21st Century liturgical music in current culture

Western civilization is a world that demands to be entertained.  The ubiquitous remote control gives broadcasters five seconds to grab the attention of viewers.  Otherwise, they click on by.  Slouched on the couch, tired eyes watch home decorating, reality shows, Geraldo Rivera, earthquakes and incipient hurricanes, sitcoms and dramas, sports, and Mother Angelica pass by.  Like day laborers on a street corner, each program shouts, "Watch me, watch me."  After a few rounds on the cable cycle, the viewer settles down and gazes at the best thing in the line-up.

In schools, students are enticed into learning with computer games and simulations that break down material into tiny bits of text surrounded by images that reproduce the visuals of television and cinema.  Maybe a minute for each item, maybe less, lest boredom set in.  The production values of these tidbits are usually excellent because the designers know that students will judge them according to the standards set by other media.  Hokey graphics and silence or mere speech are turn-offs, so that algebra/world history/life of the molecule program better look and sound good.

Lastly, the internet has brought everything else home.  Sites need to be fast-loading and eye-grabbing or the mouse-wielding user will click away.  Designers labor to develop "sticky" pages that will hold visitors for at least minimal communication.  Everything is there for the taking - music, texts, art, video - for every taste imaginable.  You can range from the Sistine Chapel ceiling to the rankest pornography and rap on a medium that is completely neutral.  "Freshness" is all, with the average life expectancy for a major website being three to four months before a major overhaul is required to keep the visitors coming back.

An "entertainment culture" is about passive reception.  The most movement that is demanded is a thumb on a remote or an index finger on a mouse.  The head rarely swivels, while gravity rules.  Someone else, somewhere else designs and delivers and the greatest demand made on the potential audience is "stay tuned." Content becomes secondary to delivery.  Marshall McLuhan's prediction that the "medium becomes the message" is a pervasive truth.  The goal is to keep that viewer/listener entranced with something, anything.  Nothing more.

What does this have to do with liturgical music?  The old Chinese proverb says that a fish is not aware of water.  Why?  Because the water is the fish's entire universe and he knows no other. Popular media culture is the universe for modern society.  There are few of us who haven't been swimming in it from birth.  How does it shape both our ability to create music worthy of God and the expectations that church music professionals and our fellow worshippers bring to the liturgy?

Those tired eyes and fickle students are the congregation unless you're out in the woods where the satellite can't deliver and the students are still using Apple IIEs.  They've seen and heard it all (or so they think).  In the production of a single 30-second broadcast commercial, developers may spend in excess of $1,000,000.  There is not one moment of that commercial that has not been crafted and polished perfectly.  In the studio music industry, voices can be passed through digital processors to correct pitch.  A single missed note can be re-recorded and plugged in; the possibility for retakes is limited only by the finances of the producers.  Live performances outside the traditional classical music arena are increasingly multimedia extravaganzas with laser lights, fireworks, and singers develo