Introduction to a Forum on Religion, Popular Music, and Globalization

Abstract

This issue of the JSSR brings together scholars from mass communication, ethnomusicology, religious studies, and the sociology of religion to explore how practices and understandings of religion might be changing in the context of a global, mediated capitalist marketplace. Each of these essays foregrounds music as a particular cultural form with a unique role to play in the maintenance and change of religion's character and practices in the global marketplace. This forum therefore resonates with the forum on religion and place that appeared in this journal last year (September 2005, vol. 44, no. 3), as this set of essays, like that one, seeks to locate the study of religion "outside of scriptures or texts, and to therefore study history, context, and practice," as Elizabeth McAlister wrote in the previous forum (2005:254). Religion, as scholars in the sociology of religion and in religious material cultural studies have pointed out, is about much more than what happens during services or prayer times, and is much more than a set of beliefs or ideological commitments (see, e.g., Ammerman 2006; Hall 1997; Morgan 2005; Promey and Morgan 2001). Religion is lived and embodied. It is not static and it is not only written down, but rather is mobile and anchoring, personal and collective, dynamic and staid. It is also, in many cases, commercialized and global.Music is only one cultural form that is a part of our commercialized and globalized experiences of religion, however. So why focus on music in a journal widely read by social scientists interested in religion?Music is a fascinating topic for scholars of religion for many reasons. Music "springs out of the very speech and soul of a person or a community," as Trotter (1987) has written, and has always played an important role in relation to religion and its practices. The Gregorian chant, the Protestant hymn, the Muslim Madih nabawi, the Hindu kirtan: all offer expressive forms of individual or corporate worship and devotion. Music is evocative and affective, something deeply personal and emotionally connective.Whereas music is probably the most available and accessible of all art forms, the music of religious rituals and observances is deeply connected to the particular cultural locations in which it originates. Of course, music and cultural products have always traveled from places of origin to new locations. In the current context of globalization, however, transportation technologies and economies of scale have made migration more common, and have also sped up the processes of migration. People now have transnational experiences and identities, never completely leaving their places of origin and taking more of those places with them into their new locations. In this context, listening and performing music from one's place of origin can therefore become a source of comfort, and a source of identification with "home" for expatriates, in a way that other religious practices may not afford. At the same time, global capitalism has transported cultural products to new c...

Cultural Memory and Music

“…Ancak söz konusu çalışmalar, doğrudan kültürel bellek ile müzik ilişkisini konu edinmediği için burada yer verilmemiştir. Akın bağlayan, derinleşmeye imkân tanıyan bir karaktere sahiptir (Hays vd., 2005, s. 84;Clark, 2006Clark, , s. 475, aktaran Şahin, 2008. Aslında müziğin bu özellikleri sadece ritüeller bağlamında değil, sosyal ve kültürel hayatın neredeyse tüm alanlarında karşımıza çıkmaktadır.…”

“…Yine bilhassa milli karaktere sahip, ulus bilincini ayakta tutmaya yönelik geçmişteki yaşantı ve olayların anıldığı ulusal anma etkinliklerinden, milli ve dinî bayramlara kadar uzanan kültürel bellekteki ortak bilgi ve değerlerin vurgulandığı zamanlarda da müziğin aidiyet ve birlik/beraberlik duygularını harekete geçiren en önemli sanatsal aracı olduğunu görürüz. Uyarıcı, etkileyici, duygusal bakımdan birleştiren ve bağlayan, aynı zamanda da derinleşmeye imkân veren müzik, ait olduğu toplumun kültürüne özgü bir yapı arz eder (Clark, 2006(Clark, , s. 475 aktaran Şahin, 2008. Bir toplumun ezgilerinin, diğer toplumlar için, en azından ilk duyuşta bir anlam ifade etmemesi muhtemeldir.…”

“…Uyarıcı, etkileyici, duygusal bakımdan birleştiren ve bağlayan, aynı zamanda da derinleşmeye imkân veren müzik, ait olduğu toplumun kültürüne özgü bir yapı arz eder (Clark, 2006(Clark, , s. 475 aktaran Şahin, 2008. Bir toplumun ezgilerinin, diğer toplumlar için, en azından ilk duyuşta bir anlam ifade etmemesi muhtemeldir.…”

Mediação & midiatização

“…(BABB, 1997; O fiel, pensado igualmente como adepto, receptor e consumidor, está exposto a uma série de mensagens laicas que, no processo de mediação, concorrem com a religiosa. (BABB, 1997;CLARK, 2006;MEYERS;MO-ORS, 2006) Para a instituição religiosa interessada em atingi-lo, isso cria o desafio de levar e adaptar mensagem às práticas, códigos, estilos e modelos familiares desse fiel. Midiatizada, a religião tem condições de disputar a atenção do público no mesmo plano das outras mensagens, utilizando--se de elementos conhecidos dos adeptos -nesse sentido, ter a camiseta de um time de futebol, de uma banda de música ou de uma igreja indica articulações diferentes, mas igualmente pautadas na formação de vínculos a partir do consumo de produtos identificados com a marca de um grupo.…”

A l’écoute des transnationalisations religieuses

“…Voir aussi, entre autres,Um (2000),Knudsen (2001),Stokes (2004Stokes ( , 2007,Solis (2005),Muller (2006),Baily & Collyer (2006), Martiniello & Lafleur (2008), Toynbee & Dueck (2012), Krüger & Trandafoiu (2013), Pistrick (2015), Biermann, Ferran, Pistrick & Pouchelon (2015).2 Les éditrices du dossier remercient Hugo Ferran pour l'aide qu'il a apportée à l'initiation de ce projet.3 On consultera cependantScruggs (2005),Clark (2006),Butler (2008),Carl (2014),Ferran & Fernando (2014),Ferran (2015),Salzbrunn (2016).…”