Why is “Christian” Music so Awful?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JustaServant
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I enjoy some Christian music. I find it very soothing to listen to. It can’t be too overdone though. I prefer when it’s a little more subtle in its delivery, i.e. Mumford and Sons, Jars of Clay, Matt Maher, Switchfoot.
I’ve always believed God enjoys his children making any “joyful noise.” My friends and I love to get together and take a break from studying by singing praise songs. We do all sorts of music like CCM, VBS songs from when we were little (complete with dance moves), old hymns. Not bad for a bunch of heathens at a Jesuit university ;).
 
Irish_Eyes_826 said:
I enjoy some Christian music. I find it very soothing to listen to. It can’t be too overdone though. I prefer when it’s a little more subtle in its delivery, i.e. Mumford and Sons, Jars of Clay, Matt Maher, Switchfoot.
I’ve always believed God enjoys his children making any “joyful noise.” My friends and I love to get together and take a break from studying by singing praise songs. We do all sorts of music like CCM, VBS songs from when we were little (complete with dance moves), old hymns. Not bad for a bunch of heathens at a Jesuit university ;).
Click to expand...
Switchfoot is really good. 👍
 
I can sympathize, but I’ve found a few exceptions. J.J. Heller is pretty good; she’s more Christian-folk than Christian-rock or pop though. Audrey Assad, a Catholic musician, also writes some pretty sophisticated, top-tier pop, though I’d call it more adult-contemporary than pop. Also, for any Catholic “indie kids” out there, there’s a group called Ester Drang who aren’t too shabby. Chris Rice has some nice stuff, as well.
Also, I’ve gotta give props to Casting Crowns. I don’t like all their stuff, but they’ve penned a few classics. Ditto for Phillips, Craig & Dean.

Honestly, I find contemporary Christian music suffers the same problem as every other genre: radio. To find the good stuff, you’ve gotta really dig. There’s very little in the way of music in general that I find which I like without doing some serious homework.

A couple of my favorite recent finds are Joy Williams (her “One of Those Days” EP is excellent; her more secular side-project, The Civil Wars, is worth checking out, too), and Bethany Dillon.
 
dzheremi said:
As Antiochian priest Fr. Andrew Damick puts it in his “Orthodoxy and Heresy” lectures, the world’s rock’n’roll is just better. It’s just better music, because it’s not trying to be something it’s not. I think that says it quite well. This “Contemporary Christian Music” (whether its pop or rock or whatever) tries to use the forms of the world and at the same time be not of the world. It doesn’t work that way. In the case of Christian music, it results in music that is a weak imitation of worldly music.
Click to expand...
👍
 
dzheremi said:
As Antiochian priest Fr. Andrew Damick puts it in his “Orthodoxy and Heresy” lectures, the world’s rock’n’roll is just better. It’s just better music, because it’s not trying to be something it’s not. I think that says it quite well. This “Contemporary Christian Music” (whether its pop or rock or whatever) tries to use the forms of the world and at the same time be not of the world. It doesn’t work that way. In the case of Christian music, it results in music that is a weak imitation of worldly music.
Click to expand...
I don’t think this is necessarily true. Most of it has nothing to do with using the forms of the world. The problem with most of it is that it is subpar by purely musical and lyrical standards. The dearth of poetic talent in the CCM genre is glaring; where are the Gerard Manley Hopkinses of today?

Most of the lyrics are so saccharine, it’s nauseating. However, it’s perfectly possible to communicate a strong Christian message without making an embarrassing high school love poem out of it. As for the music, it is overproduced and incredibly formulaic. It does not even attempt creativity. I think the real problem is that the CCM industry is pretty much operating under the same principle as its secular counterpart: disposable product, maximum profit.

Even the most successful musical acts in the secular world are minimally talented. It’s all about marketing and image. How many Christian artists look like they spent 12 hours preparing for their album photo shoot? The answer: entirely too many.
 
