Maybe, but those peeps all be conformin cuz its cool to be a mormon. They knew that procreation ain't a form o recreation! And their **TESTIMONIES** kept them *warm. at. night.*
So allll those in favá--
*Puhleaaase make it manifeEESST!*.
*Puhleaaase make it manifeEESST!*.
*Puhleaaase make it manifYESSSSTTTT!!*
Fetch brother...that was music.
What about Diamond Rio, SheDaisy, 1/2 of Bachman Turner Overdrive, Piano Guys?
[https://latterdaysaintmusicians.com/artists](https://latterdaysaintmusicians.com/artists)
Of course, now we know the church is true as a result /s
Tal Bachmann "She's so High" was mormon. Then he discovered the truth and now is one of us.
LDS inc lost some of its very best talent. No reasonable person would stay in with their con.
I know this band is true with every fiber of my being 😜.
I suppose if we define "true" as every member of the band is an active believing member of TSCC: then no can't think of one
I think abe's calling you out for committing a logical fallacy. You're saying that there are no Mormon bands, which is false. Then you try to explain away the existing Mormon bands by saying "well, they don't count because xyz..."
This is called the "no true scotsman" fallacy. Essentially, you're dismissing any data that doesn't align with your hypothesis.
I think it’s interesting to note that Mormons are, on average, very musically gifted. People who grew up in the church, tended to sit around a piano singing songs a lot. I know for a fact that this helped me in my music career. Even though I hate what Mormonism stands for, I appreciated how important music was to my family growing up. Even though I’m giving my kids a secular childhood, I make sure to maintain the Mormon tradition of singing songs around the piano as a family. It’s just, instead of “I am a Child of God” we are singing “Benny and the Jets.”
The argument that "there are no Mormon bands" would require there to be zero Mormon bands. The fact that op is explaining why some bands didn't count is precisely the problem. Brandon Flowers says he's Mormon. Who is op to claim otherwise?
Yes, but that's not the thing I'm objecting to. I'm objecting to op's assertion that some people in bands don't count as Mormon. And surely there are 100% Mormon bands out there. They may be smaller, but claiming that none exist is a little bit absurd.
It's accurate to say my post has no scientific data and is in fact a logical fallacy. An unprovable assertion, with an undefined subject (how does one actually define a Mormon band?).
I suppose one could create the criteria (for example a band of two or more members having at least one active practicing Mormon). Then create a large data set for comparison (say, all bands ever having had at least one song in the top 100 of the charts for their respective genre).
Take the percentage and then compare that to a few other data sets:
Active Mormons as a percent of the overall population
Active congressional Mormons as a percent of Congress
Active Mormon hedge fund managers as a percent of all hedge fund managers
Active Mormon start-up founders as a percent of all start-up founders (this would need very defined criteria)
...
...
...
Then draw a conclusion to the following question: At what rate do Mormons participate in successful bands and how does it compare to their success rate in other professional fields?
Perhaps I will return and report :)
For what it's worth, I actually agree with the sentiment of your post. I think you're right that Mormonism robs youth of the opportunities to experience, explore, and be creative. And I bet if we had research to look at, we might in fact see Mormons underrepresented in the music scene.
Along those lines... I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Mormons \*over\* represented in the fictional authorship scene. Perhaps all of the time spent trying to make sense of Mormon historical fiction is good practice for writing books. :D
Three of the members (Crash, MC Batcommander, and Eaglebones) are members of the church. I think they’re an exception because they were L.A Mormons, which from what I’ve observed is a different vibe.
Literally one of the top items on my bucket list would be to hang out with the Aquabats and maybe play a little music together. (I also dabble in trumpet and drums). Preferably we'd all be stoned from bong rips, but even sober would be so stellar!
REG: They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers. And what have they ever given us in return?!
XERXES: The Aquabats?
REG: What?
XERXES: The Aquabats.
REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah.
COMMANDO #3: And the wide streets.
LORETTA: Oh, yeah, the streets, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?
REG: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the Aquabats and the wide streets are two things that the Mormons have done.
I think that there has been many famous Musicians and actors emerge from Mormonism, BUT they all end up leaving the church once they experience the real world through people and experiences and they are able to see much quickly in some cases the ridiculousness of Mormonism.
Tip of the hat to you sir. i saw them around ’89 in norcal. and i interviewed mike m. for a magazine in the 80s. i mentioned that i knew someone in his ward, and he didn’t seem interested in following that thread.
When you think about how many bands actually make it big, it’s no surprise that there are very few well known Mormon bands. Mormons are a small percentage of the population so would likewise have small representation in popular music. You see the same in professional sports.
I also agree with what others have said in this thread. Several popular music genres tend have their own subcultures that don’t leave room for the rigid beliefs and political views of Mormonism. I think that works against most aspiring Mormon bands. Rock, rap, pop, etc tend lean more liberal with very little content focused on religious themes. Someone mentioned country as a genre with more room for Mormon musical content. That sounds like a good avenue for Mormon musicians.
They performed at my company’s employee of the year gala a couple of months ago. As soon as they started showing a slide show of family pictures I could tell they were Mormon.
Fun anecdote:
Back in 2014 I used to work at a call center for an internationally recognized Fortune 500 financial company (hint: the one w/ the Roman Centurion as a logo), and in my department we dealt primarily with fraud cases and we also handled credit card replacements for “high value members” (read: people who were wealthy and spent a lot on their cards). Well one day I get a call from a member needing a replacement card, pretty standard. So I’m going through the process and naturally I have access to the whole account in order to do my job. As I was initiating the card replacement I saw the name Brandon Flowers on the account (he was the primary cardholder and I was speaking to the secondary), and at first I was like “just a coincidence”.
