praise and worship | en

Praise & Worship Music (P&W) is a subgenre of Contemporary Christian Music which emphasizes the actual outpouring of devotion over straight evangelism. It's roots can be traced as far back as the early 70s, the Jesus Music movement and in particular the more reverent music of CCM pioneer Keith Green. As music from this period began to become assimilated in church services the use of contemporary instrumentation became popular (guitars, keyboards/synths, drums). Soon many churches had their own bands, most of which were geared to youth ministry, and P&W eventually evolved into worship services in their own right, in addition to accompaniment for modern liturgical services.

Identifying features of P&W include, but are not limited to, an emphasis on crowd singing, which is led by one or two "worship leaders" and aided by lyrics projected on a screen directly behind the band. The songs utilize dynamics and repetition to benficial effect. Lyrically they are unashamedly Christian, sometimes anthemic, other times almost like "love songs to Jesus" (the precedent for which can be found in the Old Testament Song of Solomon as well as Revelation's symbolic usage of the term "bride of Christ" to represent the Church Universal).

Many popular Contemporary Christian bands have "tried their hand" at Praise & Worship music. with various degrees of success. Other collectives, usually supported and commissioned by their home church, play P&W music exclusively. An early example is Vineyard Music. As a result there are countless P&W recordings available on Spotify and other websites for music consumers.

As of this writing (April 2016) some of the most popular and successful Praise & Worship Music ensembles include Hillsong (Hillsong United/Hillsong Worship/Hillsong Chapel), Bethel Music, Passion, Jesus Culture, Vertical Church Band and many others. Successful P&W songwriters include Chris Thomlin, Charlie Hall, Matt Redmann... .