Looking for Catholic music online

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I am looking for some links to some free downloads of Catholic music online, especially contemporary music. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I have a site and I want to provide some links to some music, and this is not my area that I am familar with, so I need help! Check out the site!

litteralchristianlibrary.wetpaint.com/
 
www.topcatholicsongs.com

This is the only site that I know of that truly tries to find Catholic MP3 downloads as befitting for a layman’s walk using the liturgical calendar. And it’s a fun site too.

Nick Alexander (who happens to be on the site).
 
I’ve got a number of links on my site, Sonitus Sanctus. Give a look-see and let me know if you need something in particular.

God Bless,
RyanL
 
After reading a few of the Top 10 lists on www.topcatholicsongs.com, I discovered an “amazing” new contemporary Catholic artist, Sean Clive, whose “Amazed” album is simply “amazing”. Ok, I’ll stop. Sean’s song “Amazed”, which was co-written and produced by David C. Smith of Icon Music Studio has won several awards: UCMVA 2007 Song of the Year and Album of the Year and for which David Smith won Producer of the Year
And of the TopCatholicSongs lists, Sean has made several tops, too (I hope I don’t miss any):
Song of the Year for “Amazed”
Top Lent song for “Between Here and There”
#5 on Top Ten Adoration Songs for “With You”

But, well, I couldn’t get enough of listening to his songs, which can be streamed for free from his website, www.SeanClive.com, so for only about $10, was able to download the entire album from iTunes and now am able to listen at home and in my car and at work (since they frown on streaming music at work). Sean also has a MySpace page myspace.com/seanclive and has put together a video for his song “Amazed”.

So, check out www.topcatholicsongs.com to discover other artists that are working hard to create music that can help fill up the other (check my math on this) 167 hours of your week. Ok, you’re supposed to sleep 8 hours a day, so that leaves 111 hours when you’re awake and could be listening to music that edifies your soul. And, with SO many artists and styles to choose from, it should never become painful --you know what I’m talking about. Find someone that you enjoy listening to and use their music to help build you up --especially during this time of Lent. That would be a great way to help you during this journey. And if you find someone you like, don’t be afraid to email the artist and let them know. Yes, I have found that the artists are truly interested in hearing that their gifts are a blessing to others. It takes alot to create these songs – time and money – and most will never recover their costs, but knowing that their music is being heard and is helping others is a great reward. Of course, if you can afford $10 to buy their albums, that would also be a welcomed reward!

Peace and happy hunting!
Gerard
 
Some suggestions:

Perotin
Leotin
Bach (Lutheran, but who can deny he brought glory to God?)
Vivaldi
Telemann
Mozart (esp. his final Requiem Mass)
 
:harp:
Litergical music aside, I’m looking for some Catholic comtemporary music- somthing upbeat. I’ve found a few artists but nothing like out Protestant friends…at least not on the radio.
Who is the Catholic equivelent of Michael W. Smith or the Newsboys?
 
Not to keep beating a dead horse, but you really ought to check out www.topcatholicsongs.com .

Sean Clive is a great person to check out. As is the artist at the top of the Adoration Songs list… Christopher D’Alfonso. Matt Maher is becoming a phenomenon, even in Protestant circles. And if you want something goofy (like Newsboys), Popple seems to fit the bill.

And, well, errr, uhhh, hmmm, there’s… (gulp)… me. The “Catholic Weird Al.” (I HATE self-promotion!). But, last I heard, I’m pretty good.

You can find a ton of stuff, liturgical or entertainment-oriented, at www.topcatholicsongs.com, and have the songs benefit your walk as you progress thru the liturgical calendar. That’s a REAL cool thing!!

Peace,
Nick Alexander
nickalexander.com
 
idrum677 said:
:harp:
Litergical music aside, I’m looking for some Catholic comtemporary music- somthing upbeat. I’ve found a few artists but nothing like out Protestant friends…at least not on the radio.
Who is the Catholic equivelent of Michael W. Smith or the Newsboys?
Click to expand...
Urgh, are you sure you want that kind of stuff? Michael W. Smith is just not good music, and the newsboys? 😊

The kind of non-sacred or non-classical Catholic music you are looking for is kind of rare because (practicing) Catholics in general think about music in a different way than Protestants.

I was raised non-denominational fundamentalist and when I was a kid I listened to Petra, Carman (how this guy is popular beats me, I even went to a concert), Michael W. Smith, Newsboys (“I don’t want your sex!”). Now, as a Catholic adult, I see that as inferior music because it really is. It’s like non-alcoholic beer, even the best is not as good as the real thing. I mean, Petra’s sound is not as good as Van Halen (the band they are trying to imitate) with lyrics that are lacking, from a poetical standpoint. Most of these so-called Christian Contemporary bands simply try to sound like a secular band, with “Jesus” substituted for “baby”.

Catholics, unlike fundamentalists, are allowed to listen to “secular music”. You just have to listen to music that is not offensive to your beliefs. Not all music that is secular has lyrics about killing, hate, sex and drugs. It’s also not necessary for music to be written by Christians in order to be able to listen to it. So, there is not really a “Catholic Contemporary” subgenere in existance.

Perhaps you’d be better off asking for secular bands that are not anti-Catholic or anti-Christian? Because if you want proper Catholic music, then it’s going to be liturgical chant- that is “Catholic music”.