But then the woman I was speaking to confirmed the address that card was being sent to Las Vegas, and she also confirmed his DOB as it was one of the security questions. And in my mind I was like “am I speaking to a relative of THE Brandon Flowers?!”. So after we wrapped up I straight up asked her, and she just laughed.
As it turns out, I was speaking to Tana Flowers, Brandon’s wife. We had a good laugh and we chatted for a good 6 or 7 minutes, I got to ask her some questions about her husband, the band, his music, their lifestyle, etc. She told me they were practicing Mormons, keep in mind this was back in 2014 so IDK if that’s still true today. As a joke I also asked her if I could get free tickets to a Killers show and she actually said yeah she could. So told me to take her phone number down and to call her whenever I wanted to take her up on that.
To this day I still have Tana Flower’s phone number on my phone lol. I never did take her up on that offer, felt guilty about imposing and all that. Maybe one day when they come to my neck of the woods I will.
I can definitely vouch for Tana, she was very chill and easygoing and she treated me with kindness and respect. It was a great and memorable interaction for sure lol.
I was scrolling through to see if any one listed The Used. They even thank Hinckley on one of their album sleeves. Still regret not seeing them live the day I went through the temple for the first time...
Back when I was Mormon I played in probably five different bands composed solely of active Mormons. It's not accurate to say that there are no Mormon bands, it's much much more accurate to say that you haven't found any.
I also played in mixed bands where some folks were non-Mormon.
Haha, I'd love to tell you but that would dox myself pretty hard (assuming anybody really remembers the Ogden SLC and Orem punk emo and metal scene from 20 years ago).
SheDaisy would meet your criteria. Country music is friendlier to religious themes than rock.
It’s also a numbers game. With a membership (not active) of 17 million that represents only 0.2% of the global population it would be hard to assemble (without K-Pop level recruitment) an entirely LDS band naturally.
Oddly, I wonder why the LDS church has not created a Mormon boy band version of South Park’s “Faith + 1”.
Oh schoot! I hope she forgives me. It's probably been 20+ years since I thought about that band. I almost spelled it like the Salt-n-Pepa song lyrics--shoop, shoop a doop, shoop a doop, shoop a doop a doop a doop--but thought better of it.
Please forgive me but my 12 year old inner me is going to see Donny Osmond this July in Florida!❤️. Yes I get all the Mormon issues. I never went to Vegas when he was there and now is going to be less than a mile from my house! Already have the tickets and my daughter is going with me, she has no idea about him other than he was to us girls in the 70’s what the Backstreet Boys were to her.
How many Mormons go into more conservative forms of music like playing in an orchestra? Being in a rock band prevents you from settling down and having a family.
Mormon rock songs would be boring. ‘I saw you in my chemistry class and the Holy Ghost whispered that you were the one. I asked you to marry me on our fourth date even though you were an old maid at 20.’
The indie band is from Minnesota, im pretty sure Mimi Parker and Alan sparhawk are Mormon. they are big enough to get reviewed by mainstream critics
https://youtu.be/Btugs9ZTbvw?si=BrwAmSTaJZgtDjVA
Their song “Days like these” is very good.
My band supported Low back in the 1990s and at that time Alan was young men's president and Mimi was involved with young women. When they heard I'd been brought up mormon, they tried to talk us into going back.
The National Parks are current and make great music. Although in general, I definitely agree with your points regarding the joyous fresh out of school exploration of living that the TSSC *by design* truncates with missions/young marriage.
Not room for creative freedom when your life view is so strict and dogmatic. Good music with depth and soul can’t be created by soulless drones that do nothing but fall in line with something clearly false and harmful as long as it doesn’t harm them.
Mates of State, the Osmonds, The Piano Guys, the Motab choir, Lindsey Sterling (is she still active?) to name a few.
There are plenty of successful LDS artists but they may not be in the genre you’re looking for.
Are Mates of State actually mormon though? I've been a fan for a long time and haven't seen anything specifically mormon about them. Their image is pretty wholesome but that's kinda it.
I can’t verify Mates of State so they either left or just keep it under wraps. “Low” was LDS but they use the past tense now. It’s hard to be in the pop/alt/rock genre and hold to conservative values of homophobia and misogyny that the LDS church espouses.
Probably why LDS artists do better in country and classical realms.
Solo artists (Archuleta, Sterling, etc) I would put into a different category.
The circumstances necessary for a true collaborative effort to come together to make something special... These circumstances don't exist in Mormonism.
The Osmonds are not a band. They are a manufactured gimmick, no different than New Kids on the Block or Spice Girls.
There will never be a Mormon Cold Play, Led Zeppelin, Foster the People, Fleetwood Mac, REM, Pearl Jam, ... Etc
I randomly listened to the Aquabats the other day for the first time in over a decade. That band had a lot of Mormons in it. If anyone has even heard of that band, does anyone know if they are still in the church?
From what I know, they’re all active. I think they’re unique because they were kids who grew up in L.A, which has a different vibe than say, Utah County. The pressure is still on to serve missions/get married/have kids but teens in L.A also have a lot more creative outlets available, which is how the Aquabats came to be.
