Popular Rising Star in Contemporary Christian Music is Putting Out Nothing but Garbage - by Publisher

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We are not here to defend Mr. Lake. We intend to examine the author's presentation.

(...) 

(Deleted long, irrelevant rant.)

But another up-and-rising star is Brandon Lake, who appears to be putting out nothing but garbage music with meaningless lyrics that are designed to do nothing except put the listener into a trance-like state opening him up to suggestion. (The author, "publisher," will proceed to blast Mr. Lake based on what "appears.")

Lake is a member of both the Maverick City Music collective and the Bethel Music Collective and has been featured in albums from Elevation Church as well. He is currently a worship pastor at Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina. (Here's their utterly orthodox doctrinal statement.)

The Dissenter has examined many of Lake’s popular songs and one song, in particular, is nothing but a mishmash of the same few lines repeated over and over. (We freely admit that the song is repetitive. Ordinarily we would also take issue as well. But as a literary/musical device, it is effective in this case. We think the use of repetition creates a build in intensity, which means it isn't mindless repetition.

Repetition is not automatically bad. "His love endures forever" appears in the Bible 41 times, 26 times in Psalm 136 alone. Should we hold the Psalmist to the same standard?)

Rather than list the entire lyrics, a quick count of the songs lyrics which make up roughly 98 percent of the song results in the following count:

O valley, be raised up: 12 times

O mountain, be made low: 12 times

Roar (or Roar!): 39 times

Hail, hail Lion of Judah: 39 times

Prepare the way: 6 times

Prepare the way of the Lord: 8 times

(A common technique in contemporary worship is extended spontaneous expression. Rather than singing verses 1,2, and 4 of a couple of hymns, worship has become a more central focus, a trend with which we agree. With worship being such a central focus of the Bible, we believe the traditional expression gives short shrift as to what worship should be.

Psalm 119 would violate "publisher's" sensibilities. We know that Jewish culture was and is celebratory. However, western culture has ripped worship from its proper context in the name of neat, tidy church services. Thus contemporary worship is a return to the proper order. Yes, there are excesses, and yes there are some bad worship songs. But the missteps do not negate the practice.

We suspect that "publisher" doesn't want to quote the lyrics because there is more here than a mishmash of the same few lines repeated over and over. Here are the lyrics, with scriptural references:

God of Jacob [2Sa. 23:1, Ps. 146:5], Great I Am [Ex. 3:14]

King of angels, [Re. 7:11, He. 1:6] Son of Man [Mt. 9:6, Mt. 16:13]

Voice of many waters [Re. 1:15, Re. 14:2]

Song of Heaven's throne [Re. 5:9, Re. 15:3]

Louder than the thunder [Ps. 29:3]

Make Your glory known [Ps. 145:12, Ro. 9:23]

Hail, hail Lion of Judah [Re. 5:5]

Let the Lion roar [Joe. 3:16]

Pride of Zion [Ps. 2:6], prophets spoke [Ac. 3:18]

Our Messiah [Mt. 16:16] flesh and bone [Lk. 24:39]

You alone are worthy to open up the scroll [Re. 5:9]

Like a lamb [Jn. 1:29], You suffered [Lk. 17:25], but the Lion has arose [Ge. 49:9, Ps. 59:5]

Prepare the way

Prepare the way of the Lord [Is. 40:3]

O valley, be raised up

O mountain, be made low [Is. 40:4]

We took the liberty of deleting the repetitions for clarity. This song, as we can see, is entirely Scriptural, and in fact is comprised almost entirely of Scripture references.)

There is literally nothing else in this song other than these few lines being repeated numerous times. ("Publisher" uses his omission of the lyrics to lie to us. "Literally nothing" means absolutely, well, nothing. But in actual fact there is something, as in, other lyrics.)

As we wrote before, in a 2014 study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, it was demonstrated that repetitive lyrics in music were a key indicator of how likely a song would reach the top spots on the Billboard list. In other words, the more repetitive the lyrics, the more people became psychologically attached to a song. (Repetition brings quicker familiarity, which aids in learning.)

The study noted that these repetitive portions of music, also known as the chorus, have historically been “used as a ‘hook’ to catch the ear of the listener and is repeated regularly throughout a song.” The effect of this, the study notes, is known as “repetitive priming” which results in a more pleasant experience for the listener. (Apparently this is bad.)

Chanting and singing through verbal repetition have been proven to psychologically open individuals to suggestion. Specifically, the Charismatic movement exploits this technique to emotionally manipulate their audience before the preacher comes on stage, making it easier to influence them with their message. (This is a long stretch. "Publisher" imputes nefarious motives to the musicians and songwriters who apparently are in collusion with the preacher to set up the audience to, what, pry open their check books? Implant false doctrine? Shut down peoples' mental faculties?

This is quite an accusation, brought forth without evidence. We suppose it could happen. But "publisher" is simply making guilt by association, i.e., Brandon Lake wrote a repetitive song, repetitive songs can be used to manipulate, Brandon Lake is colluding with preachers to manipulate. This is a faulty syllogism.)

This is evident in churches like Bethel Church, led by pastor Bill Johnson, as seen in any of their YouTube videos. Notably, this manipulative tactic is being widely used by mainstream Evangelical churches and in most of them, it is intentional. (Prove it. We will not accept loose accusations.)

It is rare to find an Evangelical church that does not incorporate Hillsong or Bethel music in their worship service. Now it is clear that we need to be cautious of and avoid Brandon Lake.