What on earth are we singing in 2024?

Yes, the click-bait title might have you thinking I’m going to slam modern worship songs for their weak theology and even weaker musical construction…However, I’m actually just honestly asking the question, “what are we, as Christians, singing across our local churches in the USA and around the globe?” And I imagine among my savvy readers, many would say, “I know that answer, just look at the publicly available CCLI charts!”1

That is indeed what I am looking at, but with a PhD in this genre, I’ll hopefully unpack some more interesting, insightful and useful details than just a list of the ‘most sung songs’. The latest Church Copyright License (CCL) report from Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) was released last month (covering the 6 months to Oct, 2023).

Songs Coming

“Goodness of God” for the 5th time retained the #1 spot (and has been on the charts since the Oct, 2019 reporting period). That’s impressive, given that we’d have to go back a decade to see that same kind of dominance at the top of the charts from “10,000 Reasons”. “Way Maker” was close, with 4 consecutive reports at #1 preceding “Goodness of God’s” dominance. It’s not just in the US where this song has featured. It’s #1 in the Canadian CCL charts for the 7th consecutive time. It was #1 in the Australian CCL report in the last period (currently #2), and it is finally #1 on the UK CCL chart pushing “10,000 Reasons” from the top position.

Other noteworthy moves include “Gratitude” which has quickly moved to #2 from its debut in the Top 25 list2 2 reports ago, and “Firm Foundation (He Won’t)” which has pushed up to #4 after also only appearing 2 CCL reports ago.

New songs to the list include, “Praise”, “Trust In God”, and “Holy Forever”. Fast songs, like “Praise” are less likely to appear in the Top 25 lists, as they are often less suited to a broad array of worship contexts. In other words, only when a faster song works for the loan acoustic guitarist or keyboardist leading their small congregation in worship, is it likely to push through to the Top 25. Despite tracks (e.g. MultiTracks) being an increasingly common tool for small worship bands (and now promoted alongside sheet music on websites like praisecharts or SongSelect), many churches still choose songs that don’t require such elements. This may be philosophical, in the sense that some may feel the use of tracks amounts to Karaoke more than worship. It may be spiritual, with some feeling that the restriction of tracks (even though I hear you say, “it’s more flexible than ever”) somehow restricts the freedom of the Spirit within a live worship context. Or, it may be a technological issue, with tracks working best with in-ear monitoring. Many smaller churches still work with floor monitors, where leadership are not keen for the whole congregation to be listening to a click track and section marker voiceovers!

Songs (and SongSelect) Going

Songs slipping out of the Top 25 in the latest report include “Who You Say I Am”, “Great Things”, and “Lord I Need You”. With the lack of new releases from Hillsong over the past 2 years, churches have looked elsewhere to fill that gap. And, it’s a big gap. Until 2022, Hillsong released at least 1 album (and often more) every year, several songs of which would register almost immediately in the Top 25 CCLI charts around the world. Even so, it’s not any of the most recent albums that are represented on the CCLI charts. The most recent Hillsong song in the Top 25 is “King of Kings”, from 2019. So, who has filled the gap? Producers/Artists such as Elevation Worship, Brandon Lake, and Maverick City, while Chris Tomlin has returned to the charts (after almost a decade) with “Holy Forever”.

I have traditionally held that songs tend to appear first on CCLI’s SongSelect charts before appearing on the CCL charts. The simple reason for this is that before churches are singing these songs (and reporting them), they are downloading the sheet music (from resources such as SongSelect) to teach to their worship teams. It remains true to a degree. For example, “Gratitude” debuted at #2 on the USA SongSelect charts 2 reports ago, but took until now to reach that place on the CCL charts.

However, SongSelect still has “Revelation Song” and “Here I Am To Worship” appearing in its Top 25, when they haven’t appeared in the CCL charts for 5-7 years respectively. Furthermore, there are no new songs in the latest SongSelect charts which are not already represented in the CCL charts. Since my monograph on this subject,3 things have changed. There are more options for sheet music than ever before (e.g. UltimateGuitar, PraiseCharts, individual producers’ websites, etc.), so the dominance of SongSelect as the primary source for churches has probably faded a little. At the same time, so many contemporary congregational songs (CCS) are so predictable musically, that by-ear musicians don’t need charts. A few listens on their favourite streaming platform, and maybe a play-along once for good measure, and the song is learned. Still, it’s good to have the SongSelect charts available to see how the dissemination of song charts compares to the reported usage of those songs in local church services.

Perennial Favorites – Old and New

For most songs, there is a natural rise and fall through the charts over time. Examples include, “Raise A Hallelujah” which only 5 years ago peaked at #6 but hasn’t appeared on the last 2 CCL charts, or “Reckless Love” which in the April, 2018 report peaked at #1 but fell out of the Top 25 by the April, 2021 report, or “Good Good Father” which was #1 in both 2016 reports, but hasn’t appeared in the Top 25 since Oct, 2021. Perennial favorites, however, continue to fill the Top 25 including “What a Beautiful Name” (#7), “How Great Is Our God” (#18), “This is Amazing Grace” (#19), “10,000 Reasons” (#21), “In Christ Alone” (#24), and the oldest song in the list “How Great Thou Art” (#23).

