Mormon music
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This article deals with music with a Mormon influence; for hymns, see The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hymns or for the hymnal Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1985 book)
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[edit] Mormon folk music
Main article: Mormon folk music
Mormon folk music constituted some of the earliest white/euramerican music in the boundaries of modern Utah. These songs, simple and easy to remember, were usually sung without accompaniment because of the scarcity of musical instruments in territorial Utah. Although they often employed the same tunes as folk music elsewhere, Mormon folk is distinctively Utahn. The songs often include unique pioneer-era Mormon culture references such as crossing the plains, Mormon ecclesiastical leaders, and LDS religious convictions.
[edit] Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Since 1847, the Latter-day Saint influence in Utah music is manifest in the state’s most famous musical institution: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Named after the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 300+ member choir is world-famous. The LDS Church supports the choir both for prestige and as a proselytizing tool for spreading familiarity of the church. The choir performs at least weekly at the Tabernacle for a radio program called "Music and the Spoken Word" which is the longest-running national radio program in the US. The Mormon Tabernacle choir has released innumerable albums since it first recorded in 1910.
[edit] Mormon popular music
Beginning in the 1960s, gospel music gained some success, and Mormons played an integral role in the development of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) into the 1970s. Since then, Michael McLean [1] from Heber, Utah and Kenneth Cope [2] in Salt Lake City have become relatively popular among mostly-older Latter-day Saints for their religiously charged easy listening music.
