Mormon music
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[edit] Mormon folk music
Main article: Mormon folk music
Mormon folk music constituted some of the earliest white/euramerican music in the boundaries of modern Utah. These songs, simple and easy to remember, were usually sung without accompaniment because of the scarcity of musical instruments in territorial Utah. Although they often employed the same tunes as folk music elsewhere, Mormon folk is distinctively Utahn. The songs often include unique pioneer-era Mormon culture references such as crossing the plains, Mormon ecclesiastical leaders, and LDS religious convictions.
[edit] Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Since 1847, the Latter-day Saint influence in Utah music is manifest in the state’s most famous musical institution: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Named after the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 300+ member choir is world-famous. The LDS Church supports the choir both for prestige and as a proselytizing tool for spreading familiarity of the church. The choir performs at least weekly at the Tabernacle for a radio program called "Music and the Spoken Word" which is the longest-running national radio program in the US. The Mormon Tabernacle choir has released innumerable albums since it first recorded in 1910.
[edit] Mormon popular music
Beginning in the 1960s, gospel music gained some success, and Mormons played an integral role in the development of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) into the 1970s. Since then, Michael McLean [1] from Heber, Utah and Kenneth Cope [2] in Salt Lake City have become relatively popular among mostly-older Latter-day Saints for their religiously charged easy listening music.
The Band The Aquabats quoted mormon hymn "Come Come ye Saints" in their song "Super Rad". The hymn's lyrics are "And should we die before the journey's through..." and in Super Rad the words are "And if we die before the battle's through...". Super Rad is on The Aquabats cd The Fury of the Aquabats!. Other subtle references to Mormonism can be found in a few other Aquabats songs (in the song Sequence Erase (from the Aquabats vs. the Floating Eye of Death! ) they mention secret combinations (a religious reference from the Book of Mormon).
[edit] Mormon pop
Another new strain of music that is marketed primarily toward youthful Latter-day Saints is sometimes called "Mormon pop". The well-reviewed acoustic-heavy musician Shane Jackman [3], local band SweetHaven, and the acoustic pop group Colors arguably fit into this category. Mormon pop has received a boost from the new phenomena of Mormon cinema and their accompanying soundtracks. Some Mormon cinema soundtracks sold well. In light of this success, independent Utah-heavy collections of youth-oriented LDS music have been released. Often they feature traditional LDS hymns that are rearranged into heavier rock songs. Some groups perform these songs almost exclusively while others like the established Salt Lake band Magstatic [4] record LDS-themed music on the side.