I’ve asked myself the same thing as I’ve been trying to listen to “Joy FM” in the mornings on the way to work. There are some good songs, but it’s really hard for me to say I truly enjoy the music for the most part. I think there are a couple of reasons:
  1. There isn’t that much diversity in what gets played, although I agree with the previous comment that CCM is a mile wide and an inch deep. I wouldn’t mind so much the Mercy Me, Casting Crowns and whoever the newest Christian pop diva is if they would only toss in an occasional Project 86 and some Everydaylife (whose “disgruntled” is just an excellent album in its own right). There are how many Christian labels, and how many genres from gospel to country to pop to alternative rock to rap to metal, but the CCM stations I’ve listened tend to be somewhere in Top 40 land.
2a) Evangelical Christianity has mastered a modern tool that Catholic Christianity is still struggling with - mass media. Go to the bookstore and for every Ignatius press tome on theology there’s 20 Zondervan’s on everything from apologetics to history to conversion stories. Consequently there’s considerable breadth but not necessarily quality. The faith of evangelical Christian - especially newer converts - is garnered as much through books, music and videos as it is in their churches. Catholic spirituality, on the other hand, is far more centered upon traditional prayer and parish-based programs. An illustration - my wife’s aunt (whose family were rebaptized late last year) handed out “Left Behind” books and videos at Easter. When Catholics evangelize about our faith, how often do we hand out “Jesus of Nazareth” by Benedict XVI or “Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic” by David Currie?

2b) Adding to that is this odd “need” I’ve observed in new converts to replace “secular” things in their lives with something that’s culturally Christian. In college I watched my friends who “became Christian” (I put it in quotes because most of them knew Christ prior to saying the Sinner’s Prayer) sell their “secular” CDs to Hastings, buy a ton of Christian CDs, and then two or three years later go back to Hastings and start buying back their secular music. For a while, Tooth+Nail records tried to sell their CDs with catalog labels “file this band under Spastic Goof Core like Primus!” So that only adds to the effect of such a mediated experience among evangelicals.

I should caveat because it’s not clear here - I don’t see anything bad with surrounding yourself with your faith - if you listen to music, read books, and watch TV that is focused on Christ and the teachings of the Church you’ll be a better Christian for it whether you’re Catholic or evangelical or otherwise. I’m only noting that there’s a heavy consumption component within evangelical culture - the presence of the media and of the buyers feed
each other so that demand for Christian media is high, leading us to:

2c) Questionable quality. What is produced en masse to gain market share may not be produced in quality. Evangelical Christians are anxious to buy religious books - whether devotional, non-fiction or novel - and music and movies, and the production of these media is a gold mine. So Christian bands of mediochre talent make it, just as really awful novels are published under nominally-Christian themes. I’m still amazed that “The Shack” is considered Christian fiction where it’s much closer to New Age.

Also bear in mind that CCM really jumped in volume in an age when do-it-yourself publishing and production is easier to do. Catholic works are ponderous and come from few sources. CCM is everywhere - how many labels and how many bands and how many distributors?
  1. While we’re on the topic of Christian Culture, I’m going to tread carefully here. Certainly we see the reflection of modern rock-style megachurch worship music echoed in CCM. Which came first? I don’t feel qualified to answer, but half of what I hear on Joy FM is meant to be played by a worship band in front of 10,000 churchgoers with the lyrics put up on PowerPoint. Most of the other half would be sappy 90s lovesongs if we substituted “Baby” for “Jesus”. Okay, that’s unfair, but you still see a very strong tie to the personal relationship with Christ that is the cornerstone of evangelical spirituality in CCM. That’s not bad - it’s good to love Jesus and tell Him so. The Catholic focus in song writing is most often on theology and praise which are far richer thematically than a love song for Christ. There are only so many ways you can sing about how much you love Jesus before it sounds the same, but approaching awe, wonder, respect,fear, redemption, salvation, joy, and struggle are deeper topics to explore lyrically.
  2. Lastly, CCM is so bad because it gets compared unfairly with traditional worship music. I love powerful liturgical music like “Canticle of the Turning”, “We are One Body”, “Only in God”, etc., but I’m not going to listen to them at work. Nor would I want to try to sing along to anything by Everydaylife at Mass (nor can our cantor do the Cookie Monster death-metal growl of “One’s Own Self”). But CCM is meant for wider consumption and so doesn’t go as deep. It’s not satisfying in the way of affirming and reminding of your spiritual formation, but more a “merely Christian” approach to lyrics that’s broadly acceptable. It’s it’s own animal, so it’s more fair to compare CCM with whatever The Point is playing but understand that CCM stations play a narrower genre than Top 40 stations do.
 
