Branding, Music, and Religion: Standardization and Adaptation in the Experience of the "Hillsong Sound"

This chapter analyses the musical worship experiences of congregation members of the London branch of Hillsong Church, an Australia-based trans-national evangelical Christian church that brands itself through its distinctive musical offerings. The production of the church’s music is centred on its flagship church in Australia, and disseminated across its network through standardised recorded and performative forms. Despite this standardisation, interviews with congregation members based in Hillsong’s London branch revealed a branded experience of the music in which imagined ideas of London and Australia gave otherwise objective elements of music distinct subjective qualities.