There is a natural connection. Most people don’t sing much in their daily life. Churches produce singers.
Some churches are a capella and people learn to sing harmony rather naturally. A lot of churches these days have increasingly high quality music worship teams. What I notice is that while a few years ago young musicians would have looked outside the church are now willing and even anxious to ply their craft within the church.
The mega-churches kick that to another level. Someone who is leading worship three times a Sunday every Sunday is going to develop strong musical chops, and they do. And they are going to be very much at home on stage. For some of these churches, and some of the musicians serving in these churches, American Idol is almost a step down. And as time goes on and the “praise music” scene comes into its own, secular music increasingly starts to look like a step down.
IN season 7 ( David Cook and David Archuelta’s season ), the idols actually sang the popular church song -— SHOUT TO THE LORD — in one of their group performances.
Exactly right. I am part of an acapella Church of Christ congregation, and when I was a teen, we were sent off to "singing school" to learn how to read music, to sing and to lead singing. Sure, there are exceptions, but most of the people I go to church with sing pretty well, because we've been trained, and we do it for a half-hour (at least) twice a week. I love it!