Are contemporary worship songs too repetitive?
Let me introduce the Anecdotal logical fallacy. It’s when examples are sited that seem to support the argument while ignoring most other examples. The argument of “The songs are too repetitive” falls into this category. Simply put, not all (actually very few) contemporary worship songs are repetitive. Here are a few that might be:
- This Is the Air I Breathe
- How Great Is Our God
- Awesome God (Most people only sing the chorus without the verses.)
- Nothing but the Blood (This is actually a less repetitious contemporary version of a very repetitive traditional hymn.)
There are some very good reasons that these songs are this way. I won’t address them here.
Here are a few examples of contemporary worship songs that are certainly not too repetitive:
They are all great songs with great lyrics, and they are not exceptions to the norm.
Now let’s deal with the presupposition of “repetition is a bad thing.” Ever read Psalm 136? (I could be called out on the fallacy of “Appeal to Authority” if someone really wanted to challenge scripture.) Good stuff, that Psalm. But no one is really actually arguing that repetition is a bad thing (because it’s not). People are saying that too much repetition is bad. Well, how much is too much? Four repetitions? Eight? Psalm 136 has 26 repetitions. Should that be the limit? I doubt very many contemporary worship songs exceed that (trust me, I’ve typed up a lot of Powerpoint presentations).
If you don’t listen to any of the other links above, at least listen to this one:
And all will sing out
Hallelujah
And we will cry out
Hallelujah
