Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 (9/11) have provoked various collective and personal responses in the US, whose meaning continues to be negotiated through time. This paper analyses two popular music albums released in 2002, which address the events of 9/11. The analysis engages with the question: How do these albums incorporate religious symbolism in formulating a response to 9/11? In exploring this question, the paper draws conclusions about the relationship between popular culture and religion within the context of collective crisis and suffering.

The paper is theoretically informed by constructivist and cultural studies frameworks and adopts an interpretive approach towards the analysis of the albums as cultural texts. Further, the analysis draws upon the scholarly debate on the increasingly blurred line between the sacred and the profane, as well as on the literature on media and religion. In addition to providing a close reading of the albums, the analysis seeks to contextualize its interpretations and situate them historically. The paper argues that the two albums represent two divergent forms of spiritual sensibility present in American society today. By implication, they express specific articulations of collectivity, while, at the same time, serving as sources for the construction of personalized meanings and identities.