MUSIC FESTIVALS AS A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
MUSIC FESTIVALS AS A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Bibliography:
Books:
Johner, A. (2015). Transformational Festivals: A New Religious Movement? in Simão, E., Silva, A., Tenreiro de Magalhães, S (Ed.), Exploring Psychedelic Trance and Electronic Dance Music in Modern Culture (pp. 58- 86). IGI Global.
I have chosen this chapter from Exploring Psychedelic Trance and Electronic Dance Music in Modern Culture because Johner explicitly and methodically treats Transformational Festivals as what he calls a New Religious Movement. The bulk of the article deals with the seven characteristics of New Religious Movements identified by sociologist Eileen Barker in her 1989 book New Religious Movements: A practical introduction. These characteristics are “new idea combination,” “new location,” “dichotomous worldview,” atypical membership,” “charismatic leadership,” “external controversy,” and “change” and they provide Johner with the majority of subheadings for his article. I found reading Johner to be helpful in the preparation for my website development because his analysis of transformational festivals makes it clear to me that the Osheaga experience incorporates the influence of these festivals by seeking to portray the experience almost as a new way of living and a new model of community.
Kozinets, R.V., & Sherry J. F. (2004). Dancing on common ground: Exploring the sacred at Burning Man. In G. St John (Ed.), Rave Culture and Religion (pp. 287-303). Routledge. https://doi-org.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/10.4324/9780203507964
In Graham St John’s book Rave Culture and Religion I chose to look at this chapter on the Burning Man festival by Kozinets and Sherry because it explores the intersection of religion and popular culture in a way that is relevant to my website. This chapter employs participatory observational techniques taken from folklore and ethnography to engage with the religious aspects of the life journeys that bring people to the Burning Man festival. With subheadings like “Spirit healing” and “Neo-Pagan connections” Kozinets and Sherry study the clearly religious elements of the entire festival experience, especially the spectacular burning of the man ritual. This chapter is important to me as I prepare to develop my website because the New Age embrace of paganism is such a large part of the spiritual atmosphere festivals such as Osheaga strive to cultivate. After reading this chapter I realize now that Osheaga is a kind of polite and subdued festival where up to 60,000 college-age people enjoy pop music in a very Canadian way.
Till, R. (2010). Pop Cult. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
In Rupert Till’s book Pop Cult: Religion and Popular Music I chose to focus on his excellent first chapter entitled “Lost in Music: Pop Cults and New Religious Movements” in which he convincingly identifies religious elements in pop music fandom. In this brief chapter Till uses the term postmodernity to designate the era in which pop cults threaten to overshadow old religious movements. Till is persuasive when he refers to the writer Edward Bailey and his idea of implicit religion to make the following pronouncement: “This kind of analysis indicates that some of the functions of religion within society are so important to human culture, that when traditional religious organizations begin to diminish and recede, they are replaced by other activities that take over these functions” (p.7). This statement is extremely important to me as I develop my website because I feel my six trips to Osheaga essentially represent a religious quest in which I tried to channel my childhood search for transcendence as part of an old religious movement.
Articles:
Eurich, J. (2003). Sociological Aspects and Ritual Similarities in the Relationship between Pop Music and Religion. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 34(1), 57-70.
Johannes Eurich’s article does a good job of examining the limits of the parallel between pop music performances and traditional religious rituals. Eurich offers an articulate treatment of what he calls “Pseudo Religious Experience within Rock ‘n’ Roll” which he describes as “musically aroused intoxication” (p.60). Similarly, he examines “Mystical Experiences within the Culture of Techno” and concludes that in the techno show “an attempt is made to compensate transcendental experience on a sensual level via aesthetic experience” (p. 67). Johannes Eurich’s article is only partially helpful to me in preparing my website because, although he accurately identifies the element of physical ecstasy in attending musical gatherings, his analysis is emphatic in its conclusion that contemporary musical culture does not offer a new way of life to its followers the way traditional religions did.
