On the Taliban’s Hit List: An Exiled Pakistani Singer’s Plea to Save Music
An interview with a singer marked for death by the Taliban. Curiously, while the Taliban claims that music is a violation of Islamic law, they do have their own melodies and hymns.
Afghan Idol: Can a Talent Competition Save a Nation?
An interview with the director of Afghan Star, a documentary that follows a tense but cathartic talent competition.
Cornerstone Video Diary Day 3: Death to the World
On the final day of the Cornerstone Christian Music Festival our reporter locates the zine of “Punk Monks.”
Cornerstone Video Diary Day 2: Something I Didn’t Think I’d Find...
From sweet and soulful to Christian death metal, RD’s reporter on the scene talks about the music.
Day 1: Cornerstone Christian Music Festival Diary
A video diary from an evangelical music and culture festival near Bushnell, Illinois.
Rage Against the Regime: Voices from the Iranian Underground Music Scene
Iran’s Green Revolt is about freedom and democracy, sure. But it usually has to take form in a particular issue or, as in the case of a growing portion of Iran’s youth, in song. Meet the resistance in the form of the underground music scene.
Attempts at the recent Muslim Voices festival to reinvent the qawwali, of having it cross-fertilize with other musics, made the concert seem so promising as a closing event.
Sacred&Profane: Wilco Worship and the “Churn” in American Religion
Though surveys of American religion continue to reveal a rise in the “no religion,” and “unaffiliated” categories the transcendent experience of a Wilco show can lead the way to a more nuanced understanding.
Church and State in Japan: The Case of the Yasukuni Shrine
Japan, in the throes of political and financial turmoil, is still dealing with the long-running controversy over a national shrine for WWII dead.
Sacred&Profane: From Bono to the Jedi Police—Who Needs God?
Bono finds “soul music” in the work of secular do-gooders, and a contingent of Scottish police declare themselves members of the Church of Jedi. Looks like we have religion everywhere, and not a god in sight.
The Best Books Media of 2008
Forget the standard litany of the best-selling books and most popular movies... This year’s list includes comics, rock bands, Battlestar Galactica, “Hava Nagila” sung to the tune of “The Twist,” and “I Am the Walrus” translated into Aramaic.
A professor of religious studies, challenged to write a patriotic song that isn’t militaristic, is inspired by texts on our democratic project.
The Kids are Religious Right: Punk Rock & Pro-Life
Who is that tattooed, pierced kid with the pink hair and the “You Will Not Mock Our God” T-shirt? How confusion about evangelicalism has obscured the Catholic influences of pro-life youth.
RD10Q: Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam
The author discusses his journey through a Muslim subculture, the connection between Nietzsche and Hendrix, and how heavy metal might end the war on terror...
Bonnaroo Dispatches: Stages
This four-day rock fest in rural Tennessee is an endurance event, to be sure, but for many it is a makeshift spiritual retreat—a “vibrational healing ground.” The second in a three part series...
Bonnaroo 3: With a Buzz in Our Ears
In which our intrepid writers let the ethereal sounds of Sigur Ros ripple and echo through them, and learn to speak “hopelandic.”
Bonnaroo: The Meeting Ground
It’s not hedonistic abandon that draws folks to the rock fest, but something else...
The Happening and the Gospel of Bruce Springsteen
M. Night Shyamalan’s much-maligned new movie sounds much more interesting if read as an extended argument for religious faith in general and intelligent design specifically.