losh14 said:
2a) Evangelical Christianity has mastered a modern tool that Catholic Christianity is still struggling with - mass media. Go to the bookstore and for every Ignatius press tome on theology there’s 20 Zondervan’s on everything from apologetics to history to conversion stories. Consequently there’s considerable breadth but not necessarily quality. The faith of evangelical Christian - especially newer converts - is garnered as much through books, music and videos as it is in their churches. Catholic spirituality, on the other hand, is far more centered upon traditional prayer and parish-based programs. An illustration - my wife’s aunt (whose family were rebaptized late last year) handed out “Left Behind” books and videos at Easter. When Catholics evangelize about our faith, how often do we hand out “Jesus of Nazareth” by Benedict XVI or “Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic” by David Currie?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, no matter how many books Zondervan puts out, none of them will ever be worth reading. So maybe it’s a good thing that Catholics haven’t mastered mass media yet!

Jesus of Nazareth, amazing book.
 
I never got into “praise music,” which a friend of mine had quite a bit of for a time.

To me, it’s a bad fit. How can I explain…?

Ummm, I read a question somewhere which asked if it was true that beginner’s prayers were more pleasing to God because the person praying found it harder to do? And the answer was that altho God loves beginners’ prayers, the prayers most pleasing are those of experienced prayers. The answer continued by an analogy to violin music: while someone who loves the beginner might be very happy with their playing, the violin music most pleasing to others is that of an experienced violinist.

Praise music just seems adolescent, like a lot of rock or pop music. It isn’t sophisticated or developed, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to pull off. How long does it take to write those lyrics, and why do so many of them sound like what I used to write during my high school classes ;)?

I do think there is room for good pop-ish music for religiouse people, and that is songs about the lives of religious people. Secular rock/pop is about people’s lives, they’re in love, they’re in lust, they’re sad because someone broke up with them…

What about songs where the people struggle to keep away from sin: I’m in love, but I want to wait til we’re married…

I heard a song by a singer named, iirc, Marie Ballet, about a hero in her life, and it was so great; I loved it. It was good music, well-sung, and it was about the man who gets up early to go to a boring job to provide for his family… *real life stuff *for people who are trying to *please God. *

“Praise music” should be limited to the best of the best, truly uplifting rather than merely emotion-producing. But I think there is room for music for Christians about real life which is good for everyday listening, and which will inspire and teach people.
 
Well room or not its certainly here and in all kinds of forms from rap to rock.

Apparently its drawing many in. So who is to discern what is “anointed” and what isn’t? 🤷
 
Armor_of_Light said:
Especially Motley Crue…sorry. Not metal.

I know why CCM or ‘Christian rock’ is so terrible. Because Jesus DID NOT ROCK.
It is silly to try and describe the Lords beauty and mystery with something so pedestrian.
Click to expand...
Its called Hair Metal. Lots of different metal out there.
If there had been rock in Jesus’ day, I bet he would have been there to spread his word.
 
CRUE_CAB said:
Its called Hair Metal. Lots of different metal out there.
If there had been rock in Jesus’ day, I bet he would have been there to spread his word.
Click to expand...
“If”… Lenny Bruce once said if Jesus died in 1960 everyone today would be wearing miniture Electric Chairs and not a Crucifix. 😉
 
Aww how could you guys not love this?

😛
I can tolerate a lot of that music, being part of Charismatic group our meetings and prayer services are full of Hillsong, Casting Crowns etc, they’re fun to sing to some extent.

But outside of the group I rather get into a prayerful mood by listening to this.
 
CRUE_CAB said:
Its called Hair Metal. Lots of different metal out there.
If there had been rock in Jesus’ day, I bet he would have been there to spread his word.
Click to expand...
Oh…I know. I was just teasing a little. I saw them back in 85 and they were pretty good then. No Iron Maiden, but pretty good!
 