Kommers, H. (2011). Hidden in music: Religious experience and pop festivals. Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 23(1), 14-26. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/docview/874655855?accountid=12378
Heleen Kommers of Fontys University in the Netherlands published this article, which is essentially a research proposal, almost a decade ago. Kommers pleads for a more qualitative approach to the study of religiosity in pop music festivals. Citing Malinowski, Kommers advocates a participant observer approach to the study of religion and pop festivals. In this reflective piece, Kommers states her intention to engage in ethnographic fieldwork regarding her experience of audiences at pop festivals. This article is relevant to my webpage project because, like Kommers, I will be reflecting on my experience as a participant and observer on six occasions in which I attended the Osheaga festival in Montreal. Like Kommers, I contend that a festival like Osheaga has much of the character of a religious gathering. Heleen Kommers focuses on hidden religiosity in the experience of attending pop festivals: she wrestles with the idea of religiosity as religion transformed and proposes an ethnographic approach with a focus on youth finding religion at pop festivals. The Kommers article is the only academic article I found that has as its primary focus the religious aspects of pop music festival attendance.
Lynch, G. (2006). The Role of Popular Music in the Construction of Alternative Spiritual Identities and Ideologies. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 45(4), 481-488. Retrieved October 16, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4621930
Gordon Lynch, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and lead convenor of the UK Research Network for Theology, Religion and Popular Culture, published this article in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2006. Lynch focuses on Christopher Partridge and Graham St John and how they demonstrate the encoding of alternative spiritual symbols and ideologies in pop music but argues that they fall down when it comes to telling how audiences go about actively forming alternative spiritual identities through music. The interesting segment of this article for my webpage is where Lynch deals with Partridge’s idea of occulture which refers to the alternative spiritual traditions that have replaced orthodox Christianity. In this context Lynch mentions that Partridge sees occultural material in responses to earlier hippie festivals and later raves, seeing these events as “important cultural sites for the transmission of alternative spiritualities” (p.483). This article will be helpful to me in the development of my webpage because it provides a broader overview of the mass spiritualization of popular music in the last fifty years.
Moberg, M. (2011). The Concept of Scene and its Applicability in Empirically Grounded Research on the Intersection of Religion/Spirituality and Popular Music. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 26(3), 403-417.
Marcus Moberg, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Comparative Religion at Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland, published this article in the Journal of Contemporary Religion in 2011 in which he proposes that the concept of scene could be used by researchers seeking to reflect the lived experiences of music fans gathering to listen to their favourite performers. Moberg, whose research has focused on Christian metal music, advocates the idea of scene as a way to study what he calls “Religion/Spirituality and Popular Music”. His article addresses “Scenic Structure” and “Scenic Construction” in an attempt to point a route for a more empirical approach to the comparison of religion/spirituality and popular music. I find this article useful in the development of my website because it is important to keep in mind the factors of time and place in any consideration of the experience of attending a festival.
Webster, E. (2012). "One More Tune!" The Encore Ritual in Live Music Events. Popular Music and Society, 35(1), 93-111.
Emma Webster, a PhD student at the University of Glasgow in music, published this article in Popular Music and Society in 2012. Webster takes an ethnographic approach to live music scenes and argues that the ritual of musicians coming back out to do encores at the end of gigs actually represents an important opportunity for audiences to be relatively empowered in their relationships with performers. The important reference of this article for my webpage relates to the issue of a performer’s status as headliner of a festival lineup, as Webster notes that usually only headliners are permitted to indulge in the encore ritual. Clearly the ritualistic aspect of audience participation in Webster’s analysis can be seen as having religious overtones. In fact Webster implies quite clearly that the entire encore ritual, which is a learned behaviour from repeated concert experiences by audiences, is part of a larger search for transcendence of everyday reality which can be seen in religious terms.
Other Sources:
Crosby, L. (2009, April 30). “Why Coachella Ought To Be Deemed A Religious Experience” USD Student Media. http://uofsdmedia.com/why-coachella-ought-to-be-deemed-a-religious-experience/
Liz Crosby, a student at The University of San Diego, published a short article on the religious aspects she encountered in her attendance of the music festival Coachella on the school’s website of student-run media. Crosby writes from her perspective of her time spent at Coachella in 2009, with a list of eight religious elements she witnessed at the festival. In particular she mentions how much of the religious experience at Coachella was reminiscent of Christianity. For example, a performing artist sprayed water out onto the dehydrated crowd, almost as if to bless their fans in the way a Priest would do while walking down the aisles of a church service. This article is of great significance to me in the development of my webpage because Liz Crosby gives great examples of the religious facets of music festivals, especially from the perspective of a festival goer like herself.
