The Contemporary Worship Music Pipeline, or "Where Did The Psalms Go?" (Marc Jolicoeur) Ep. #189

19 snips

Feb 27, 2025

Marc Jolicoeur, an expert in contemporary worship music, dives into the complex landscape of worship music today. He reveals how megachurches shape what songs make it to Sunday services and discusses the industry's reliance on professional songwriting teams. The conversation shifts to the absence of lament and imprecatory psalms in modern worship, questioning whether contemporary music prioritizes marketing over theology. Jolicoeur also raises the provocative idea of reintroducing the Psalms into worship, suggesting it could enrich the emotional depth of church services.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Worship Song Distribution

Modern worship songs often spread through radio play, retail spaces, and churches.
Congregational singing is a key indicator of a song's market penetration.

INSIGHT

Shift in Songwriting

Contemporary worship songs are increasingly written by teams, not individuals.
This shift reflects a move towards intentional crafting for market needs.

ANECDOTE

Publishing Companies

Marc Jolicoeur observed a chapel service projecting a paragraph of publishing companies after a song.
This highlighted the multitude of writers and complex publishing arrangements behind modern worship music.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Who decides what worship songs we sing in church? It turns out, worship music is a massive industry, and the way songs make it from a Nashville songwriting room to a Sunday morning service might surprise you.

In this episode, Marc Jolicoeur joins The Biblical Mind Podcast to break down the business of contemporary worship music (CWM). He explains how four major megachurches dominate the industry, why most modern worship songs are written by teams of professionals rather than individual artists, and how CCLI licensing and copyright structures shape what gets sung in churches.

But is this market-driven approach shaping worship in unhealthy ways? Dru and Marc discuss whether the emotional tone of worship music has shifted, why lament and imprecatory psalms are almost absent from today’s songs, and whether churches should return to singing scripture itself.

Is the worship music we sing today more about marketing than theology? And what would happen if the Psalms were reintroduced into Sunday services?

We are listener supported. Give to the cause here:
https://hebraicthought.org/give

For more articles:
https://thebiblicalmind.org/

Marc Jolicoeur's Content
https://marcjolicoeur.substack.com/podcast

Social Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HebraicThought/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hebraicthought/
X: https://www.twitter.com/HebraicThought/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hebraicthought.org

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction
00:27 The Landscape of Worship Music
04:25 The Role of Songwriters and Publishing
10:35 Market Penetration of Worship Songs
16:33 The Influence of Megachurches on Worship Music
21:11 The Evolution of Christian Music
25:48 Worship Music vs. Performance Music
28:38 The Role of Ritual in Worship
31:28 Psalms and Their Relevance in Modern Worship
35:29 Lament in Worship Music
45:16 The Challenge of Lament in Worship
49:55 Navigating Worship Leadership and Emotional Contexts
54:44 Imprecatory Psalms and Modern Worship
01:00:47 The Role of Specificity in Worship Lyrics