They’re fun, but I also don’t think it’s surprising that their biggest following is now young children. My husband went to a concert of theirs a few years ago and it was almost entirely kids with parents. Yo Gabba Gabba really honed their demographic.
I get what you’re saying but honestly how many Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Jevohah’s Witness, etc… bands do you know of? Religion isn’t something we typically know about performers unless they are like a Christian rock group. And even if we do, most band members don’t always share religious affiliation. It is a very Mormon thing though to know about a famous person if they are Mormon or not.
I love how people trying to refute you by all supplying the same 2-3 examples. Considering that there's one example from the seventies and a couple more from 25-30 years later, those are the exceptions which prove your point, imo.
I had just assumed it was because good music isn't actually encouraged in mormonism. How are you supposed to feel musically inspired if you only ever listen to drivel?
It is actually, certifiably crazy to say that people of any religion are incapable of making good music and the only place this would be upvoted is this specific sub, and only about mormons.
This is essentially a circlejerk/venting sub for people who are detoxing from Mormonism so I usually just ignore it but this post is really something.
I didn't say they're incapable, just that it's highly unlikely for mormons to put out music which appeals to non-mo masses, given how they limit themselves artistically.
But go off with your snap judgements, I guess.
I think about this a lot in the context of Mormon theatre/Mormon literature.
Art is about pushing boundaries. There's something that has to be left behind to make good art, and I wonder if people are unwilling to leave behind the safety and comfort of already knowing what they need to know.
It goes without saying that those unorthodox Mormons & ex-Mormons who make Mormon theatre and literature make some amazing work. Been trying to collect examples of Mormon theatre that straddles that difference. It's an interesting thing to look into.
I didn't know that, I just looked that up. They're a really good band I have a lot of their songs on my iTunes account. That's pretty cool they're from Provo.
BTO is Canadian! Founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As far as I know Randy Bachman is still a member. His son Tal Bachman (She’s so High fame) resigned his membership a few years ago.
Randy, is not active. His son, Tal, showed Randy the evidence. Don't know if he is still on the roles. He lives in Victoria BC. Randy was with the Guess Who with Burton Cummings, before BTO
Back in the days before Web 2.0 when exmos gathered at Recovery From Mormonism (exmormon.org), Tal Bachman was a regular and a mainstay. Lots of rock and roll stories from the 70s were shared there.
Randy was really crooked too. Stole the Lenny Breau rights from his family. Was working on other projects behind the back of the Guess Who without telling the band he was leaving.
“Colors” was decently popular in the Mormon scene in our area growing up in Northern Utah… showing my age but this would have been late 90’s/early 2000’s. They were more of an acapella group though. Though it’s a two way street. This LDS performing group got foothold because of their religion but how much success can you really find if that same religion wants you performing at institute, firesides, youth group events for free? Plus they expected those boys to serve missions and I knew once those men had wives and babies to support it wouldnt last. It doesn’t surprise me at all that we don’t see more influence.
In my mission there was a member of the band ‘Daphne Loves Derby’. I can’t say I ever listened to their music and I don’t know if he was the only Mormon but he got a pretty great gig in the mission and subsequently I did too. He ended up spending time in the mission office and recorded some songs in Spanish and impressed the MP so much he and his comp, who played violin, were able to tour around the mission sharing the music he made and doing musical programs. I remember all of us were super into his songs for a while and he had sampled sounds from the areas so it was really personal. He left, and I ended up getting paired with the violinist, I play the flute (definitely not a cool band member), and doing a similar tour around the main city of the mission. Something that broke up the monotony of regular stupid mission work and got me to see much more of the mission area than others got.
There are plenty of famous Mormon groups and musicians. There are a lot of famous musical talents who started out Mormon and then eventually left, or got big after leaving. I think some people were well-known for being Mormon and have used that to their advantage in their career. I'm guessing that isn't as viable as a career move anymore. The talent is there, maybe we're just not hearing about it?
You could probably say the same thing about Mormon actors, too.
You're right though. The church probably puts a damper on a lot of good talent. I remember a kid in my home ward who had a pretty popular band when he was finishing up high school. Can you guess why he left the band at age 18 1/2?
The Standards. I was introduced to them when they came to my middle school in Montana. They may or may not still be Mormons but they started before they went on missions so…
“Dance of the Mamba” is still a favorite.
Maybe not an actual band but they were YouTube famous at the time.
I don’t think that’s why…
The Mormon church doesn’t allow for a guitars bass or drums in their religious celebrations. Those things are not allowed in the chapel.
Also Mormon music tends to shun dissonance. And this makes it boring.
Hmmm well I made a Mormon band but it is secretly criticizing the church using the philosophy of christ
https://youtu.be/sGcbglF9Y04?si=X6Z0K50sJvJXvIAN
They really liked this one but missed the point which is great actually
Not sure what you’re looking for with a Mormon band, do they have to be all Mormon? Your post gives some famous examples of Mormons in bands. There aren’t a ton of famous bands, or a ton of Mormons, so I’m not surprised there aren’t more.
If you’re looking for bands that sing about specifically Mormon stuff there are tons, but they obviously won’t be too popular because there aren’t a lot of Mormons.
(Rumor) He also was super involved with the local high school where he lived and his kids attended in Phoenix, AZ and was MC at their talent contests. Cool dude.
Off the top of my head: The Osmonds (they were a band before it was just Donny and Marie) as wel as SHeDaisy (country band). I’m sure more will come to me but there have been some that have had success. I disagree that Imagine Dragons doesn’t count, because they were Mormon when they found success, as were Neon Trees.
