Civilisation has evolved through the millennia to constant musical accompaniment. Music is as innately a part of humanity as the foreknowledge of our own certain death, and as unique - to play and appreciate music is one of the attributes that singles us out from the rest of nature.
According to the view of the world elaborated by Plato and Aristotle, music had the power to affect the soul and, as a result, the actions of mankind. It was believed that a particular melody embodied a distinctive ethos, or moral characteristic. Though music was a manifestation of God's omnipotence, some harmonies were considered pure, while others had the power to corrupt. Plato himself described some pieces of music as "dirge-like" and "too relaxed". He called for an emphasis on certain scales, those of an uplifting nature, in the education of the young. A faint echo of this ethical system persists to this day, with major scales alleged to connote happiness, while minor scales are "sad".
No longer, though, is music itself invested with any moral essence. The difference today is that no one would consider the music itself to be corrupting or immoral - rather it is the messages of the lyrics and the manner of the musician that cause offence.
In the 1970s, rock music took a turn down a side road. Recognising the teenage capacity for nihilism and dislike of establishment, bands such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin took to a more gothic style, borrowing heavily from both religious and occult symbolism. In the 1980s, religious zealots in America got a whiff of prey, and, as a result, artists engaged in tacky showbiz, were suddenly being accused of witchcraft and Satanism. The established churches stayed quiet on these issues, perhaps recognising their diminishing authority in the secular world and that their mandate to make pronouncements had been undermined in previous decades.
Nevertheless, some of the Christian churches' proponents got out their brimstone and harangued the US congress into action against the likes of Ozzy Osbourne (who learned his devilworshipping as the frontman with Black Sabbath), Blackie Lawless of WASP, and many others who were supposedly corrupting the youth of America with ungodly concepts. Tipper Gore and a few other Senators' wives, in the name of Christian America, set up an organisation undreamed of by George Orwell. The PMRC's goal was to ban all music that contradicted any of the Ten Commandments. They succeeded in having warning labels placed on all recordings with objectionable lyrics, and in effect quadrupled the profits of the major recording labels by giving people an extra reason to buy the "objectionable" music.
As people in the western world experienced all the horrors of the last century, they found themselves re-evaluating the worth of an individual's brief time on this earth. Being alive was a thing to be cherished in itself, and lived to the full. The apprehension of terrible suffering of the second World War, coupled with a new affirmation of the value of the individual, inevitably led to the conclusion in the 1960s and 1970s that life is to be celebrated; even enjoyed. Self-gratification changed from being a sin to being a right. In tandem with this growing personal perspective of the world was the development of a secular worldview, where personal choice became as important as dogma. This, coupled with a rise in living standards, created a whole new generation for whom religion held no sway. Music challenged religion for the favour - or, perhaps, attention - of the masses in the late 20th century, not least because of new techniques of high-fidelity sound reproduction and its rapid dissemination through radio, phonograph, tape recorder and eventually television. Thus the wireless replaced the bible and the crucifix on every mantelpiece.
Individualism, self-determination and personal freedom, as well as consumerism gradually replaced Victorian notions of propriety and the Christian notions of self-denial and austerity. Until the 20th century, the eminence of religion went largely unquestioned, but as science, technology and literature secularised the world, religion inevitably lost its much of its grip. Throughout the ages, religion had taught us not to dream too big, as the Kingdom of God was just around the corner. With the emergence of pop culture, we were suddenly being force-fed Quixotic-sized dreams, and we wouldn't have to wait for the kingdom of Heaven to realise them, either. Pat Boone was never going to make an impact as long as Elvis Presley was around. In the face of rock'n'roll, religion hadn't a hope. The world was easily weaned off Marx's opium and on to a far more addictive potion - one that didn't merely provide solace, but was genuinely entertaining as well.
The pleasure of music for its own sake was allied with the cult of personality of the singer. With the development of mass popular culture, the musician, who was once seen as merely the conduit for the song, was given a new status on a par with the music itself. The music became just one component of a larger fantasy, one that involved passions that religion sought to suppress - sexual longing and aspirational lifestyle.
However, religion was not simply in competition with music for people's souls. Music comes from the soul, and this has been appreciated since the Dionysian cults of ancient Greece, which celebrated as much with music as with wine. Religious music can be a tangible expression of faith; it is wordless (in that rhythm and feeling are what matter), free of rationale (other than musical logic which is instinctive) a passionate evocation of the soul.
Take the Gospel singers of America's Deep South. Not only does it look like a hugely entertaining way of celebrating faith, it also influenced the course of popular music more than any other form. Everyone knows the old chestnut about a black man teaching Elvis to dance, but it was the rhythms and cadences of black gospel music, mingled with the blues (played by those who skipped church) that energised all his catchy numbers, as well as artists much further afield such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. And those two bands were the forerunners of just about all contemporary popular music, with the exception of jazz.
Today, in fact, popular music is as much an ally of religion as an adversary. As churches re-evaluated themselves as contemporary institutions, they found their message being championed by some unlikely characters. Pop music is now replete with stars professing everything from Christianity (Moby, Cliff Richard, Darren Hayes of Savage Garden) to the espousing of moral sentiments (the "no sex before marriage" mantra of Britney Spears and Ronan Keating). Bono's meeting with the Pope is typical of this new synthesis between the religious and secular worlds.
Whereas music was once the servant of religion, the two are now distinct cultural institutions, sometimes speaking in unison, sometimes at odds, but rarely at war. In the fifth century AD, Pope Gregory made the first codification of Church music. It was a collection of chants that, in general, reinforced the simple, spiritual and aesthetic quality of music. Even in the 20th century this music, Gregorian Chant, served as a model for melodic design, and is considered to be one of the monuments of Western musical literature. However, a new monument has now been erected, one that prizes earthly pleasure over spiritualism, this world over the next. It is rock'n'roll.
Savage Garden play at the Point on December 8th