What does this tell us about church worship and the genre?

Well, the first thing it tells us is that this list moves a LOT slower than the great majority of popular music charts. There are some obvious reasons for this, including the fact that the Christian music industry doesn’t have a direct impact on or influence over this list. However, more importantly, it tells us local churches have an array of CCS to choose from for their services, and that those lists don’t change quickly. It is telling that on the same Top Songs list, there’s “How Great Thou Art” copyrighted 1949/1953 and “Praise” copyrighted 2023. I’d venture to suggest that most churches are not singing both of those in one service, but across the global church, both old and new are resonating with various congregations, with a healthy tension between the introduction of new songs and the bastion of songs that have articulated the worship of generations. And of course, this article is not factoring in the large number of hymns that are now in the public domain.

Theological Content

Shifting gears, I’d like to briefly explore both the musical and theological content of the new songs to this report. Let’s start with theology. According to my four categories for contemporary congregational songs,4 “Praise”, “Trust In God”, and “Holy Forever” are all primarily Praise/Thanksgiving, as their focus is on God but they completely or typically address Him indirectly (He/Him/His) rather than directly (You/Yours). “Trust In God” also has a secondary category of “Prophetic/Declarative” because of the testimonial nature of its Bridge. You may say, “’Holy Forever’ uses direct address of God”. Yes, but the 1st verse talks about the worship of God, and verse 2 is directed to fellow worshippers (“If you’ve been forgiven, if you’ve been redeemed…”), and although the pre-chorus and chorus 1 uses “You/Your”, it is not in an intimate context that might indicate the “Worship” category.

In terms of point of view (POV), “Praise” and “Trust In God” use 1st person singular pronouns (I, me, my). “Holy Forever” is interesting in that besides addressing fellow worshippers, the singer does not really address themself/themselves at all, besides a “we” that is evident in the last line of verse 2, but not essential to the sung version of the phrase. Praise/Thanksgiving is the most popular category for CCS. Do the theological ideas of praise, trust and God’s transcendence have particular resonance at this moment in church and world history? Or, are these simply flowing out of the theological foci of the churches/movements to which they belong? “Praise” is an interesting case. As mentioned, it is rare for faster songs to enter the Top 25.

However, because they also tend not to last as long in the rotation of worship songs in local churches, there is greater need for faster songs from CCS writers. “Praise” offers something a little ‘edgy’ with the chanting pre- and post- the main song. However, the song still works without that element if churches don’t feel their congregations are up for chanting! There are many elements of personal experience in the lyrics ( e.g. “I’ll praise when I feel it, I’ll praise when I don’t), but its focus is still anchored in who God is, His attributes, and what He’s done and does when we praise. As such, it resonates across a broad spectrum of denominational orientations.

Musical Content

Musically, the new songs have typical structures, although “Holy Forever” has no bridge, but rather uses the pre-chorus as a kind of bridge to the final choruses. All songs have 2 verses. “Praise” sits around chords I and V for the verses, but moves to the vi, IV, I, V trope for the chorus, and has an ascending progression (I, ii, I6, IV) for the bridge. “Trust in God”, sharing three of the same writers, has an interesting take on the 4-chord progression utilised throughout the song (I, vi, IV, (I6), ii). “Holy Forever” takes a slightly more unique take on harmony, utilising an almost complete diatonic circle of 5ths in the chorus (IV, V, iii, vi, ii, V, I), which was much more typical of CCS from the 1980s/90s (anyone remember “Lord I Lift Your Name On High”?).

Melodically, Praise has a range of a P8ve (from A4-A5, written) with the highest and longest note occurring on the word “praise” in the choruses, which adds strength to those sections. While a high “G” isn’t uncommon in many CCS, a high “A” is probably out of the reach of many singers. Hence, this song would be transposed, or sung down the octave for Altos. “Trust In God” has an even smaller range (M6th) from G4 to E5. Both of these stand in contrast to “Holy Forever” which has a large range of a P11th from Bb3 to D5. This larger range has been much more typical of Hillsong’s corpus, especially where octave jumps occur in choruses or bridges (think “Cornerstone” or “O Praise The Name”).

Conclusion

There is, of course, so much more theological, musical and extra-musical detail we could explore with these songs, and I hope that you do. The songs we put in the mouths of fellow believers as worship should undergo considerable scrutiny, not just by the writers or producers or churches/labels that release them, but by every local congregation that considers whether those songs reflect their theology, their mission, and their culture. I hope I’ve started some conversations, and I look forward to exploring these things with you again when the next list is released in 6 months’ time.

Citations

1. Top 100 – – It is region linked, so depending on where you are in the world will depend on which region’s Top 100 you’ll see.
2. The Church Copyright License (CCL) charts are what CCLI and those talking about contemporary worship typically refer to as the Top Songs list, and hence, how I’m referring to it in this article.
3. Meaning-Making in the Contemporary Congregational Song Genre
4. Link

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