Hillsong Music collectively refers to the Christian music produced by the Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia as well as offshoot churches, Hillsong London and Hillsong Ukraine .

History

Hillsong Church's pre-eminence in Christian praise and worship music stems from the inauguration of the Hillsong Conference in the late 1980s and the first publication of choruses written by Hills CLC members. 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 and Instrumental series. They have also released a Christmas album, a children's album and several compilation albums.

Worship leaders

Worship pastor Darlene Zschech is perhaps the most well-known worship leader from Hillsong. Other worship leaders include Geoff Bullock, Reuben Morgan , Marty Sampson and Miriam Webster .

Popularity

The 13th live worship album released by Hillsong, For All You've Done, released in July 2004, actually debuted at #1 on the Australian album chart. It contains 15 songs recorded live at the Sydney Entertainment Centre by Darlene Zschech and the Hillsong Team. This is the first time an album of Contemporary Christian music has topped the album charts in Australia.

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 Record Industry Association ARIA has defended the outcome noting that the album sold more copies than any other record on sale in Australia that week. Pop singer and former Australian Idol contestant Paulini Curuenavuli was also at the conference promoting her #2 hit single "Angel Eyes" from her album One Determined Heart.

The previous 12 albums have been certified gold in Australia and have also sold well in Christian contemporary markets overseas. The previous two albums also debuted in the top five of the ARIA charts due to the capacity of the church to ensure good first week sales.

Formats

Early albums were released solely on cassette and CD. Later, video recordings were also made for VHS and on DVD since 2000. Several music books have also been published.

Albums

Live Praise & Worship albums

1. The Power of Your Love (1992)
2. Stone's Been Rolled Away (1993)
3. People Just Like Us (1994)
4. Friends in High Places (1995)
5. God is in the House (1996)
6. All Things are Possible (1997)
7. Touching Heaven Changing Earth (1998)
8. By Your Side (1999)
9. For this Cause (2000)
10. You are My World (2001)
11. Blessed (2002)
12. Hope (2003)
13. For All You've Done (2004)

Worship series

1. Simply Worship
2. Simply Worship 2
3. Simply Worship 3
4. Overwhelmed
5. Amazing Love
6. Faithful

United Live series

2. United Live: Best Friend
3. United: King of Majesty
4. United: To the Ends of the Earth
5. United: More Than Life

Youth Alive series

1. Jump to the Jam
2. Chosen One
3. The Plan
4. One
5. Awake

Instrumental series

1. The Secret Place
2. Forever

Other albums from Hillsong Music

1. Christmas (Christmas album)
2. Jesus is My Superhero (First Hillsong album for children)
3. Shout God's Fame (First album from Hillsong London)
4. (Recorded with Delirious?)

Compilation albums

1. Extravagant Worship: The Songs of Darlene Zschech
2. Extravagant Worship: The Songs of Reuben Morgan
3. The Platinum Collection Volume 1 (previously released as Millennium: The Story So Far)
4. The Platinum Collection Volume 2

Albums from other record labels

1. Shout to the Lord
2. Shout to the Lord 2000