Christian Music before 1994: Trash?
So the great John Mark Reynolds has a statement in his blog from Feb. 2 that I find interesting. You can find the post here. While I agree that Left Behind does suck as an idea and a book, I can't agree with his general views on Christian Music, i.e., it wasn't good until about 10 years ago. The thing is, some people were attempting to make good music with challenging lyrics before this, especially in the mid-80's. I could list off for you many artists that started out interesting (but not well-funded enough to compete with the production values of MTV) but then caved to Christian industry pressure and became as he says, "Prozac for the saved." By 1990 or so the situation was pretty bleak. Those who resisted the industry pressure and were talented enough became the first "crossover" artists. I think we can all agree that this was a bad situation.
I mean, did he forget about Keith Green and early 80's Petra and late 80's White Heart and Out of the Grey and Servant and Farrell and Farrell and Rich Mullins and A.D. and Twila Paris' Enya phase and Charlie Peacock and Margaret Becker's first album and Kim Hill before she went country and Adam Again and The Choir and...
It think there was a shift about 10 years ago, when alternative rock came into the Christian market. There was good music before this, just not very much of it. Petra and White Heart battled for supremacy so long, and then it was just over for them. It mirrored the secular shift of the early 90's. All of a sudden there were all these bands that kids were listening to (I know, my wife taught in a Lutheran High School throughout the late 90's, and their school got all these CDs for free) that sounded great. We were glad that these kids would not be forced to make the same choice as we had to -- sacred and subpar; or, secular and kickin'.
The main shift came when the Christian labels all literally sold out to bigger secular ones. They became divisions of the Big 5 record companies, which increased production values and quality but blurred the line between Christian and crossover, between P.O.D. and Creed. Now, this is probably a good thing, but I'm not going to debate that here. My point is that the selling out is what caused the quality to rise...but also caused the product to lose meaning. And isn't meaning why the Christian music industry exists...to provide meaning to people who don't have it? Like I said, on the whole it's probably a good change, but it certainly could have been disastrous (and was in some cases -- RAZE, anyone?).
On top of that, if you've listened to Christian music lately, you'll quickly see that "Prozac for the saved" is alive and well and being peddled by the Point of Graces and Avalons of the world daily.
The people who are into that still partake, it's just that there's more well-produced stuff coming out along with it.
The point of the post is that Left Behind would pave the way for less sucky authors to sell inoffensive literature to the masses under the Christian label. Apparently the people behind Left Behind are pushing other authors, and time will tell if any of them come from something other than a millitant dispensational-premillenialist background. Good literature in general is hard to find, so I am skeptical.
I mean, did he forget about Keith Green and early 80's Petra and late 80's White Heart and Out of the Grey and Servant and Farrell and Farrell and Rich Mullins and A.D. and Twila Paris' Enya phase and Charlie Peacock and Margaret Becker's first album and Kim Hill before she went country and Adam Again and The Choir and...
It think there was a shift about 10 years ago, when alternative rock came into the Christian market. There was good music before this, just not very much of it. Petra and White Heart battled for supremacy so long, and then it was just over for them. It mirrored the secular shift of the early 90's. All of a sudden there were all these bands that kids were listening to (I know, my wife taught in a Lutheran High School throughout the late 90's, and their school got all these CDs for free) that sounded great. We were glad that these kids would not be forced to make the same choice as we had to -- sacred and subpar; or, secular and kickin'.
The main shift came when the Christian labels all literally sold out to bigger secular ones. They became divisions of the Big 5 record companies, which increased production values and quality but blurred the line between Christian and crossover, between P.O.D. and Creed. Now, this is probably a good thing, but I'm not going to debate that here. My point is that the selling out is what caused the quality to rise...but also caused the product to lose meaning. And isn't meaning why the Christian music industry exists...to provide meaning to people who don't have it? Like I said, on the whole it's probably a good change, but it certainly could have been disastrous (and was in some cases -- RAZE, anyone?).
On top of that, if you've listened to Christian music lately, you'll quickly see that "Prozac for the saved" is alive and well and being peddled by the Point of Graces and Avalons of the world daily.
The people who are into that still partake, it's just that there's more well-produced stuff coming out along with it.
The point of the post is that Left Behind would pave the way for less sucky authors to sell inoffensive literature to the masses under the Christian label. Apparently the people behind Left Behind are pushing other authors, and time will tell if any of them come from something other than a millitant dispensational-premillenialist background. Good literature in general is hard to find, so I am skeptical.
posted by Mike Pape @ 5:57 AM
2 Comments:
At 12:12 PM,
pete said…
Mike,
First I would never watch the Sweet sixteen show (never mind that I actually don't get MTV) but I will always read your reviews. Is it possible for the show to be any more hilarious? (Maybe - I'm dreaming of a MST 3000 take in which the outline of a yappy dog is in the lower right spouting all of your commentary. If you pitch this to the network, I want 6% of your cut.)
On to the Christian music. I would treasure your opinion on the "worship" trend in Christian music. Now you aren't a Christian musician if you don't have a worship CD out. And what is with the worship songs? How about sumething fresh, they sound as if they were written by self-centered Americans who only expereince victory upon victory and never really suffer. How about some reality, life-sucks (lamentations is what the Bible calls 'em)songs.
One final question, do you actually read these comments or am I just whistling dixie with a bird in the bush?
At 1:10 PM,
Mike Pape said…
Pete,
Hey, I get the comments e-mailed to me, and I read them and try to respond right away. I'll think about that worship thing and get back to you, because it's one of those things I honestly haven't thought much about. I've always felt that worship music, no matter how bent toward a particular part of the Bible, is preferable to some of these artists actually trying to write their own words. This makes me an elitist scum, I realize. I'll have to think about this, like I said. You have given me food for thought. I do like the Waterdeep songs though, for the reason you mentioned. They get more gritty than some of the others.
I watch Sweet Sixteen in part because it's one of those shows where Jill and I exchange the look of disbelief with each other at least once every 5 minutes. You know, the "Can you believe that just happened?" look. MTV needs to give whoever is responsible for picking the subjects on this show a big raise. As absurd as Ava and her family was, I think last night's group may have topped them.
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