Comments on: Defining Christian Music, pt. 3 – It’s a Loaded Term

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 01:33:38 +0000

Christian music has become a genre when what it ought to be is Christians making music. I understand that music cannot be saved, but I think the term Christian music is still valid and ought not to be dismissed. Besides if you abandon the term what else would you call it? What qualifies as Christian Music depends on who you ask. To some Christian music is church music, to others it’s CCM, still others it’s Tooth and Nail and Zao. So it becomes necessary to be more specific about which scene of Christian music you are talking about.

I think there are great musicians in all the different scenes and Christian music is continually getting better every year. However, I think Christian rock music started out of the Jesus Movement and when it began a lot of people were getting saved. I don’t know that there is that much of an emphasis on ministry any more. Keith Green gave his albums away on donation and opened his home to strangers. I can’t say for certain, but I suspect that most Christian musicians aren’t like that today. Sure most Christian musicians want to glorify God, but they are making music so they can have a job. So when there is so much money involved the ministry aspect just sort of takes a backseat.

By: waltzingaustralia

waltzingaustralia — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:31:43 +0000

Well, what you say is true — and as noted by jaybrams, the “lame” idea is well founded in a past era of simply awful music (not long past, but during the transition period when Christian groups tried to appeal to “the younger generation,” rather than the organic growth of music out of that generation).

But the world demands labels, and even if we ditch the labels, others will still use them. And labels are useful — we need to know which section of the store to visit if we prefer worship tunes to death metal.

I don’t think it is any worse to call music Christian than to call a person Christian, because many Christians don’t reflect well on Christ — and of course the media go out of their way to make Christians look bad (you always know the crazed murderer will be the guy who had a Bible in the opening scene). So the label is problematic in both contexts.

I figure there are a couple of things we can do. Don’t deny Christ, but still come up with other labels for music with which you’re comfortable (God rock; heavy worship; whatever); and work to transform people’s perception of what “Christian” means.

By: jakestimp

jakestimp — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:28:23 +0000

LOL! Ryan, you crazy charismatic!

By: jessie

jessie — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:45:00 +0000

Hey, no tongues on here without an interpreter!!

By: Ryan Jones

Ryan Jones — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:16:16 +0000

ygygtyghfgy7hhkjhj

By: jakestimp

jakestimp — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:05:10 +0000

That’s a really good point. There’s just a lot of crap out there no matter where you go, Christian or otherwise.

By: Jaybrams

Jaybrams — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:59:39 +0000

#2 is one of the biggest things we hear…

we have a christian rock station in town. I’d say about half of the music is stuff i’d prefer never to hear again in my life, which is too much for me to listen to it on a regular basis…

then again, that is the exact same reason I don’t listen to any of our secular stations on a regular basis…

I’d say the amount of crap out there is equal across the board in every genre and every “label” and on every station.

but then again, there was a time where Christian rock didn’t even come close to having 50% “good” music so i understand the stereo type.