IggyAntiochus said:
Unfortunately, no matter how many books Zondervan puts out, none of them will ever be worth reading. So maybe it’s a good thing that Catholics haven’t mastered mass media yet!

Jesus of Nazareth, amazing book.
Click to expand...
“Family Bookstores” as they are called now are a first of all, misnamed, secondly, utterly useless. Even as an evangelical I found very little in thier ‘bookstore’.
And for me, of all people, to be bored in a bookstore is pretty bad.
Most of thier merchadise is music (wanna guess what kind?;)), novelties or trinkets.
Their books are contemporary evangelical authors, or worse books by TV evangelists like TD Jakes or John Hagee. I suspect many of those are ghostwriten.
Oh they have a have Catholic section, waaaaaaay in the back consisting of one shelf. :cool:
I find most good stuff in dusty used bookstores.
 
I’m not an insider, but I seem to recall that the major CCM record labels are merely subsidiaries of the major secular record labels. So the producers are often looking for the same sorts of sounds they are used to selling on the major markets, but they have a MUCH smaller talent pool to draw from. No surprise, then, that much of the CCM radio sounds like a community college talent show. Seem them that way, and they are a lot easier to enjoy.

My beef with songs on stations like KLOVE, etc is the blatantly wrong theology you can find yourself singing along to if you don’t watch it.

All that said, I’ve been way too broke for way too long to buy music, but I used to find examples of REALLY good CCM singer / songwriters. Guys like Michael Card, (the late) Rich Mullins, Wayne Watson really wrote lyrics worth listening to AND that you’d enjoy while driving.

In the end though, I’d rather have mediocre quality music while I’m wrenching on the car with a good (if shallow) message than the horrific dreck of lyrical content that is in most secular music these days. It’s really NOT a good thing to let your head be filled up with that stuff when you aren’t even paying attention. As with all fallen humans, you get good with the bad, but it’s best to enoy it when you can keep your mental filters up. Choose what you allow to influence you wisely. If you find your self humming offensive lyrics to yourself without knowing how they got stuck in your head, it’s time to turn the station! 😉
 
Let me begin by saying I love music. All kinds. Rap, rock, country, RnB, Pop, Dixieland Jazz, Big Band, Classical, all of it. I’m the guy who will show you his Vanilla Ice CD next to his Eminem CD next to his Metallica CD next to his Garth Brooks CD. That being said, I absolutely HATE Christian music, and it’s not for lack of trying. While in seminary, there were guys who would only listen to that kind of music while I was in my room listening to Linkin Park and 311. Christian Rap is really just as laughable as Christian Rock.

Motley Crue was brought up, and it’s just hard to think of any Christian rocker having as much conviction singing about something faith based as Vince Neil sang about strippers in “Girls, Girls, Girls” and while that might sound weird, everyone who knows anything about music knows Vince Neil LOVES strippers. Why is it so hard for someone who loves God to sing with that much passion about Him? Most Christian rock to me seemed fake and forced with no emotion behind it. And the other stuff just seems to be too metaphorical, like “The Flood” by Jars of Clay. If your average, never been to church 15 year old heard that song, they’d not know it was supposed to be spiritual in nature.

HOWEVER, I have found a fairly cool website recently that has some really good Catholic rap. Phatmass.com has some cool rap with decent lyrics and good beats, and they let you listen to about 10 different cd’s for free. As far as Christian rock goes, though, I haven’t found anything that would be comparable for my tastes.
 
I’m going to have to go with Hank Hill on this one: “Christian Rock doesn’t make Christianity any better, it just makes Rock and Roll worse”.
 
I have my alarm clock set to a Christian station called The Fish. Not that I like that type of music, necessarily, but it is much better than having to listen to an irritatingly vulgar “mainstream” station or a random Spanish talk show, which is what many of the stations I get consist of. That being said, there are some pretty bad songs (one’s main phrase is “Jesus saves!” (can’t you get a little more creative than that?!)). However, there was a very good and meaningful song I heard yesterday: Blessings by Laura Story.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top