Journal for Religion, Film and Media - Heft 6.2 erschienen!

The autumn issue 2020 of JRFM is dedicated to the topic of religion and popular music. Popular music is understood in a broad sense as music that is culturally relevant and distributed through other media (radio, television, LP, CDs, mp3, the internet, etc.). Popular music, as one of many means of religious communication, transmits not only emotions and a feeling of community but also religious knowledge – knowledge that penetrated popular culture and left various traces in different times and places.

The articles of this issue explore diverse music genres, from Christian Rock to Metal and Flamenco, all of which in some way interact with religion. In her contribution, Angela Sue Sawyer brings a song by Tracy Chapman and a biblical passage into an ecofeminist dialogue. Reinhard Kopanski explores two revealing case studies of how popular music is used to express Christian worldviews. And Lavinia Pflugfelder elaborates bricolages of religious motifs in heavy metal video clips. As a reference to opera – another important genre of popular music – this issue is structured as an online-journal libretto: It begins with a prelude by the issue editors which introduces some of the main arguments. The issue continues with act one. Each act, or thematic article, is followed by an interlude: Katharina Luise Merkert, Eva Meienberg and Yannick Schlote wrote short music video reviews which focus on specific religious aspects in the respective clips. The section concludes with a postlude which offers a short synthesis and considers where we might go next.

Das neue Heft des Journal for Religion, Film and Media kann unter www.jrfm.eu heruntergeladen oder beim Schüren Verlag als Print bestellt werden.