I was just using the Christian Copyright Licensing website to choose some songs for Sunday when I noticed they list the most used songs that are still under copyright and therefore need to be declared if reprinted or projected. Most songs that hit the copyright period are new, of course, although they can be quite a bit older
What was striking was that the chart was full of quite 'dated' items compared to what we use with students. Graham Kendrick (remember him?) still has 3 in the top 20 - Shine Jesus Shine, Servant King and (unbelievably) Knowing You.
Meanwhile on campus, if it was written before 2000, hardly anyone knows it, unless it's one of about 10 classic hymns.
5 comments:
Hark the herald
Silent Night
Forty days
Thine be the glory
For all the saints
Guide the O, thou....
The first Noel
Praise to the Lord, the almighty
We three Kings...
Give me joy/peace/love in my heart
The list is endless
Well, nearly endless
Dear Lord and Father...
Guide me o thou great...
All things bright and ....
Clarification
I was referring to students and had forgotten Christmas carols.
With those conditions, apart from the (few) Methodists and Anglicans, it's
Be Thou My Vision
Thine Be The Glory
And Can it be
and...er
Welcome to student world, Steve :)
That's surely not true. I bet there's loads of students who come to Lancaster from churches like mine and don't know any songs post 2000 until they've been around a while. We just learn to pick up the new ones quickly! Shine Jesus Shine and Servant King were mainstays at St Margarets. As for Knowing You... whenever we sing that it reminds me of Chapel!!
I was being flippant. The problem with modern hymns is they tend to be among the "I just want to say...." variety.
Agreed the traditional ones are a dying breed (I only knew half of the ones we sang at the priory - youngster that I am) - but I think there are a few well known ones.
Still, it's different up here in Cumbria.
I know you were, Steve. In fact I had a reputation at ST T's for trawling the back numbers, and occasionally producing a revived hymn out of the hat.
As for Chapel, well it was a mainstay of hymn singing and still is - but it reinforced the "Chapel is trad" image.
I like to stretch people out of their musical/liturgical comfort zones - including those who are bang up to date on worship music - but I have to say that I can't see most 20 year olds ever embracing the traditional church patterns that so many PCCs are desperate to preserve.
Although as they get older, their tastes will mellow!
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