Sometimes, when Nicholas Greco listens to David Bowie or Leslie Feist, he hears the voice of God.
Instead of discordance between faith and popular music, the newly appointed chair of communications and media at Providence College says there's significant harmony.
"What they are creating shows part of God in them," says the recent McGill graduate who wrote a chapter about the Juno award-winning Feist in an upcoming book on Canadian popular music.
The Ottawa-born Greco, 34, is the first professor with an academic background in popular music at Providence, a Christian liberal arts college located in Otterburne, about half an hour south of Winnipeg.
For his doctoral thesis, the new St. Vital homeowner studied the relationship between the celebrity profile of British singer Morrissey and his fans.
The solo artist, formerly of the 1980s band The Smiths, is deliberately enigmatic and elusive about revealing his life to his fervent and loyal fan base, an attitude which Greco finds intriguing.
"How does a musician keep our interest in this commodity-based world? These little pieces (they reveal) lead to a broad picture of the artist, but we never get a full picture," says Greco, whose master's research focused on Bowie.
"If you're a fan, you want to know something about them. You want to know who they are."
That push-pull relationship continues to interest the Mickey Mouse watch-wearing first-time Prairie dweller, who will teach courses in basic communications, film and new media in fall and hopes to develop classes in popular music in the future.
"It (pop music) talks about very spiritual things," says Greco, a Pentecostal who also attends mass every weekend with his Catholic wife. "It talks about what we want in life. It's like getting to know God. We want to engage with God fully."
Appointing a professor with a pop music background broadens the scope of the four-year-old communications department, says academic vice-president Antoinette van Kuik.
"We're delighted to have someone with a popular music interest because we see pop music as something that is very influential and we're glad to offer students instruction in how they can engage with it in a thoughtful and meaningful way," explains the classical pianist and organist and former music instructor.
Greco says too often Canadians sing a common tune in how they relate to the world of pop music, and accept iPods and other forms of electronic communications in their lives, and plans to challenge his students to look for its counterpoint.
"I think one of the responsibilities of the Christian is that we're not robots, that we don't need to be influenced blindly by what's around us," he says.
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