Just what is it?  It’s a new category being born right before our eyes.  Now look a little closer.  Inspirational Music.  I think you’ll be surprised at just how wide the umbrella is.

For decades we’ve understood the Inspirational Book category.  Look on the NY Times Bestseller list on any given week – non-fiction – and you’ll find all sorts of Inspirational books.  Self-help.  How-to.  Stories that inspire the mind and enlighten the soul.

Christian Music was about the best-defined inspirational category for music lovers until Inspirational Music evolved and emerged.  But Christian Music is somewhat limiting for some people – possibly 2/3s of our world, in fact.  Taking nothing from this growing category – it is in fact encompassed in Inspirational Music, being one of its genres.

But Inspirational Music is possibly the fastest growing category in the music business today – not the biggest, mind you, but presently evolving at a rapid rate in an industry that seems mired in a fog.

When Watchfire Music was born just five and a half short years ago I remember Googling the words “Inspirational Music” and coming up with just about 4-5 pages of posts or references on the subject.  At approximately 10 posts per Google page that adds up to 40 to 50 Google references to music that was deemed by the human race to be ‘Inspirational’.

15 seconds ago I checked and Google came up with “about 11,500,000 results”.

Now if that’s not growth, then what is?  Here is the establishing of a category, but just how is this category defined?

Well, first of all, it seems to be all encompassing.  It’s trans-denominational.  Its purpose is to bring peoples together under the umbrella of Inspiration, peoples of all different religions and cultures.  But it’s also much more than just religious.

I like to say that if I wake up in the morning and feel good and then write a song about it, then that’s an Inspirational song.  A love song is an Inspirational song.  An issue song about racism, politics, war, the environment, etc. is an Inspirational song.  A piece of music with or without lyrics that makes you stop and listen, brightens your day, makes you pause in consideration of some aspect of life, or just makes you want to smile and dance a little – now that’s Inspirational.  A wider umbrella.

To inspire means, by the Greek derivative, “to breathe life into”.  Well, that’s just what we are trying to do at Watchfire Music, one of the leaders of this category.  We’re trying to breathe life into you.  We’re trying to breathe life into a confused and regrouping record business.  We’re trying to be a part of a coming together in the world, not a separationist philosophy.

After all, we all breathe the same air.  Religions, unfortunately, tend to be a bit exclusive – often afraid of one another’s differences.  Inspirational music’s attitude towards exclusivity is, “Let’s drop it and realize that what separates us all is probably mostly language and semantics”.  If you really look at the basic principles of what we all believe, as found in the Bible, the Koran, the writings of Buddha and Confucius, Moses and even Eckhart Tolle today, you’ll see that there’s agreement on the basic principles of life throughout.

“Truth is truth” we like to say.  It’s how we all get to it that often differs.

There is another new and emerging category of peoples that we’ve been watching grow.  It too is a rapidly growing category in this information age.  It’s called, “Spiritual But Not Religious” and it has grown now to be 20 % of the United States.  Essentially, these are people who might go to church or might not.  They are people who might also watch Wayne Dyer on TV or buy books by Stephen Covey, or Dale Carnegie, or Dr. Norman Vincent Peale or Dan Millman, or Louise Hay or M. Scott Peck, Richard Bach, or Deepak Chopra.

These are people, seekers, who think for themselves and are open to any world thought that might better their lives.  These are the people that will ultimately become the foundation of Inspirational Music.

As we at Watchfire Music look for more artists and composers to represent, it’s surprising how many we find who are like-minded, who want to reach the entire world, including the Christian nation, but not exclude the other 2/3s of the world.

And why not go this route?  Looking back through history, war, probably the human race’s biggest people waster, money waster, time waster and life waster is nearly always started by philosophical and often religious so-called differences.  Can Inspirational Music bring these people together?  It already does.  We see it every day.

Is Inspirational music the savior of our world?  Well, them’s pretty big words, but then again music is a pretty powerful language and means of communication that transcends religions, cultures and differences much easier than human words.  It certainly is, can and will be a major part in the transformation of the human race into more spiritual beings.

That’s why we’re deeply into it.  That is our ultimate focus as a company and should be as a category.  We should be constantly aware of our charge and challenge, by definition, to “breathe life into the world” – new life, love, intelligence, peace, prosperity, charity – Inspiration.