Mumford & Sons, a London based rock band, with Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane, have been attracting quite a bit of criticism lately. Apart from their musical critics, it is their religious overtone and Christian imageries that have been the centre of several debates.
One of the more exclusive lyrics by the rock band that hints on them being religious is from the song, Below my Feet. The song is almost a dialogue between the singer and the audience discussing an experience with Jesus, “When I was told by Jesus all was well”. It is without any doubt that the band is being respectful to the religion by opening up about a positive undergoing. This is an example of media sources highlighting the positive and regressive synergy between religious ideologies and popular culture.
However, in the past rock bands have generally been stereotyped as being rather disrespectful to religious groups. According to Rev. Calvin Butts, ‘this form of musical production erodes moral values and religious sensibilities’. An example of this could be the popular Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil, which is a sardonic reverence to the Devil.
Upon the release of the song, it attracted a lot of controversial attention due to its mockery of Christian religious groups. In addition, their previous album was titled ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’, didn’t help their reputation of being devil worshippers by the religious groups.
One might assume that Mumford & Sons, in comparison to the Rolling Stones, were rather supportive of the religion. Nevertheless, Mumford has been spotted denying himself being associated with Christianity from time to time as he believes that ‘the word just conjures up all these religious images that I don’t really like’. Despite their songs containing religious themes, for instance, in the song Sigh No More, the song goes, ‘Serve God, love me and mend’, the band continues to relate themselves religiously.
The band has maintained a stand on their non commodification of Christianity through their songs. If we look at this from Forbes’ theories of popular culture, it is evident that the songs are reflective of society, instead of shaper of the society. Since, even though the songs have religious symbolisms, it is not in any way intended to influence a ‘culture of Christian’ for Mumford & Sons fans. Rather it is just voicing the general views of the society using the spiritual connection to their fans, which is solely just the sentimental trick of publicity or advertising. It simply follows the theory that advertisement is key to our capitalistic economy because it is based so much on consumerism. Therefore, the medium of popular culture is using religion is a tool for publicity.
On the other hand, the fact that Marcus Mumford’s parents are leaders in the evangelical Vineyard Church in England, and he’s a member of that church to this day, makes their fans interpret their songs as a platform for spirituality. However, despite the biblical references popping up here and there, it never goes beyond that. This is supported by the band’s interviews, where they have admitted repetitively that they are ‘fans of faith, not religion’.
