I joke that I never go to churches where the music was written in the past 100 years.
It’s a joke.
Sort of.
I’ve been to a church or two that feature “modern worship music” (which, as we’ve discussed, is not the same as popular music with a faith-based theme). And almost without exception, the stuff leaves me cold – aesthetically and, sorry to say, spiritually.
So I was interested in this piece by a church worship leader who’s approaching the question from the other side – as a former ModWorMu fan who warmed back up to traditional hymnology, for theological more than aesthetic reasons.
http://www.dancogan.com/my-journey-away-from-contemporary-worship-music
A good parallel is the question of how many pop songs never make the oldies stations, except to be parodied by Peter Schickele (from the maritime nation of Nodak, of course) and the like. Today’s old hymnody is richer because the junk has mostly been forgotten. We therefore ought to be pickier with modern music than with the old.
And my preference is for hymns that are at least two centuries old. Theologically richer, less emotionally driven, and they have interesting tenor and bass parts. Not the FFFF CCCC of revival music, and definitely not the mumbled unison of too many 7-11 praise songs (seven words sung eleven times).