The Growth of the Inspirational Music Industry

Since the 1700s, the music industry has been experiencing tremendous growth. New music styles and genres have flourished. One of these genres is inspirational music.

Inspirational music is a type of pop music with lyrics that emphasise matters concerned with one's faith, encouragement, hope, improvement of life and happiness. While most inspirational songs follow the beat and rhythm of ballads, slow rock, gospel music, and love songs, there are also groups that follow punk, hip-hop, and rap genres.

Inspirational music started in the 70s when large corporations became involved in the religious music market. The genre then transformed into multi-million industry the next decade. The early 80s saw an increase of sales from 9% in 1976 to 23% in 1985. This is particularly due to the entry of the entry of popular artists like Amy Grant, Sandi Patti and Michael Smith who are truly making inspirational music their genre.

The 80s also saw the rise of harder forms of inspirational music, mostly stemming from heavy metal bands like Stryper, Resurrection Band and Bride. Although this type of music died in the 90s, it made a steady comeback in the 2000s with music from metal bands like Underoath, Metalcore and P.O.D.

During the 90s, inspirational music became the fastest growing genre of the entire music industry. From total revenues of 180 million dollars in 1981, it grew to an amazing 680 million dollars in 1991.

The new millennium has bought significant growth to the inspirational music genre, the result of focusing on and marketing to the youth. More and more teenagers and young adults began to listen to the genre as a way of coping up with new social challenges and changing lifestyle. With the introduction of new media forms, inspirational music will continue to rise to glory.