Major and Classification
Music Industry
Faculty Mentor
- Rakesh Niraj, Ph.D.
Department
- Marketing
McNair Project
“What’s Behind a Name?: The Branding of Contemporary Christian Music Artists”
This case study explores Contemporary Christian Music artists’ loss of brand value as they target the secular market. Three Contemporary Christian Music artists–Amy Grant, DC Talk, and Jars of Clay– are studied through the eyes of the branding theory to examine how they compromise or lose their Christian identity when adopting secular marketing techniques to target the non-Christian market. The sources examined include interviews, press releases, music industry magazines, marketing, media, religion and popular culture journals, books, encyclopedias, songs, and artists’ official websites. The findings are used to determine the extent Contemporary Christian Music artists’ shift in marketing techniques reduces their brand value in the Christian market.