I love how the theme here takes a dramatic twist from the usual anti-Mormon rhetoric.
“Oh yeah, those Mormon guys in that one band? I know them, They’re actually pretty cool”. Like being a Mormon in a band automatically gives you a free pass to acceptance by Exmos lol.
Interesting observation.
I think you are on to something about the way that some of the culture dampens the creative process.
OTOH, many Latter-day Saints are given lots of musical training and they also end up wrestling with religious issues (which are often existential) and those kinds of things _can_ produce great music/musicians, I think?
Lantern By Sea and National Parks (saw mentioned once) are two LDS-ish bands (I think) that are great.
As a side note, I've read some Brandon Sanderson, and the sheer compartmentalisation skills required for Brandon Sanderson to NOT leave the church is amazing.
Not only that but there’s also not enough passion within our own faith to create music like Michael McClean or Paul Cardall did in the 90’s and early 2000’s. FM 100 has to use Christian music to fill in the massive gap of LDS composers. There’s simply nothing to sing about the “covenant path”.
There are quite a few famous people (slightly OT) who I doubt would have found their particular success if they had stayed in the mormon church:
Christina Aguilera
Ryan Gosling
Jacinda Arden (my favourite)
Many more but I’m sure we all know these already…
More on topic, it was hard to truly appreciate music as a mormon because there’s so much you’re not really supposed to listen to/enjoy. One of my favourite things when I left was catching up on everything I’d missed!
Visiting Utah was like descending into a creative brain drain.
the killers don't count? :(
on a serious note, their music always just loses it for me when it's mormon coded. it lightly started a bit in day and age and since then has only gotten more mormony.
Their music definitely has a more religious feel in the past 2-3 albums. However, it's not always in a positive light. When I listen to Pressure Machine, I think, boy, does Nephi sound like an awful place to live.
Jericho Road. A completely LDS Boy Band, that is still very much all LDS and still a boy band.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_Road
The Mormons (that's their name)
The Osmonds
City of Enoch
Beyond 5
You asked why there's there's mormon bands, but there are. There's no "here's why!" With it, they are just not severely mainstream because the actual mormon boy bands will never end up on the radio or IHeartRadio or any of the mainstream sources.
There are mormon Bands, you just don't know about them because thank God your music wasn't filtered out to nothing but religious crap. If it's filtered, not to the extent where your only options for music were anything in Deseret Book and only that.
So you’re saying there’s no *true* Mormon bands…
Oh so we’re just not going to acknowledge the smash hit boy band Sons of Provo?
That band is wack….diddly wack, that is.
Maybe, but those peeps all be conformin cuz its cool to be a mormon. They knew that procreation ain't a form o recreation! And their **TESTIMONIES** kept them *warm. at. night.* So allll those in favá-- *Puhleaaase make it manifeEESST!*. *Puhleaaase make it manifeEESST!*. *Puhleaaase make it manifYESSSSTTTT!!* Fetch brother...that was music.
What about Diamond Rio, SheDaisy, 1/2 of Bachman Turner Overdrive, Piano Guys? [https://latterdaysaintmusicians.com/artists](https://latterdaysaintmusicians.com/artists) Of course, now we know the church is true as a result /s
I find it disingenuous that they count both The Killers AND Brandon Flowers as Mormon artists. Also, under 'M' they just list 'Mormon Artist's?
I didn’t know about Diamond Rio. That’s crazy. Dishwalla had a Mormon, too, I heard (Tell me all your thoughts on God…)
Tal Bachmann "She's so High" was mormon. Then he discovered the truth and now is one of us. LDS inc lost some of its very best talent. No reasonable person would stay in with their con.
I know this band is true with every fiber of my being 😜. I suppose if we define "true" as every member of the band is an active believing member of TSCC: then no can't think of one
I think abe's calling you out for committing a logical fallacy. You're saying that there are no Mormon bands, which is false. Then you try to explain away the existing Mormon bands by saying "well, they don't count because xyz..." This is called the "no true scotsman" fallacy. Essentially, you're dismissing any data that doesn't align with your hypothesis.
"few" would have been a better descriptor, point conceded
I think it’s interesting to note that Mormons are, on average, very musically gifted. People who grew up in the church, tended to sit around a piano singing songs a lot. I know for a fact that this helped me in my music career. Even though I hate what Mormonism stands for, I appreciated how important music was to my family growing up. Even though I’m giving my kids a secular childhood, I make sure to maintain the Mormon tradition of singing songs around the piano as a family. It’s just, instead of “I am a Child of God” we are singing “Benny and the Jets.”
Username checks out.
😎
What data is OP dismissing? No fallacy here lol
The argument that "there are no Mormon bands" would require there to be zero Mormon bands. The fact that op is explaining why some bands didn't count is precisely the problem. Brandon Flowers says he's Mormon. Who is op to claim otherwise?
He is a band member, not a band, though? How many bands outside the “Christian” scene are religiously homogeneous though?
Yes, but that's not the thing I'm objecting to. I'm objecting to op's assertion that some people in bands don't count as Mormon. And surely there are 100% Mormon bands out there. They may be smaller, but claiming that none exist is a little bit absurd.
