What Would Jesus Listen To?
It's a hilariously bad question, but regardless, I don't think the answer is "just hymns."
At the Faith Matters “Restore” conference two weeks ago, Brandon Flowers—the lead singer of the rock/pop band The Killers—performed and was interviewed by Patrick Mason. They talked about his Latter-day Saint upbringing and how his faith intersects with his music. Somewhat tongue in cheek, Patrick asked him, “What would Jesus listen to?”
It was a joke, of course, but I love the audacity of that question. I love the implication that there is one specific kind of music that Jesus would listen to exclusively—righteous music—and that by extension we should listen to it, too. As though listening to Jesus’s favorite music would help us become like Him, any more than wearing sandals or eating fish would make us like the Prince of Peace.
But let’s be clear: If Jesus were on the Earth today, I don’t think He would only listen to hymns.
There’s an implied assumption that since hymns are what we use in the Church, they’re the most “righteous” of music. These hymns are usually in four-part harmony and accompanied by organ or piano. Our selection overlaps heavily with Protestant Christian denominations (the first LDS hymnbook was put together by Emma Smith, who grew up Methodist), and sits squarely within the mainstream American Christian hymn tradition. While the New Testament speaks of Jesus and His disciples singing hymns, they weren’t like ours. While the texts of our current hymns can be quite old (and drawn from scripture), the music wasn’t written until well over a thousand years after Jesus’s time.
We talk a lot about music in the Church, but almost always with the intent of labeling it as “good” or “bad” music to listen to, or “appropriate” or “inappropriate” for a given setting. We almost never talk about music having intrinsic value because it brings beauty to the world. It transcends language, culture, political party, and religion, and has the capability of speaking directly to the human soul. While everything else in the world seems intent to divide, music unites on a fundamental level. Plato said that music “gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”1
It’s a frustrating double standard compared to how other forms of art are treated in the Church. When the Doctrine & Covenants teaches us to seek wisdom and learning “out of the best books,” we generally understand that somewhat broadly; it doesn’t mean only the scriptures, or only books written by General Authorities. It means that light and truth can come from anywhere and anyone, and we should seek it regardless of its source. But we don’t treat music the same way.
When we talk about what music is “appropriate” or “good”, whether it’s for sacrament meeting, Sunday listening, or any day of the week, it’s deeply reductionist. Instead of focusing on what will add richness and depth to our lives, we focus on what not to listen to.
That word “appropriate,” in particular, causes us problems. It’s loaded with meaning in the Church, and is also a term where we’re unlikely to land on one clear definition. It can mean that music is “appropriate” in that it fits in with the vibe of our church meetings, or it can mean “appropriate” in the way we use it more often in the Church, which has something to do with being conducive to feeling the Spirit.
For the first definition, I think we can find some alignment. I think most Latter-day Saints will agree that the music that we typically have in sacrament meetings is fitting for our staid, conservative worship services. Speakers in sacrament meeting tend to be slow and monotone; our music tends to be the same. Music that gets people up and dancing, like some other churches have, would feel distinctly out of place in our meetings.
We can be quick to criticize other faiths that use different styles of music, including those using instruments like electric guitars and drums that don’t show up in our sacrament meetings. I’ve been taught that it’s not possible to feel the Spirit when the music is too loud or, say, when it’s actually enjoyable to listen to. But not only do I think it’s possible to feel the Spirit from lively music, I’m certain that many people in those congregations do feel the Spirit in their music on a regular basis.
So then, if the question is about what kind of music helps people feel the Spirit, then we’re in entirely different territory. You may feel the Spirit from a piano arrangement of a familiar hymn—we have plenty of those available. Or for you, it might be classical music. Or maybe it’s jazz, or bluegrass, or Christian rock, or non-Christian rock, or something else. And that’s without even considering musical styles from other parts of the world. Culturally in the U.S., we’d be surprised if someone felt the Spirit strongly from types of music that some would deem intrinsically “irreverent,” like heavy metal or rap, but the nature of the Spirit is that it is individual, and none of us is in a position to judge how someone else interacts with it.
Don’t forget that Jesus was a bit of a rabble-rouser in His time. If He only listened to hymns, that would suggest that He is out of touch with modern culture—and, frankly, somewhat boring. But instead, His message of love and inclusion was subversive. He taught His disciples to eat with sinners and forgive others and other things that violated cultural norms at the time. If we assume He’d like all the same things as the affluent and privileged church elites, then we’ve missed a major point of the New Testament.
Which is why, if Jesus Christ were on the Earth today, I don’t know what music He’d listen to. Nor does it really matter. There’s a point to make here about music, which is that it is more than just a vehicle for something that is “appropriate” or “inappropriate.” Music can make you feel things, that you can’t feel any other way. And there’s a bigger point to make about Jesus, and that’s He’s the Savior of the entire world. He loves you the same whether you listen to rap or country or old EFY albums. And there are many, many things we can learn about Him that are more important than what His favorite music would be.
I just don’t think it would be hymns.
I don’t know if Plato really said this. It gets sourced as being from Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical Quotations, 1991, p. 45, but doesn’t get further sourced to a specific writing of Plato’s. Oh well, the quote is nice.