Overview

This groundbreaking volume examines the relationship between new religions, alternative spiritualities, and popular music. Interdisciplinary in its approach, this book draws on scholarship within the study of new religions, the sociology of religion, popular music studies, ethnomusicology, and critical musicology. It examines the ways in which devotion to a band can lead to the establishment of a new religion and also how new religions use popular music evangelistically, ritualistically, and as a source of income. What emerges is a complex picture in which religious beliefs and popular music cultures cross-fertilize each other in unexpected and fascinating ways.

Full Product Details

Author:   Christopher Partridge (University of Lancaster, UK) ,  Tom Wagner (Royal Holloway, University of London, Uk)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN:  

9781350500044

ISBN 10:   1350500046
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   14 May 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction, Christopher Partridge (Lancaster University, UK); Tom Wagner (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) 1. The Mormon Hip Hop Musical Project, Jake Johnson (University of Oklahoma, USA) 2. ISKCON and Popular Music, Guy Beck (Tulane University, USA) 3. Globalist Breathing: Voice, Technology, and Antecedence in the Music of Islamic State, Tom Parkinson (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) 4. Religion, Music, and Cold War Politics: The Unification Church and The Little Angels in South Korea, Hee-sun Kim (Kookmin University, South Korea) 5. Haunted Paradise: The Continuity of Music-Making from Jonestown and the Peoples Temple, Helen Hawa-Diggle (Independent Scholar, UK) 6. Chant Down Babylon: Rastafari and Reggae, Christopher Partridge (Lancaster University, UK) 7. Children of Barleycorn: Music in the Druidic Religious Imagination, Christopher W. Chase (Iowa State University, USA) 8. Musical Creativity in The Process, William Sims Bainbridge (National Science Foundation, USA) 9. I Think I See the Mothership Coming: From Christian Scepticism to Alternative Religious Experiences in the P-Funk Universe, Richard Worth (University of Liverpool, UK) 10. ‘Did You Ever Go Clear?’: The Use (and Abuse) of Scientology in Popular Music, Tom Wagner (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) 11. A Melodic Disorder: Chaos Gnosticism in Contemporary Music, Paul Linjamaa (Lund University, Sweden); Johnny Olsson (Independent Scholar, Sweden) 12. New Age Music: The Sonic Production of Utopia, Steven J. Sutcliffe (University of Edinburgh, UK); Mary Briggs (University of Edinburgh, UK) 13. The Spirit of ’76: Father Yod, The Source Family, and the Role of Popular Music, Alistair Smith (University of Exeter, UK) 14. Psychic TV: Hauntological Cultic Rejection and Autoethnographic Legacies, Mike Dines (Middlesex University, UK); Alastair Gordon (De Montfort University, UK); Francis Stewart (University of Stirling, UK) 15. Sacred Jazz and Devotion at the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, Peter Jan Margry (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands); Daniel Wojcik (University of Oregon, USA) 16. Spinning Centripetally or Spinning Centrifugally: Building a Religion from the Grateful Dead’s Music, Michael Kaler (University of Toronto-Mississauga, Canada) Index

Reviews

“Groundbreaking” is accurate. There is nothing like this at all. An essential on-the-shelf text for anyone researching or teaching about the lived religion of NRMs. * Douglas E. Cowan, University of Waterloo, Canada * The theme of religion and popular music has been under-researched, hence this is a welcome contribution to this area of study. The chapters cover a variety of themes, contributions are well written and the various new forms of spirituality are well explained. This is an excellent collection. * George D. Chryssides, York St John University, UK *

Author Information

Christopher Partridge is Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, UK. He is the author of several books, including High Culture: Drugs, Mysticism, and the Pursuit of Transcendence in the Modern World (2018) and Mortality and Music: Popular Music and the Awareness of Death (2015). Tom Wagner is is Teaching Fellow in Music Performance and Digital Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Music, Branding, and Consumer Culture in Church (2019) and co-editor of three edited collections on music and religion including Congregational Music Making in a Mediated Age (2015).

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