Hillsong Church's popularity in Christian praise and worship music stems from the inauguration of the Hillsong Conference in 1986[2] and the first publication of choruses written by Hills CLC members, especially Darlene Zschech.[3] It is in this context that Hillsong Music was founded in 1991.[4] Their first live worship CD The Power of Your Love was released in 1992. Since then, live praise and worship albums have been produced each year. Other music series include the Worship series, United, Youth Alive, Hillsong Kids and Instrumental series. They have also released two Christmas albums and several compilation albums.[5] "What a Beautiful Name" won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.[6]
Popularity
Some Hillsong songs have distinct gospel influences. Hillsong Music titles regularly feature in the top 25 of most songs sung in all reporting countries recorded through the CCLI website. Christian Copyright Licensing International allows churches to use any listed music through a flat fee based on congregational size rather than buying access to individual songs, making recent music more affordable to churches all over the world.
People Just Like Us was the first Christian album to achieve gold status in Australia as well as the first to go Platinum.[7] To date, all Hillsong live worship albums have achieved Gold status in Australia. In 1996, Hillsong Music reached international prominence with the release of Shout to the Lord produced by Integrity Music. This was Integrity Music's first live worship album featuring a female worship leader – Darlene Zschech.[8]
The 2004 Hillsong live worship album For All You've Done, debuted at No. 1 on the Australian Record Industry Association album charts. There was some controversy about this outcome as almost all of the albums were sold at Hillsong's annual conference held in early July. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has defended the outcome noting that the album sold more copies than any other record on sale in Australia that week.
As of December 2011, Hillsong has sold more than 12 million records across the globe, following its first release in 1991[9]
and a quarter of all contemporary songs heard in Australian churches in 2011 were written by Hillsong.[10]
Albums
Early albums were released solely on cassette and CD. Video recordings of the live albums have also been made for VHS since the second album in 1993, and additionally for DVD since 2000, with increasing additional content such as documentaries and extra songs. The Hillsong United series CDs have included an additional free part-length DVD since 2004. Several music books have also been published. Including all the series (LIVE, UNITED, Kids, Kids Junior, Chapel, Young & Free, Español, Youth Term, Youth Alive, Worship, Compilation, Instrumental, Christmas, Preview, KIEV, LONDON) and other special releases (Like The 1st Album, Or Other special recordings) they have more than 125 albums, in 15 series.[citation needed]
Hillsong Worship (formerly known as Hillsong Live)
^ Monique Ingalls, Carolyn Landau, Tom Wagner, Christian Congregational Music: Performance, Identity and Experience, Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames, 2016, p. 138