ABSTRACT
Christian musicking and economic marketplaces have been intertwined for centuries, but in the late twentieth century, when major entertainment conglomerates started investing in the Christian music industries, the conditions of neoliberal capitalism and marketplace economics enabled a rapid growth. Significant ethical questions have accompanied the growth and expansion of the Christian music market, confronting musicians, listeners, and cultural intermediators (those professionals who connect musicians to listeners). I consider the work of cultural intermediation to be a constituent component of musicking; as such, the challenges that capitalism poses Christian musicking cannot be reduced to its writing, performance, or reception but also must take into account the decisions and objectives of all involved in its production and distribution. In this chapter, I consider the ways in which the business of music complicates the ethics and objectives of Christian music. I address some of the effects of yoking Christian music to the for-profit imperatives of entertainment conglomerates, but I quickly turn my attention to Christian festivals, which are unique places in which competing ethics find an equilibrium, albeit one that is always temporary and often uneasy.
