denominations in christian hard music

I find it interesting to see how propensity toward "harder" music is geographically distributed, e.g. lots of metal per capita in Scandinavia.

Has anyone ever done similar for denominational affiliation among Christian rock/metal listeners/musicians? ✝🤘

I was made aware once that Eterna was/is a Catholic band, and I've seen here and there where a band will try to hang their hat on the Catholic-metal label.  But I think that's about it (at least from what I've seen).

Yeah, I don't know that anything like that has been done...yet.  I'm planning a new research project that is going to take a look at some of the demographics of Christian hard music fans.

As for bands, I think most bands don't really put their denomination out there except for some of the Catholic bands like Staybrite mentioned.  There are rumors that Demon Hunter is coming from a Catholic background, but Ryan has avoided the question.  Crimson Moonlight refers to themselves as Orthodox, but I'm not sure if that is a reference to one of the Orthodox churches or just an orthodox perspective.  I think a lot of bands play it close to the vest because 1)denomination isn't a really big deal or 2)is something that tends to be divisive and they don't want it to be an impediment to fans.  I don't have any hard data on that, but that's just what I think.

I would guess the members of Resurrection Band are Evangelical Covenant members. That's where JPUSA is based... very similar to Lutheran.

Not metal but Derek Webb is Presbyterian.

I've heard that some of the members of Petra were Baptist but I don't know if that's true...

I remember thinking a few years back that I didn't think I had ever heard of a Mormon Metal or even Mormon Rock band.  Only thing that made me think of it is that we have had several friends that were/are Mormon and all of them just listened to secular music.

Oddly enough there are several Mormon musicians out there:
Donny Osmond(hey, he's a little bit rock and roll...)
Gladys Knight
One of the guys in The Killers
Lindsey Sterling
At least two guys in Imagine Dragons
SheDaisy
The Aquabats
The leader of Arcade Fire
Dishwalla

Those are just the ones I can think of...

ishmael81 wrote:

SheDaisy

My dad lived next door to the Osborns when we were kids.

ishmael81 wrote:

Oddly enough there are several Mormon musicians out there:
Donny Osmond(hey, he's a little bit rock and roll...)
Gladys Knight
One of the guys in The Killers
Lindsey Sterling
At least two guys in Imagine Dragons
SheDaisy
The Aquabats
The leader of Arcade Fire
Dishwalla

Those are just the ones I can think of...

All secular bands as far as I know.  So pretty much in line with what I've experienced with my Mormon friends.

Xid wrote:

ishmael81 wrote:

SheDaisy

My dad lived next door to the Osborns when we were kids.

Ozzy was in SheDaisy? 















(sorry I couldn't help myself.....and yes, I know the spelling is different)

I would think that there would be some of every type of music in most areas of the USA.  As far as music is concerned, we are musically schizophrenic.  If you come to Nashville, you will find fans of everything from country, blues, bluegrass, CCM, metal, etc.  You will find clubs that have performances by all those styles and find people of all walks of life attending those shows.  My guess is that you will find that pretty much in every state and major city in the U.S.

While Nashville is known as the country music capitol, I really don't see any style of music being "geographical" whether Christian or not.  With the digital age, even some kid living life on a farm can get any kind of music he/she desires as long as they have internet.  Even with that, you still can't nail most music down to any one city.  Chicago is known for the blues.  So is New Orleans and Memphis.  There is even a style of blues known as "Texas Blues".  In the USA, we are everywhere on the charts as far as music is concerned.

I guess I should have been a bit more clear in my question. I wasn't going after geography, specifically, but demographic more generically.

Certain denominations are known for being, in the musical sense, very traditionalist. (Broadly speaking - whatever that means in practice. Hymns-only, or vocal-only worship, or no guitars/drums, for example.) I was curious if denominational make-up of metal/rock listenership followed that.

Except for maybe the Church Of Christ, i don't know of any denominations that dictate what their individual churches can use.  For example, I am Southern Baptist.  My church uses probably 99.5% hymns with an occasional foray into newer songs.  We still use a piano and organ even for the new stuff.  However, the next Baptist church over may have a full worship team with guitars, drums, etc.  There is no rhyme or reason with this other than preference.

As to what people listen to on a personal level, I think that has a lot to many factors with church affiliation being at the bottom of the list.  If you grew up in a rural community, there is a good possibility that you listen to country music.  However, we also tend to pick musical preferences by what our friends like.  If I hang out with kids that are into metal, I am probably going to like that as most people want to be a part of the group and be able to discuss similar loves.  That may even be how you became friends.  As adults, tastes often change as life mellows a bit.  For some of us, though, rock/metal is something we truly love and we aren't changing just because life has given us the cruel blow of more advanced age.

So, I still don't think denominations have much to do with our musical choices.  Even the most rigid churches will have people who will put on their "game face" at church and then sneak to listen to whatever they like--and typically the most foreign to their legalistic church background.