About
Joshua Kalin Busman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Music and Assistant Dean of the Esther G. Maynor Honors College. A native of Knoxville, TN, he comes to North Carolina from just over the Great Smoky Mountains. In 2009, he graduated summa cum laude from Middle Tennessee State University with a B.M. in Music Theory and Composition. In 2011, he completed an M.A. in Musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a thesis focusing on sixteenth-century French Calvinist psalm-singing In May 2015, he received his Ph.D. in Musicology from UNC-Chapel Hill with a dissertation titled “(Re)Sounding Passion: Listening to American Evangelical Worship Music (1997-Present).” His research focuses broadly on contemporary evangelical Christianity with particular focuses on worship, affect, and mass-media. Over the past several years, Joshua has been invited to present his research at a host of regional, national, and international conferences and has published original research in journals such as Religions, Liturgy, Ethnomusicology Review, the Journal of the Society for American Music, The Avid Listener, and The Other Journal, as well as in multiple edited collections from Routledge Press, Rowman & Littlefield, Bloomsbury Academic, and the National Collegiate Honors Council. He is a past president of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Southeast and Caribbean Chapter as well as the SEM Religion, Music, and Sound study group. Currently, he serves as co-chair for the Music and Religion Unit in the American Academy of Religion and as a member of the Executive Board of the North Carolina Honors Association. In addition to his academic work, Joshua also serves as “Music Nerd-in-Residence” for the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, connecting classical music to the broader public through his writing and speaking. He is also an active composer throughout the Cape Fear region with recent performances by the UNCP Percussion Ensemble, Sweet Tea Shakespeare, and as part of the Cape Fear New Music Festival at Methodist University. When he isn’t reading, writing, or researching, Joshua likes to play guitar and hang out with his wife, two sons, and their dog at home in Fayetteville, NC. Education
2015 — Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dissertation: “(Re)Sounding Passion: Listening to American Evangelical Worship Music (1997–2015),” Mark Katz, advisor
2011 — Master of Arts in Musicology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Thesis: “For God and His Angels or Men at Their Tables?: The Context and Usage of Psalm–Singing in Francophone Calvinism, 1539–1565,” John Nádas, advisor
2009 — Bachelor of Music in Music Theory and Composition, summa cum laude, Middle Tennessee State University Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
- “‘A Fun and Funky Disco Pastiche’: David Crowder Confronts Evangelical Performance Anxiety.” Religions (2023) Vol. 14, No. 4, https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040548.
- “From Hipster to Hillbilly: Death, Bluegrass, and Gospel According to David Crowder.” Journal of the Society for American Music (2019), Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 338-358.
Co-authored Publications
- With Kelly Barber-Lester, Camille Goins, Scott Hicks, Elizabeth Jones, and Jennifer Jones-Locklear. “Indigenous Cultures and Communities in Higher Education Teaching and Learning.” Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education (under review).
- With co-author Debbie Wong. “‘Church is the New Radio’: Worship and the WOW Series (1996-2019).” Liturgy (2023). https://doi.org/10.1080/0458063X.2023.2259764
- With Teagan Decker and Michele Fazio. “Honors Colleges as Levers of Educational Equity.” In Honors Colleges in the 21st Century, Richard Badenhausen, ed. (forthcoming, National Collegiate Honors Council).
Chapters in Edited Collections
- “Amateurism-without-Amateurishness, or Authenticity as Vanishing Act in Evangelical Worship Music.” In Ethics and Christian Musicking, Mark Porter and Nathan Myrick, eds. (New York, NY: Routledge Press, 2021).
- “‘Grow a Beard and Be Somebody’: Disavowal and Vector Space at Rocketown, Nashville.” In Christian Punk: Identity and Performance, Ibrahim Abraham, ed. (New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).
- “‘Songs Are Sermons that People Actually Remember’: Homo Liturgicus and Hymnody in the 268 Generation,” In Exploring Christian Song, M. Jennifer Bloxam and Andrew Shenton, eds. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017).
- “‘Yet to Come’ or ‘Still to Be Done’?: Evangelical Worship and the Power of Prophetic Songs,” In Singing a New Song: Christian Congregational Music Making and Community in a Mediated Age, Tom Wagner and Anna Nekola, eds. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2015).
Chapters in Reference Works
- “Contemporary Christian Worship Music Industry.” In The Oxford Handbook of Music and Christian Theology, Volume Three, Steve Guthrie and Bennett Zon, eds. (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2025).
- “Worshipping ‘With Everything’: Musical Analysis and Congregational Worship.” In Studying Congregational Music: Key Issues, Methods, and Theoretical Perspectives, Monique Ingalls, Jeffers Englehardt, and Andrew Mall, eds. (New York, NY: Routledge Press, 2021).
Selected Online Academic Writing
“‘God’s Great Dance Floor,’ Or Why You Don’t Need Ecstasy to Have an Ecstatic Good Time,” Sounding Board from Ethnomusicology Review, 14 July 2014, <
http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/gods–great–dance–floor>.
Repeat contributor to The Avid Listener, hosted by W.W. Norton Publishing.