Frantzides, J. (2017, January 27). How a music festival is basically a spiritual experience. ElectronicDanceRevolution. https://electricdancerevolution.wordpress.com/2017/01/27/how-a-music-festival-is-basically-a-spiritual-experience/
Jessica Frantzides, an avid electronic dance music rave attendee wrote a piece on her blog ElectronicDanceRevolution covering the exact focus of my webpage project: how music festivals are spiritual experiences. In her blog post she mentions her own experiences at music festivals as well as research that has been conducted by a student who attended the popular Bonnaroo music festival. Frantzides provides a personal element of her feelings of anxiety and excitement upon entering the festival scene and how the carefree nature of such festivals creates a spiritual community in a sense. This blog post in particular will be valuable in the development of my website because Frantzides, like many other music festival attendees, is not much of a churchgoer and does not identify with an organized religion. In saying this, Frantzides compares music festivals to church services and even mentions that one of her favourite DJ’s dresses as a catholic priest and many of his sets begin with the ringing of church bells.
Graziano, M. (2011, August 15). Why is Music a Religious Experience? HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-is-mozart-a-religious_b_875352
Michael Graziano, a Professor of Neuroscience and Novelist from Princeton University published a contribution to the well-known HuffPost news site on the topic of music as a religious experience. Graziano, as an atheist, provides an account of his own religious experiences through listening to Mozart. He focuses in on how many of the moral aspects associated with religion apply to music as well. Although Michael Graziano is looking at the connection between music and religion from a neuroscience perspective, I feel this brief contribution will be helpful in preparing my website because his ideas on music as a religious experience, especially coming from an atheist, are relevant to my argument of music festivals creating new religious practices for those who may not identify with more traditional religion.
Kostin, A. (2019, March 24). Raves and psychedelic drug culture – One and the same? Pepperdine Graphic Media. https://pepperdine-graphic.com/raves-and-psychedelic-drug-culture-one-and-the-same/
Anastassia Kostin, published this special publication on the Pepperdine Graphic Media independent news organization website. This article entails an analysis of the drug culture present in raves and music festivals, with a focus on Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) and Coachella. Kostin paints an incredibly clear picture of the use of illegal drugs at festivals, the influence of performing artists on the increase of drug activity at such events, and how the atmosphere and clothing worn at the festivals invite attendees to experiment with drugs. This article is helpful in my research and development of my webpage because Kostin provides an ample breakdown of drug use and the eminent drug culture present at music festivals which will be helpful to me in the analysis of drug use since it is one of the major themes I will be exploring on my webpage.
Kuenzi, R. (2012, July 8). “Festivals are rituals with musical accompaniment” SWI swissinfo.ch. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/addicted-to-partying_-festivals-are-rituals-with-musical-accompaniment-/33056204
Renat Kuenzi published this article on the importance of community within music festivals on the Swiss Broadcasting Corporations website. In this article, Kuenzi stresses the idea that the group experience one has at a music festival can actually be more meaningful than the music itself. He mentions the “special festival feeling” that many festival goers experience as well as the musical rituals that accompany these collective understandings. Kuenzi maintains his argument of festivals as rituals accompanied by musical performance with the example of music festival fans purchasing tickets before even knowing what acts will be appearing. This article will be beneficial in the process of developing my website because Kuenzi presents a thoughtful analysis of the ways in which music festivals are much more about the ritual of community than who is to perform at these events.
Lesley, A. (2017, April 9). How Music Festivals And Religion Are Intertwined. World Religion News. https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/how-music-festivals-and-religion-are-intertwined
Alison Lesley posted an article on the undeniable relationship between faith and music using music festivals as the focus of this connection. Lesley focuses on the many religious elements of music festivals such as sacred time (one of the major themes I will be exploring on my website), the communities festivals form, as well as religious imagery present in festivals. This article will be helpful in my research and the development of my website because Alison Lesley gives examples of both organized religion music festivals (e.g. Christian, Jewish, and Hindu festivals) as well as music festivals not associated within organized religion. This will assist me in my research because I will be able to compare and contrast non-organized religious music festivals such as Burning Man with organized religious festivals such as Christian music festivals to better understand the relationship between religion, music, and festivals as a whole.