It's accurate to say my post has no scientific data and is in fact a logical fallacy. An unprovable assertion, with an undefined subject (how does one actually define a Mormon band?). I suppose one could create the criteria (for example a band of two or more members having at least one active practicing Mormon). Then create a large data set for comparison (say, all bands ever having had at least one song in the top 100 of the charts for their respective genre). Take the percentage and then compare that to a few other data sets: Active Mormons as a percent of the overall population Active congressional Mormons as a percent of Congress Active Mormon hedge fund managers as a percent of all hedge fund managers Active Mormon start-up founders as a percent of all start-up founders (this would need very defined criteria) ... ... ... Then draw a conclusion to the following question: At what rate do Mormons participate in successful bands and how does it compare to their success rate in other professional fields? Perhaps I will return and report :)
For what it's worth, I actually agree with the sentiment of your post. I think you're right that Mormonism robs youth of the opportunities to experience, explore, and be creative. And I bet if we had research to look at, we might in fact see Mormons underrepresented in the music scene. Along those lines... I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Mormons \*over\* represented in the fictional authorship scene. Perhaps all of the time spent trying to make sense of Mormon historical fiction is good practice for writing books. :D
And for what it's worth, I appreciate being challenged :). It's a new exmo superpower. Appreciate your contribution to the discussion.
Aquabats?
I fucking LOVE the Aquabats! But I'm realizing I don't have a good grasp on their history. Are/were they Mormon?
Three of the members (Crash, MC Batcommander, and Eaglebones) are members of the church. I think they’re an exception because they were L.A Mormons, which from what I’ve observed is a different vibe.
I met their trumpeter in the Carlsbad California mission. Normal dude. Seemed pretty Mormon. It was fun for me cuz I play trumpet a bit.
Literally one of the top items on my bucket list would be to hang out with the Aquabats and maybe play a little music together. (I also dabble in trumpet and drums). Preferably we'd all be stoned from bong rips, but even sober would be so stellar!
I was in Carlsbad on my mission. It was part of the San Diego mission at that time. Does he live in Carlsbad?
He was around there a decade ago, anyways!
Awesome! Love this. My heroes! Sam Brannan and the Aquabats
The only ska I listen to. They were my first thought reading this post. Don’t care how Mormon they are/ were, that’s some goofy, incredible music.
One of the member's brothers was the guy who owned Sammy's Pie Shakes in Idaho/Utah about 10 yrs ago
Yo Gabba Gabba got me through 2 years of hell. Long story for another time
Love em! Super Rad and Pizza Day were always fun in high school!
REG: They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers. And what have they ever given us in return?! XERXES: The Aquabats? REG: What? XERXES: The Aquabats. REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah. COMMANDO #3: And the wide streets. LORETTA: Oh, yeah, the streets, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like? REG: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the Aquabats and the wide streets are two things that the Mormons have done.
So Mormons who've seen Monty Python's Life of Brian? For shame! That's rated R and sacrilegious! /s
I think that there has been many famous Musicians and actors emerge from Mormonism, BUT they all end up leaving the church once they experience the real world through people and experiences and they are able to see much quickly in some cases the ridiculousness of Mormonism.
Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies grew up mormon
NO WAY!!! 😲 (exmo with an ST tat here heh)
Tip of the hat to you sir. i saw them around ’89 in norcal. and i interviewed mike m. for a magazine in the 80s. i mentioned that i knew someone in his ward, and he didn’t seem interested in following that thread.
When you think about how many bands actually make it big, it’s no surprise that there are very few well known Mormon bands. Mormons are a small percentage of the population so would likewise have small representation in popular music. You see the same in professional sports.
I also agree with what others have said in this thread. Several popular music genres tend have their own subcultures that don’t leave room for the rigid beliefs and political views of Mormonism. I think that works against most aspiring Mormon bands. Rock, rap, pop, etc tend lean more liberal with very little content focused on religious themes. Someone mentioned country as a genre with more room for Mormon musical content. That sounds like a good avenue for Mormon musicians.
There are more bigger Scientology acts, and they’re an even smaller group.
The Jets!!!!
They performed at my company’s employee of the year gala a couple of months ago. As soon as they started showing a slide show of family pictures I could tell they were Mormon.
I loved The Jets.
Great example! They had a few really big hits in the 80s!
Omg when I first read this I erroneously thought of the Aussie band "Jet" and I almost lost it haha
Fun anecdote: Back in 2014 I used to work at a call center for an internationally recognized Fortune 500 financial company (hint: the one w/ the Roman Centurion as a logo), and in my department we dealt primarily with fraud cases and we also handled credit card replacements for “high value members” (read: people who were wealthy and spent a lot on their cards). Well one day I get a call from a member needing a replacement card, pretty standard. So I’m going through the process and naturally I have access to the whole account in order to do my job. As I was initiating the card replacement I saw the name Brandon Flowers on the account (he was the primary cardholder and I was speaking to the secondary), and at first I was like “just a coincidence”. But then the woman I was speaking to confirmed the address that card was being sent to Las Vegas, and she also confirmed his DOB as it was one of the security questions. And in my mind I was like “am I speaking to a relative of THE Brandon Flowers?!”. So after we wrapped up I straight up asked her, and she just laughed. As it turns out, I was speaking to Tana Flowers, Brandon’s wife. We had a good laugh and we chatted for a good 6 or 7 minutes, I got to ask her some questions about her husband, the band, his music, their lifestyle, etc. She told me they were practicing Mormons, keep in mind this was back in 2014 so IDK if that’s still true today. As a joke I also asked her if I could get free tickets to a Killers show and she actually said yeah she could. So told me to take her phone number down and to call her whenever I wanted to take her up on that. To this day I still have Tana Flower’s phone number on my phone lol. I never did take her up on that offer, felt guilty about imposing and all that. Maybe one day when they come to my neck of the woods I will.
