The Oceans Phenomenon

If you were in a contemporary church in the mid-2010s (and possibly even if you were in a different sort of church), you probably heard the song Oceans by Hillsong. Probably many, many times. It spent a record number of weeks at the top of the Christian music charts, and kept that record going until 2019 (where it was broken by Lauren Daigle’s You Say, another song that you may know quite well even if you don’t go to church, with how much it was played on various radio stations). But why was it so popular? Why did it strike a chord with so many people, for so long? Why do I still recognise that song immediately, after strumming the opening chords today?

I mean, part of the answer to this is reach. Hillsong is a megachurch with 80 locations, and about 150,000 members worldwide, 43,000 in Australia. That’s regular attenders, though, so how many are at a church on a given weekend is probably a bit higher. When you have that sort of reach and global brand behind you, not to mention the history of the church (which was founded nearly forty years ago), it gives what you do a bit more weight. And Hillsong does music.

Now, those numbers might seem small to you, compared to numbers for things like the Anglican Church (over a hundred million) or the Catholic Church (over a billion) - but keep in mind, those have been around for much much longer (hundreds of years), and are also much larger denominations comprised of smaller sub-denominations, each with different churches. This is one church, with multiple locations. It could probably count as it’s own denomination? I’m not sure if they would think of themselves as part of a larger denomination or not (beyond Protestant), but yeah, this is a different scale we’re talking about here. And though its power these days may be fading (for various reasons, but notably in part because of the founder’s unethical conduct with a couple of women), ten years ago it was very much still in its prime. And this song is a representation of that. 

Perhaps the larger part of it, though, and what I want to focus on, is what this song is about. Because there’s a lot in here. There are themes of the unknown, failure and trouble, vulnerability and trust, rest and care.

When you've grown up with Christian worship songs, you start to notice some familiar themes. There's the "our God is the best" songs; the "thanks Jesus for dying" songs; and the "God makes us so strong" songs. There are some outliers, of course, but if you look at most of the well-known worship songs in mainstream churches, they generally fit into one or more of these three. (Perhaps with a side-theme of "we're such terrible sinners, but you saved us", typically in that second category.) The feel should either be triumphant and strong, or leave you feeling broken and weak, possibly both. (Again, yes, I am making sweeping generalisations.)

This song did something rather different, though. It didn't really fall into any of those categories that well. It was a song for people that felt scared, tired, broken, unsure, hurt; it left you feeling warm and cared for, amongst the chaos that life so often is. And the imagery that the song used was both powerful and relatable, particularly when you probably knew that story of Peter and Jesus walking on water; you could imagine yourself on that ocean, seeing the waves rising above you, and it felt like all the things that you were facing in life. But the song encouraged you to step out on to the water, to trust, to go deeper, to have faith; to rest in God's embrace. The words used are both exciting and reassuring, scary and affirming. And it was personal - written and sung from the first-person, me, I, this is what I'm going through and this what I'm feeling and this is what I'm going to do.

I think particularly when it feels like many churches can fall too easily into performative faith, and acting like things are okay, and aren't we all so holy and perfect - this song felt like a breath of fresh air to many people. It moved people in deep and powerful ways, connected to them on a level that maybe they didn't even understand. Music can reach people in ways that I think we still only guess at; and this song obviously did that, with how popular it was, and how long it lasted.

Of course, that doesn't mean there's not issues with the song, and there are probably people that would hate to hear it now, because of how much it got played before! Popularity can be a curse. But that's not the point of this post; the point was to look at and try and understand why this song became what it did. Hopefully, we've unlocked a little of that here.