Mormon music

Music has had a long history in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from the days in Kirtland, Nauvoo, and the settlement of the West, to the present day. In the early days of the Church, stripped-down Latter-Day Saint folk music, which could be sung without accompaniment due to the lack of instruments in Utah, was popular. In the 19th century, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was created and began touring, while musicians began writing devotional and praise music with a Latter-Day Saint influence, paralleling the success of Christian Contemporary Music. Several organizations have existed and do exist to promote these artists, such as Deseret Book and the now-defunct Faith-centered Music Association. Starting in the late 20th century and to the present day, Latter-Day Saints have been increasingly involved in modern popular music in America and elsewhere in the World.

Mormon folk music constituted some of the earliest European-American music in the boundaries of modern Utah. These songs, simple and easy to remember, were usually sung without accompaniment because of the scarcity of musical instruments in territorial Utah. Although they often employed the same tunes as folk music elsewhere, Mormon folk music is distinctively Utahn. The songs often include unique pioneer-era Latter-Day Saint culture references to crossing the plains, LDS ecclesiastical leaders, and LDS religious convictions. Hymns and other folk music were used to lift the spirits of all the saints along their treacherous journey known as the Mormon Trail. They are still used as praises or prayers to their Heavenly Father as well as a way to welcome comfort, peace and guidance from the Holy Ghost whom they try to keep as a constant companion.

Since 1847, the Latter-day Saint influence in Utah music is manifest in the state's most famous musical institution: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Named after the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 300-member choir is world-famous. The LDS Church supports the choir both for prestige and as a proselytizing tool for spreading familiarity of the church but also to provide music at their biannual general conference. The choir performs at least weekly at the Tabernacle for a radio program called "Music and the Spoken Word" which is the longest-running national radio program in the US. The choir has released numerous albums since it first recorded in 1910.

Beginning in the 1960s, gospel music gained some success, and Latter-Day Saints played an integral role in the development of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) into the 1970s. The Latter-Day Saint concept album The Plan, by The Osmonds, was arguably the first explicitly Latter-Day Saint music recording to break into mainstream popularity in the rock era, with two tracks from the album reaching the U.S. top 40. Since then, Michael McLean from Heber, Utah and Kenneth Cope in Salt Lake City have become relatively popular among mostly-older Latter-day Saints for their religiously charged easy listening music. Music for LDS worship services is generally traditional with minimal accompaniment with piano or organ, so these musicians perform in venues other than in LDS worship services. In the 2010 and 2011, respectively, Jenny Oaks Baker and Hillary Weeks became popular contemporary Latter-Day Saint-themed inspirational recording artists.