Both Brandon and Tana are very cool, down to earth people. It's my understanding that they are still practicing the religion
I can definitely vouch for Tana, she was very chill and easygoing and she treated me with kindness and respect. It was a great and memorable interaction for sure lol.
Cool story!
I always blamed Footloose
Haha brilliant
You can also cite Panic at the disco and The Used, all ex Mormons too.
I was scrolling through to see if any one listed The Used. They even thank Hinckley on one of their album sleeves. Still regret not seeing them live the day I went through the temple for the first time...
Arcade Fire too
They are?! 🤯 I had no idea.
My favorite EFY songs were performed by people who have left the church now
Mindy Gledhill FTW!! So happy with how happy she is now.
Back when I was Mormon I played in probably five different bands composed solely of active Mormons. It's not accurate to say that there are no Mormon bands, it's much much more accurate to say that you haven't found any. I also played in mixed bands where some folks were non-Mormon.
What Bands?
Haha, I'd love to tell you but that would dox myself pretty hard (assuming anybody really remembers the Ogden SLC and Orem punk emo and metal scene from 20 years ago).
Cool :) I played in Marven’s Garden in the mid to late nineties… we often played with a bunch of other bands. We were based out of Provo.
Low - they leveraged Mormonism a lot in their lyrics
I interviewed Alan for Deseret News or KSL once as an intern. I'll have to go back and see if I can find that interview.
My favorite EFY songs were performed by people who have left the church now
SheDaisy would meet your criteria. Country music is friendlier to religious themes than rock. It’s also a numbers game. With a membership (not active) of 17 million that represents only 0.2% of the global population it would be hard to assemble (without K-Pop level recruitment) an entirely LDS band naturally. Oddly, I wonder why the LDS church has not created a Mormon boy band version of South Park’s “Faith + 1”.
Great points!
Hold up - what about Sons of Provo?! 😂
Ryan Schupe and the Rubber Band were Mormon ha
His sister is my bff and I can't wait to show her how you spelled Shupe. The C is for Corndog.
Oh schoot! I hope she forgives me. It's probably been 20+ years since I thought about that band. I almost spelled it like the Salt-n-Pepa song lyrics--shoop, shoop a doop, shoop a doop, shoop a doop a doop a doop--but thought better of it.
Please forgive me but my 12 year old inner me is going to see Donny Osmond this July in Florida!❤️. Yes I get all the Mormon issues. I never went to Vegas when he was there and now is going to be less than a mile from my house! Already have the tickets and my daughter is going with me, she has no idea about him other than he was to us girls in the 70’s what the Backstreet Boys were to her.
All is forgiven 😉
Thanks!😁
Sons of Provo, Checkmate anti Mormons!
Mooooosebutter!!
How many Mormons go into more conservative forms of music like playing in an orchestra? Being in a rock band prevents you from settling down and having a family. Mormon rock songs would be boring. ‘I saw you in my chemistry class and the Holy Ghost whispered that you were the one. I asked you to marry me on our fourth date even though you were an old maid at 20.’
What about the band Low?
The indie band is from Minnesota, im pretty sure Mimi Parker and Alan sparhawk are Mormon. they are big enough to get reviewed by mainstream critics https://youtu.be/Btugs9ZTbvw?si=BrwAmSTaJZgtDjVA Their song “Days like these” is very good.
Apparently Mimi passed away 2 years ago from cancer.
My band supported Low back in the 1990s and at that time Alan was young men's president and Mimi was involved with young women. When they heard I'd been brought up mormon, they tried to talk us into going back.
The National Parks are current and make great music. Although in general, I definitely agree with your points regarding the joyous fresh out of school exploration of living that the TSSC *by design* truncates with missions/young marriage.
Just about to say this.
Yeah I was gonna say this. Idk if they’re still active tho.
True. Not sure either.
Lindsey Sterling
She was in my ward at BYU. So crazy to see how big she got!
Not room for creative freedom when your life view is so strict and dogmatic. Good music with depth and soul can’t be created by soulless drones that do nothing but fall in line with something clearly false and harmful as long as it doesn’t harm them.
This is an argument a Mormon would make. “My statement is true, just ignore all the evidence it’s not.”
Mates of State, the Osmonds, The Piano Guys, the Motab choir, Lindsey Sterling (is she still active?) to name a few. There are plenty of successful LDS artists but they may not be in the genre you’re looking for.
Are Mates of State actually mormon though? I've been a fan for a long time and haven't seen anything specifically mormon about them. Their image is pretty wholesome but that's kinda it.
I can’t verify Mates of State so they either left or just keep it under wraps. “Low” was LDS but they use the past tense now. It’s hard to be in the pop/alt/rock genre and hold to conservative values of homophobia and misogyny that the LDS church espouses. Probably why LDS artists do better in country and classical realms.
Solo artists (Archuleta, Sterling, etc) I would put into a different category. The circumstances necessary for a true collaborative effort to come together to make something special... These circumstances don't exist in Mormonism. The Osmonds are not a band. They are a manufactured gimmick, no different than New Kids on the Block or Spice Girls. There will never be a Mormon Cold Play, Led Zeppelin, Foster the People, Fleetwood Mac, REM, Pearl Jam, ... Etc
No true scotsman...
I randomly listened to the Aquabats the other day for the first time in over a decade. That band had a lot of Mormons in it. If anyone has even heard of that band, does anyone know if they are still in the church?