Manji, A. (2011, February 26). Durkheim on Music Festivals and Religion. Varsity. Retrieved October 16, 2020, from https://www.varsity.co.uk/comment/3358
Ayaz Manji, a University of Cambridge student, published an opinion piece in the University’s independent student newspaper Varsity in 2011. The opinion piece entitled “Durkheim on Music Festivals and Religion” caught my eye, because, as a Sociology major, Durkheim and music festivals together sounded quite captivating. Manji funnily enough mentions the impact of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia’s universal religious narrative on his childhood in the opening lines of his opinion piece. I thought this popular source would be useful in my project as Manji briefly outlines how music festivals can be catalysts in finding new ways to practice religion. He speaks about his own experience of seeing his favourite band at a music festival in his hometown, and how these musicians can take the place of a “Messianic figure”. Ayaz Manji briefly mentions sociologist Émile Durkheim’s theory of religions function within society. Manji emphasizes the connection between Durkheim’s idea of religion bringing us a sense of euphoria and human connection with music festivals. Put simply, places such as churches where many would go to gain hope and come together have now been replaced by music and festivals. Ayaz Manji makes clear that this comparison is not meant to downplay organized religion’s place in society: it is to open up the discussion of what religion is, what really makes it something so human.
McCracken, B. (2019, August 3). Woodstock Was a Secular Worship Service. The Gospel Coalition. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/woodstock-secular-worship-service/
Brett McCracken, a senior editor at The Gospel Coalition, published an article outlining the 1960’s Woodstock music festival as a “worship service for a secular age”, focusing on the festivals’ devotion to freedom, not god. McCracken gives a brief overview of the shift Woodstock provided in the movement of religion from the church to popular culture, the multitude of ways Woodstock redefined liturgy, the undeniable experience of community of the festival, as well as the lessons and legacies Woodstock has provided the culture of music festivals today. I chose this article because it provides me with an example of a music festival half a century ago that really paved the way for music festivals today as actors of meaningful religious experiences for those who may not subscribe to traditional religious organizations.
Muir, S. (2016, August 26). Bonnaroo Spirituality And Collective Effervescence. Sacred Matters: Religious Currents In Culture. https://sacredmattersmagazine.com/bonnaroo-spirituality-and-collective-effervescence/
Scott Muir a doctoral candidate studying American Religion at Duke University published an article for Sacred Matters magazine focusing on the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. In this article Muir provides an analysis of his research that he conducted through survey distribution at the 2015 and 2016 Bonnaroo festivals. Through the observation of 609 surveys Muir demonstrates how the Bonnaroo festival is a community of individuals that are in some way or another part of the spiritual but not religious movement (SBNRM). Scott Muir thoughtfully outlines the type of audiences who attend Bonnaroo and their experiences with religion as well as the ways in which the festival has pushed them away from organized religion to spirituality. This article will be helpful in the development of my webpage because it provides data from real festival goers and gives a very clear idea of how music festivals and the psychedelic subculture they manifest shape young people as well as the shift from traditional religion to spirituality.
Ryan, K. (2016, March 10). Here’s Why You Should Ditch Religion And Go To More Rock Concerts. Elite Daily. https://www.elitedaily.com/music/ditch-religion-more-rock-concerts/1416547
Kate Ryan a Senior Trending News Writer for the online news platform Elite Daily published this article on as she says the “gateway to my personal heaven”, rock concerts. She writes about how her experience at an Iggy Pop and Josh Homme’s concert was an incredibly spiritual moment for her, more than any church service could provide. Ryan makes a bold claim that rock concerts “may be our only chance at salvation” and how music renews our souls more than anything else can. While Ryan focuses on rock concerts in particular, her ideas and personal account of music as a religious experience connect well with my topic of music festivals as religious outlets. Kate Ryan’s argument at the core is that music brings people from all realms of life together and most importantly, music does not discriminate based on race, gender, or sexuality. When we go to live music concerts we go for the positive experience, cathartic sounds, and leave feeling revived and a lot more hopeful about the human experience.
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Photos:
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