Repeat contributor to The Other Journal, hosted by Seattle School of Theology & Psychology
Upcoming Talks and Conferences
- “Spotify Thy Name: Algorithms, Interpassivity, and Worship in the Celestial Jukebox,” American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX, November 2023
- Keynote: “Spotify Thy Name; or, Worshipping in the Age of Playlists,” Southern Graduate Music Research Symposium, Athens, GA, October 2023
- Keynote: “Spotify Thy Name; or, Worshipping in the Age of Playlists,” South Central Graduate Music Conference, Chapel Hill, NC, September 2023
- “From Interaction to Interpassion: Worship Music in/as Interpassivity,” Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK, August 2023
- “Celestial Jukebox: Algorithms, Interpassivity, and Worship in the Age of Playlists,” Yale ISM Liturgy Conference, New Haven, CT, June 2023
- “Old Toys, Bent Circuits, and True Worship: David Crowder Pulls the Safety Valve on Evangelical Performance Anxiety,” Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, Durham, NC, March 2022
- “Indigenous Cultures and Communities in Higher Education Teaching and Learning,” Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, Blacksburg, VA, February 2023
- “The Sound of Worship™: The Social Becomes Sonic Becomes Interpassive in the Genrefication of Worship,” Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, Macon, GA, March 2022
- “Spotify Thy Name: Worship and Affect in the Age of Playlists,” Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK*, July 2021 (*converted to virtual meeting due to COVID-19)
- “‘Grow a beard and be somebody’: Disavowal and Vector Space at Rocketown, Nashville,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music – US Branch, Ann Arbor, MI*, May 2021 (*converted to virtual meeting due to COVID-19)
- “‘Why Is There A Worship Team Instead Of Just A Stereo?’: Evangelical Worship as Vanishing Act,” Society for Ethnomusicology, Ottawa, ON*, October 2020 (*converted to virtual meeting due to COVID-19)
- “‘I Don’t Think That They Could Ever Hold A Candle To Passion’: Megachurch Acoustemology and Networks of Local Worship,” Worship and the Megachurch Conference, Birmingham, UK*, October 2020 (*converted to virtual meeting due to COVID-19)
- “‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent’: A Theological Salvo from a Vulgar Materialist,” Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK, July 2019
- “What Makes Christian Music Pop?: Genre Formation and Christian Worship in the Marketplace,” Society for Ethnomusicology, Albuquerque, NM, November 2018
- “Ecclesiology + Ethnography: Conundrums, Two Disciplines, Two Worlds?,” Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference, Winnipeg, MB, June 2018
- “Amateurism, Amateurishness, and Authenticity in Evangelical Worship Music,” Ecclesiology and Ethnography Conference, Winnipeg, MB, June 2018
- “Bands, Brands, and Bodies: Corporate Worshipping at the Passion Conference,” American Academy of Religion, Boston, MA, November 2017
- “Corporate Worship, Group Singing, and Mass Mediation at the Passion Conference,” EMP Pop Conference, Seattle, WA, April 2016
- “‘You Are the Lord, the Famous One’: Worship and Fandom in the 268 Generation,” Southeast and Caribbean Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, San Fernando, Trinidad, March 2016
- “Learning to Worship: Professional Sounds from Amateur Musicians,” Society for Ethnomusicology, Austin, TX, December 2015
- “‘Worship isn’t something you do, it’s something that happens to you’: Agency, Performance, and Musical Skill in Evangelical Worship Music,” Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK, August 2015
- “‘You Are the Lord, the Famous One’: Worship and Fandom in the 268 Generation,” Religion and Fandom Conference, Leicester, UK, July 2015
- “‘Worship isn’t something you do, it’s something that happens to you’: Agency, Performance, and Musical Skill in Evangelical Pop Music,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music – US Branch, Louisville, KY, February 2015
- “From Hipster to Hillbilly: Death, Bluegrass, and Gospel According to David Crowder,” Society for American Music, Lancaster, PA, March 2014
- “‘God’s Great Dance Floor,’ Or Why You Don’t Need Ecstasy to Have an Ecstatic Good Time,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music – US Branch, Chapel Hill, NC, March 2014
- “Worship As ‘Corporate’ Sound: Group Singing and Mass Mediation at Passion 2013,” Society for Ethnomusicology, Indianapolis, IN, November 2013
- “Worshipping ‘With Everything’: Musical Piety Beyond Language in Contemporary Evangelicalism,” Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives, Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, UK, August 2013
- “Worship Under Erasure: David Crowder*Band and the Problem of Evangelical Performance,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music – US Branch, Austin, TX, March 2013
- “‘Oh My God, I’m Coming Home’: Bluegrass Hipsters, Authenticity, and Gospel According to David Crowder,” Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, CT, February 2013
- “‘Greater Things are Yet to Come’: Evangelical Worship Music and Prophetic Imagination,” Society for Ethnomusicology/American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory, New Orleans, LA, November 2012
- “‘He may get some better, but he’ll never get well no more’: Locating the Disabled Body of the Rediscovered Skip James,” Society for American Music, Charlotte, NC, March 2012
- “Towards an Affective Didacticism: Homo Liturgicus and Hymnody in the 268 Generation,” Forum on Music and Christian Scholarship, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, February 2012
Memberships
Society for Ethnomusicology, American Academy of Religion, Society for American Music, International Association for the Study of Popular Music