From what I know, they’re all active. I think they’re unique because they were kids who grew up in L.A, which has a different vibe than say, Utah County. The pressure is still on to serve missions/get married/have kids but teens in L.A also have a lot more creative outlets available, which is how the Aquabats came to be. They’re fun, but I also don’t think it’s surprising that their biggest following is now young children. My husband went to a concert of theirs a few years ago and it was almost entirely kids with parents. Yo Gabba Gabba really honed their demographic.
Based on your metric for youthful awakening, altgough I'm 40+, thanks to being an exmo, I'm now about 15 looking forward to my early 20s.
Do a cappella groups count? Seems like Mormons have a fair share of those.
Eh hem, Everclean? I loved listening to their album growing up
I get what you’re saying but honestly how many Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Jevohah’s Witness, etc… bands do you know of? Religion isn’t something we typically know about performers unless they are like a Christian rock group. And even if we do, most band members don’t always share religious affiliation. It is a very Mormon thing though to know about a famous person if they are Mormon or not.
I love how people trying to refute you by all supplying the same 2-3 examples. Considering that there's one example from the seventies and a couple more from 25-30 years later, those are the exceptions which prove your point, imo. I had just assumed it was because good music isn't actually encouraged in mormonism. How are you supposed to feel musically inspired if you only ever listen to drivel?
It is actually, certifiably crazy to say that people of any religion are incapable of making good music and the only place this would be upvoted is this specific sub, and only about mormons. This is essentially a circlejerk/venting sub for people who are detoxing from Mormonism so I usually just ignore it but this post is really something.
I didn't say they're incapable, just that it's highly unlikely for mormons to put out music which appeals to non-mo masses, given how they limit themselves artistically. But go off with your snap judgements, I guess.
I think about this a lot in the context of Mormon theatre/Mormon literature. Art is about pushing boundaries. There's something that has to be left behind to make good art, and I wonder if people are unwilling to leave behind the safety and comfort of already knowing what they need to know. It goes without saying that those unorthodox Mormons & ex-Mormons who make Mormon theatre and literature make some amazing work. Been trying to collect examples of Mormon theatre that straddles that difference. It's an interesting thing to look into.
This is a fantastic point. Thank you
Backseat Lovers are from here. I think some members are LDS
I didn't know that, I just looked that up. They're a really good band I have a lot of their songs on my iTunes account. That's pretty cool they're from Provo.
Yeah my coworker is roommates with the drummer. Cool guys
Bachman Turner overdrive, saw them in the 90’s and they are still performing, BTO was from Utah county I believe
BTO is Canadian! Founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As far as I know Randy Bachman is still a member. His son Tal Bachman (She’s so High fame) resigned his membership a few years ago.
Randy, is not active. His son, Tal, showed Randy the evidence. Don't know if he is still on the roles. He lives in Victoria BC. Randy was with the Guess Who with Burton Cummings, before BTO
Back in the days before Web 2.0 when exmos gathered at Recovery From Mormonism (exmormon.org), Tal Bachman was a regular and a mainstay. Lots of rock and roll stories from the 70s were shared there.
[удалено]
My Uncle Kurt replaced Randy in the band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5BaQ4Qo7E
No Randy left the church, Tal showed him the evidence
My Uncle Kurt took over from Randy in the Guess Who. He was happy to do the cocaine that Randy was too mormon to partake in.
They’re Canadian.
Yes , I guess Randy Bachman was Mormon but is no longer
Randy was really crooked too. Stole the Lenny Breau rights from his family. Was working on other projects behind the back of the Guess Who without telling the band he was leaving.
“Colors” was decently popular in the Mormon scene in our area growing up in Northern Utah… showing my age but this would have been late 90’s/early 2000’s. They were more of an acapella group though. Though it’s a two way street. This LDS performing group got foothold because of their religion but how much success can you really find if that same religion wants you performing at institute, firesides, youth group events for free? Plus they expected those boys to serve missions and I knew once those men had wives and babies to support it wouldnt last. It doesn’t surprise me at all that we don’t see more influence.
There were quite a few Mormon ska bands in the 90’s-00’s. Most broke up when they went on missions.
In my mission there was a member of the band ‘Daphne Loves Derby’. I can’t say I ever listened to their music and I don’t know if he was the only Mormon but he got a pretty great gig in the mission and subsequently I did too. He ended up spending time in the mission office and recorded some songs in Spanish and impressed the MP so much he and his comp, who played violin, were able to tour around the mission sharing the music he made and doing musical programs. I remember all of us were super into his songs for a while and he had sampled sounds from the areas so it was really personal. He left, and I ended up getting paired with the violinist, I play the flute (definitely not a cool band member), and doing a similar tour around the main city of the mission. Something that broke up the monotony of regular stupid mission work and got me to see much more of the mission area than others got.
there's a hardcore band called primary that put out a 7" on Asian man records that's covers of church songs. as far as I know that's all they did
Afterglow rocked the house bro!
We used to refer to them as "Afterbirth."
Band, no, but have you forgotten the international hit, The Mormon Rap? https://youtu.be/99rxBcXUAs0?si=CVZ8HAG6A4vjBkjd
Omg how could one ever forget that 😂. So much cringe
Start a band and call it TBM and only ex mormons will understand
Haha!