Ps. Aside from Perotin and Leotin, those composers made plenty of secular works.
 
idrum677 said:
:harp:
Litergical music aside, I’m looking for some Catholic comtemporary music- somthing upbeat. I’ve found a few artists but nothing like out Protestant friends…at least not on the radio.
Who is the Catholic equivelent of Michael W. Smith or the Newsboys?
Click to expand...
It’s pretty hard to find it on broadcast radio, but I think you can find Catholic stations on satellite radio, and definitely on the internet. A couple more you can try are: catholicmusicexpress.com/
catholicjukebox.com/

I love anything by Angelina.
 
mschrank said:
Urgh, are you sure you want that kind of stuff? Michael W. Smith is just not good music, and the newsboys? 😊

The kind of non-sacred or non-classical Catholic music you are looking for is kind of rare because (practicing) Catholics in general think about music in a different way than Protestants.

Perhaps you’d be better off asking for secular bands that are not anti-Catholic or anti-Christian? Because if you want proper Catholic music, then it’s going to be liturgical chant- that is “Catholic music”.
Click to expand...
:twocents:
I don’t want to respond negatively your reply mscrank, however I take offense to your comments about my taste in music. I wasn’t asking for a commentary on the genre or taking a poll as to who likes that style. I simply asked for a few more Catholic equivelents. Don’t knock it. I have seen some miracles performed by utilizing contemporary christian music as a learning tool or in the context of a retreat… There are many songs out there that are in line with our faith and have a powerful message. Martian Doman is one such musician and he actually covers some Christain artists. 👍

By the way, I am a practicing Catholic and as my screen name implies, a trained musician.

🙂 thank you to all who gave me good examples.
 
mschrank, I’m a little offended as well.

We aren’t talking about liturgical music here. There are GOOD Catholic artists out there that right contemporary music. better than Michael W. Smith.

And they sing about Catholic things. Matt Maher song has the word “transubstantiation” in it.

Check out Matt Maher and Adam Bitter
 
Anyone know of sites that have songs in Spanish as well? I wish I could record the Spanish songs they sing at my Parish. Some of them are translations from English, but some I’ve only ever heard in Spanish.
 
www.crossway.org

Crossway

Crossway is a not-for-profit Christian ministry that publishes the ESV Bible and gospel-centered books.
www.crossway.org www.crossway.org

You’re a classically trained musician who asked for the Catholic equivalent of the newsboys, a pretty terrible Christian knockoff band for kids. Kaay. :confused:

If you can find authentically, really, actually good Catholic music, then cool, fine, but I still think that Contemporary Christian stuff I used to listen to was garbage, and I blame it partially for the reason I left the faith for many years.

Have you ever read the book “Addicted to Mediocrity” by Francis Schaffer (a protestant)? Basically protestant Christianity is marked by all kinds of mediocrity in the arts, but it gets by because the talent pool is smaller and a large swath of the fundie population won’t let anything in their house unless it’s “Christian”.

When I grew up a little, I discovered bands that had explicitly anti-Christian messages, but their music rocked in comparison to the lame CC music I had listened to when I was a kid. I basically decided that Christianity was lame and the devil had all the good tunes.

Never was the real splendor of Catholic Christianity showed to me, so I just thought the whole religion was lame just as (what I thought was) it’s arts and sciences. Instead I got “praying hands pressed out of some kind of muck” (Schaffer), the Newsboys and books telling me that the earth was 6000 years old.

Barf.

Oh yeah, and Bob Dylan is a Christian- there’s a suggestion.
 
You’re complaining about mediocrity based on Franky Schaeffer’s writings.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
 
Nick: It’s better to be silent and remain a fool, than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. I thought that using a protestant author to highlight the problems of protestant fundamentalist culture was fitting.

Ever heard of the term non sequitur?

Anyway, I apologise for the tone of my posts on this thread. I’m sorry for offending people, and really, I guess I did not contribute much to the OP’s question.
 
mschrank said:
Nick: It’s better to be silent and remain a fool, than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. I thought that using a protestant author to highlight the problems of protestant fundamentalist culture was fitting.

Ever heard of the term non sequitur?
Click to expand...
You’re not making any sense. CCM is not “Protestant Fundamentalist Culture”, as it encompasses many, many denominations and such. If you want to be truly authentically technical, most “Fundamentalist” churches actually disdain all music, CCM and Secular, in favor for music sans beat.

I’ll say this for Newsboys: this is a group that went from zero to hero in the course of ten years (and they’re still changing). When they first came on the scene, with lousy fare like “Hell is for Wimps” they were terrible–even they will admit it. But they brought on a great producer, legend CCM’r Steve Taylor, who helped revamp their lyrics, and they came out with many exceptional stuff: Not Ashamed, the single “Shine”, the entire “Take Me to Your Leader” album… I even like “Love Liberty Disco”, and I’m in the minority there. It’s not for nothing that Virgin tried to bring them into the secular arena with “Leader”… clearly the secular bigwigs didn’t see any artistic discrepancy there.

As for Frank Schaeffer… be sure to check out his imdb catalog. Four dreadful, DREADFUL movies… It’s one thing to complain about mediocrity, it’s another to write about mediocrity without really proving yourself as qualified to do so.
Anyway, I apologise for the tone of my posts on this thread. I’m sorry for offending people, and really, I guess I did not contribute much to the OP’s question.
Click to expand...
👍
 
My upbringing qualifies me as an authority on mediocre Christian music. I don’t need to prove myself to you, who are you, anyway?
 
mschrank said:
I used to listen to was garbage, and I blame it partially for the reason I left the faith for many years.

Oh yeah, and Bob Dylan is a Christian- there’s a suggestion.
Click to expand...
I music were a reason to leave the faith, then I would have packed my bags a long time ago. I’ve heard some pretty horrid church “musicians” who couldn’t sing their way out of a paper bag not to mention the curent overused liturgical music (ie: Mass of Creation)
I tend to base me faith on spiritual and not the musical.
:eek:
…Bob Dylan as an alternative to CCM? Are you kidding me?
 
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