Above us only sky: spirituality in popular music challenges predictions that we are trapped in an age of disenchantment

John Lennon’s Imagine may have been the biggest-selling single of his solo career, but its message of a desire for a world without religion has not entirely been realised, argues musicologist Dr Matthew Williams from the School of Arts and Creative Technologies.

In this YorkTalk he explores how musicians around the world deploy religious themes, styles and sounds in their compositions, how contemporary artists such as Stormzy, Coldplay, Nick Cave and Beyoncé fuse spirituality into their music, and how gigs and streaming services have become new sites for spiritual experience.

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