The Bible and Music

What makes something a hymn? Are hymns just a fancy word for songs? What even is a hymn? According to the great reference known as google, a hymn is a religious song or poem, typically of praise to God or a god. So according to google, a hymn is a song. So are the songs I listen to on KLove hymns? My favorite band that is played on KLove is Needtobreathe. Needtobreathe makes songs that honor God, but are very catchy. But, songs that Needtobreathe make do not sound like what a hymn sounds like, or what I think hymns sound like. This then goes into the different genres of music.

On the top of my head I can think of many different genres of music. Country, contemporary christian, hip hop, rap, R&B just to name a few. This led class to ask the question, how do we really distinguish music from different genres. Does music really have a set and stone genre? Music is more complex than just one genre, music can be and usually is placed in many different genres.