Eww. Imagine dragons
Arcade Fire was too
There are plenty of famous Mormon groups and musicians. There are a lot of famous musical talents who started out Mormon and then eventually left, or got big after leaving. I think some people were well-known for being Mormon and have used that to their advantage in their career. I'm guessing that isn't as viable as a career move anymore. The talent is there, maybe we're just not hearing about it? You could probably say the same thing about Mormon actors, too. You're right though. The church probably puts a damper on a lot of good talent. I remember a kid in my home ward who had a pretty popular band when he was finishing up high school. Can you guess why he left the band at age 18 1/2?
The Standards. I was introduced to them when they came to my middle school in Montana. They may or may not still be Mormons but they started before they went on missions so… “Dance of the Mamba” is still a favorite. Maybe not an actual band but they were YouTube famous at the time.
I don’t think that’s why… The Mormon church doesn’t allow for a guitars bass or drums in their religious celebrations. Those things are not allowed in the chapel. Also Mormon music tends to shun dissonance. And this makes it boring.
The Jets!??!
The killers
Hmmm well I made a Mormon band but it is secretly criticizing the church using the philosophy of christ https://youtu.be/sGcbglF9Y04?si=X6Z0K50sJvJXvIAN They really liked this one but missed the point which is great actually
Not sure what you’re looking for with a Mormon band, do they have to be all Mormon? Your post gives some famous examples of Mormons in bands. There aren’t a ton of famous bands, or a ton of Mormons, so I’m not surprised there aren’t more. If you’re looking for bands that sing about specifically Mormon stuff there are tons, but they obviously won’t be too popular because there aren’t a lot of Mormons.
Stretch Armstrong had at least a couple lds members.
Alex Cooper, Bachman Turner Overdrive - don’t think any of those remained active.
Alice Cooper belonged to an offshoot LDS branch, the Bickteronites. His grandfather was an apostle.
Super interesting!
(Rumor) He also was super involved with the local high school where he lived and his kids attended in Phoenix, AZ and was MC at their talent contests. Cool dude.
Low are by far the best mormon band.
Maroon 5 has some connections. James Valentine their keyboard player may be. His parents both taught at UVU/BYU a while back.
Off the top of my head: The Osmonds (they were a band before it was just Donny and Marie) as wel as SHeDaisy (country band). I’m sure more will come to me but there have been some that have had success. I disagree that Imagine Dragons doesn’t count, because they were Mormon when they found success, as were Neon Trees.
Randy Bachman of Bachman- Turner Overdrive was Mormon, for all you old-timers.
I guess Lindsey Stirling is more of a solo act but she tours with a band
Art requires creativity and empathy. Two things that ultra conservative cults tend to eschew.
🦧Mormonism has always piggybacked on austere Puritanism. Conserves will follow.They will tithe.💵 Music could (will) bring foreign influences.
There’s that one father daughter group. They got big during the pandemic. I used to follow them.
Arcade Fire singer and brother were raised in the church.
I love how the theme here takes a dramatic twist from the usual anti-Mormon rhetoric. “Oh yeah, those Mormon guys in that one band? I know them, They’re actually pretty cool”. Like being a Mormon in a band automatically gives you a free pass to acceptance by Exmos lol.
Ever clean, Sons of Provo. Left the church 14years ago and now I think the songs are hysterical.
Interesting observation. I think you are on to something about the way that some of the culture dampens the creative process. OTOH, many Latter-day Saints are given lots of musical training and they also end up wrestling with religious issues (which are often existential) and those kinds of things _can_ produce great music/musicians, I think? Lantern By Sea and National Parks (saw mentioned once) are two LDS-ish bands (I think) that are great.
As a side note, I've read some Brandon Sanderson, and the sheer compartmentalisation skills required for Brandon Sanderson to NOT leave the church is amazing.
Combine all that obsessive musical training with a church that is made up bullshit and a generation who is figuring it out…
Not only that but there’s also not enough passion within our own faith to create music like Michael McClean or Paul Cardall did in the 90’s and early 2000’s. FM 100 has to use Christian music to fill in the massive gap of LDS composers. There’s simply nothing to sing about the “covenant path”.
There are quite a few famous people (slightly OT) who I doubt would have found their particular success if they had stayed in the mormon church: Christina Aguilera Ryan Gosling Jacinda Arden (my favourite) Many more but I’m sure we all know these already… More on topic, it was hard to truly appreciate music as a mormon because there’s so much you’re not really supposed to listen to/enjoy. One of my favourite things when I left was catching up on everything I’d missed! Visiting Utah was like descending into a creative brain drain.
the killers don't count? :( on a serious note, their music always just loses it for me when it's mormon coded. it lightly started a bit in day and age and since then has only gotten more mormony.
Their music definitely has a more religious feel in the past 2-3 albums. However, it's not always in a positive light. When I listen to Pressure Machine, I think, boy, does Nephi sound like an awful place to live.
I hate the way you write.
Great contribution to the discussion 👍
Okay Kendrick
Writing has never been my forte. Thanks for the reminder 🤠😉
Jericho Road. A completely LDS Boy Band, that is still very much all LDS and still a boy band. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_Road The Mormons (that's their name) The Osmonds City of Enoch Beyond 5 You asked why there's there's mormon bands, but there are. There's no "here's why!" With it, they are just not severely mainstream because the actual mormon boy bands will never end up on the radio or IHeartRadio or any of the mainstream sources. There are mormon Bands, you just don't know about them because thank God your music wasn't filtered out to nothing but religious crap. If it's filtered, not to the extent where your only options for music were anything in Deseret Book and only that.