyn Van Rheenen (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2006), 76-77.
March 17, 2014
Absolutely spot on! This is a great article and one that needs to be sounded from our church roof-tops.
March 17, 2014
Thank you very much Brother Campbell. I hope this will help us begin to engage our musical choices more intentionally.
March 19, 2014
Philip,
Meta-messages are indeed an important element to consider in any form of communication. For clarification, a couple of questions: 1) What are the meta-messages being sent by one style of music over another? and 2) Are you saying that anything “comtemporary” is automatically inferior in its message and technicality?
I definitely believe that worship music should be something considered seriously and prayerfully as we lead congregations to worship the Almighty God. Kudos to you for wrestling honestly with those issues.
March 21, 2014
Brandon,
First, thanks for your readership and engagement in this discussion. I’m going to attempt to address your questions, but they will be limited due to the constraints of space and time. However, for further investigation into these subjects beyond my remarks here, you may check out these books:
• Ken Meyrs, “All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture”
• T. David Gordon, “Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal”
• Calvin R. Stapert, “A New Song for an Old World: Musical Thought in the Early Church”
Each of these books deals with the subject in depth, but is still accessible to the average non-musician. For a more technical treatment I would recommend the British aesthetician Roger Scruton’s books “Understanding Music” and “Culture Counts.” What I have read of Scruton so far is extremely helpful, if dense, requiring a working knowledge of music theory and history. Now as to your questions:
1. The meta-messages of music necessarily differ from genre to genre, and to some extent, vary according to the piece of music. As a result generalizations are hard to make. That said T. David Gordon and Ken Myers make these three distinctions, which are quite helpful: Classical, Folk, and Pop Music.
a.) According to these authors, classical Music’s meta-message encourages communication and reflection, much like listening to an oration. Accordingly the audience gives its response after the whole piece has been performed and they’ve had time to reflect on its merits.
b.) Folk Music’s meta-message encourages conversation and communal agreement. For example, the eightsome reel that I linked in my post is a folk piece that calls all of the community to join together in dance where participants are attentive and responsive to one another. It is important to note that this type of dancing embraces the entire community and not just the young and sexually active like modern dance. It calls us to community rather than isolation.
c.) These author’s also point out that pop music’s meta-message, contrary to these others, is instinctive, individualistic. Often, pop music conveys the performer’s feelings which are intended to resonate with the listener’s feelings. The lyrics are very “me” focused (e.g. “I Want You to Want Me,” “Oops, I Did It Again,” and “I Stand Alone”).
Pop music also relies on rhythm to convey most of its message because its melodic structure is extremely simplistic and its harmonic development is almost nonexistent. Rhythm’s physical beats communicate bodily impulses rather than reflective messages. One of the strongest advocates for this position is Michael Ventura who absolutely despises the West’s “codified Christianism” which teaches that one should “reasonably control one’s bodily impulses, that one should order one’s life by the reflections of the mind, not by the instincts of the body” [Ventura, “Hear that Long Snake Moan,” in two parts, Whole Earth Review, Spring 1987, pp. 28-43, and Summer 1987, pp. 82-92. found in Ken Meyrs, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishers, 1989), 144]. Thus, the pop music idiom feeds our natural instincts and discourages reflection.
Lastly, Pop music is designed to be discarded. The pop music that you and I grew up listening to is completely different from today’s pop music, and that was only ten or fifteen years ago. People our demographic will probably listen to Brittany Spears and Saliva for the rest of their lives, but very few of our succeeding generations are going to listen to it. Since the things of God are eternal it seems odd to use a musical style that is extremely transient.
2. As to whether contemporary music is automatically inferior in message and technicality, I would say no. But being contemporary is not so much the issue as the meta-message of a given song. Some songs seriously lack depth in both message and technical excellence, old and new songs alike. So contemporaneity is not necessarily at issue. That said, the “new hymnody” movement is a contemporary example of songs that (generally) send appropriate meta-messages, including Sovereign Grace, Indelible Grace, and Reformed Praise as well as the “new folk” movement.
Thanks again for you engagement in this discussion and readership.
March 24, 2014
Thanks for your reply, Philip. I especially appreciate the remark about how these discussions often must be song specific rather than necessarily genre or date of origin specific.
As you mentioned, it is difficult to make general statements and often semantics can play an important role in distinction in discussions like this when referencing “contemporary” versus “pop.”
My hope is that we do not fall into the trap of throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater when it comes to issues like this but seriously look at each aspect of our worship and connection with God (both privately and corporately) and hold it up to the light of scripture for approval/disapproval.
p.s. This probably isn’t related, but I saw this recently with regard to music and thought it was interesting/amusing: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2014/02/11/annoying-things-in-worship-songs/