Why I'm Not a Fan of Hillsong (part 1 of 2)
Hillsong is probably one of the most famous names in Christian music, but most casual listeners will not realize that Hillsong is actually the name of a megachurch in Sydney, Australia, that identifies with the Pentecostal tradition. Within the church, there are several different bands that all serve different purposes. For this first writing, I will limit them to Live (the main worship team) and United (the youth band). There are and were many more, but these are the only two that have stood the test of time and stayed relevant in music. I will cover two more in part two of this series. Let's go into each of them musically and lyrically for a second.
Live began as an outgrowth of the Hillsong conferences that reached an enormous popularity in the early 1990s. I am honestly not incredibly familiar with the earlier Live albums, so I will use "Shout to the Lord" as my primary reference material for this time period. Using this as my reference, I really like this era of Hillsong Live. The lyrics are God-focused, and the music, while a little old hat for the time, is simple and very singable in corporate settings. No complaints here.
United began as the youth band for Hillsong Church. Their early music will be referenced by their songs "Everyday," "Take It All," and "One Way." All of them share some musical characteristics, namely a fast tempo, driving drums, and riff-based guitars. None of these in themselves are bad qualities; however, the combination and overuse of them made United's early music almost sickening to listen to outside of a live event. Their largest flaws are in the lyrics, however. All of them focus on how we live our Christian lives, not on who God is and what He has done for us. In a worship service I find these objectionable because they are not focused on the worshiped but on the worshiper. All of these songs also feel very shallow and lack any substance for me. United reached their low point with their 2006 album United We Stand.
Live, unfortunately, began to follow suit musically and lyrically. They always remained more adult contemporary-esque in their music and focused more on mellow, emotionally stirring pieces; but their sound became almost one with United's because they began to merge song catalogs. However, their lyrics eventually became cookie-cutter in nature and became more response-driven than adoration-oriented. This reached a low point in 2006's Mighty to Save and a second in 2008's This Is Our God.
During this time, Hillsong's best songs I felt did not reflect their musical and lyrical decline. These songs included "Hosanna," "With Everything," "Saviour King," and "Lead Me to the Cross." All of these have God-centered lyrics and interesting musical elements. They also have remained in church worship bands' song catalogs since their introduction. Interesting how the ones that are focused on God have lasted, not the ones focused on us.
One more problem I have with Hillsong as a whole is the live worship album. I could write for days on this, so I'll be brief and blunt here: it is impossible to truly capture a live worship experience on a recording or in a video. Worship is something that necessitates the one witnessing it to be present. United (with one exception) and Live only produced live albums during this time. This irritated me in many ways.
I do want to make it absolutely clear that there is more to Hillsong's different bands than what I'm saying here in this post. Please stay tuned for part two of the series to hear, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story."
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