Is it music that is baptized? Is there an industry that is saved by Grace. Is it cheezed up pastels on the wall of great art.
Or is Bach's b minor mass Christian music. What if music is just music and sometimes the artist's music leans toward a direct praise to their Creator. If this is criteria then personally think that J.R. Cash and J.S. Bach were and still are the greatest CCM artists to ever shake the sinning world with their art.
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It's just one of those things that 'is.' Like hair on your back. You know it must be there for a reason. You could even come up with those reasons if you tried. You figure it served an important purpose somewhere along the line. But, today, as you look in the mirror, you have to wonder, "What the nut?!?"
Seriously, I like to think that it is music with God at its center. That's intentionally broad. I hope it is a good thing, and know it can be. There are some 'Christian musicians' who I believe have viable and active ministries. But in the grand scheme, I prefer to think of 'Christian music' as the descendant of the psalms, chants, cantadas, and hymns. It is part of a great tradition. Not all of it will survive, (thank God), but the stuff that does will serve a holy purpose.
I think we would agree that some Christian musicians have good music, good ministry, and are a vital part of the church today. (After all, we met on SHLOG...) He's clearly not alone in being an exception to the bland A/C pop 'Christian' genre.
I assume your question was more about said genre though... in which case, I refer you to the back hair comment...
I guess i should rephrase the question. To "what is the Christian music Industry?" And no he is not the exception. although i think he feels the angst between artistry and industry. It is a double whammy in the CCM industry. Not only do you have to deal with a label telling you to sound more pop, but a label telling you not to use certain words in your song. At least on "regular" radio they just bleep out the F word or shit. Except after 10 i think you can say those words.
Anyway, this blog may have sounded short and bitter but it was after i had just visited a local Christian bookstore, a place that i usually avoid at all costs. I have discussed this at lengths with God and He has decided that I just stay away from the stores until He can fix my attitude. I agreed. besides you never know when that back hair will come in handy, and hey, someone would miss it if it were gone... well....
I understand. I would say that an album is certainly not always the way to judge the product, or art, that an artist puts out. And it is hard to hold artists responsible for the industry and the radio industry through which they must work. Do I find a lot of the CCM industry distatsteful? Absolutely. Is most of the product that is put out tripe? Again, absolutely. But the same is true of 'secular', (though I hate that term), music. Their industry is distasteful and their product is tripe. We expect the Christian industry to be different because it is Christian, but we often forget that most labels are only branches of larger commercial labels.
As for Shaun being an exception, I don't know the guy personally, but I see that he is invested in his local church, is leading in music and teaching there, and is unafraid to be self-critical. His music, by and large, is more melodically and harmoncally complex than most of his peers and he clearly tries to develop themes in his lyrics. So is he an exeption from being part of the industry? No, but I would say that he is an exception from the cranked out shlock that we have come to expect.
So is the answer to the CCM problem to operate completely outside their bounds? Perhaps. Some artists are having success with that. But many others are realizing that it is hard to get an audience when you won't be given a voice. I don't think there's one magical approach to the problem. Hopefully it is one that will be faced on many sides by many people.
(I'm not one for the bookstores either.)
Let me just correct one thing that I said about Shaun, you asked if I thought if he was the ONLY exception. I didnt make that clear in my answer. Yes, i think he is part of the writers that i would call the exception to crappy Christian music. I was just saying that he is not the only exception. Absolutely right about the whole heart in the right place with him. I dont know him very well personally, but I do know some of his family pretty well and they all seem to think he is pretty dang great, and they are his inlaws.
I have recently re-evaluated my whole Christianity. I grew up protestant, and still am for now. I am thinking lately that Christianity should be one of those things that should not be off in its own separate thing. I dont think thats what Paul means by being in the world but not of it. Sometimes the world shouldn't see us coming. I become someones friend and love them, love my wife, have a peace and Joy in my heart that is a mystery to them, and it will surface. They will ask, or, it will come up because it is such a part of you. Same with music. There is this great story about Johnny Cash. He was doing a radio special and he wanted to sing amazing Grace, the broadcasters said, "Sorry, too Christian," to which he replied that he was a Christian and that is a part of who he is and if they didn't like it then they didnt have to broadcast it, but he was GOING to sing it." They ended up broadcasting it.
The industry, has created this weird thing that encourages groups to sound like other groups because they know that there is this other group of people out there who are only listening to Christian radio, so they will never catch on that these people are pretty... well, you know. So i think that the Industry is experiencing some growing pains. The cream is rising to the top, slowly but surely, but the cream are resorting to ditching the labels.
God creates artist, not Christian music authors and writers. So one should boldly go into the secular market, bars right along side the church, (thats where Jesus would be hangin) and express the most God-like quality in each of us, our abilty to create. I see a whole bunch of people trying to be like other "secular" (i hate that word as well) artists adding a Christian slant on it, instead of being who God has created them to be.
Here i go again, bitchin' sorry.
Actually, I'm reading Cash, Johnny Cash's autobiography, right now. I hadn't heard about the radio thing, but he does talk about his TV show. Here's a quote from the book. I love this:
"The most significant instance (of combining religion and secular celebrity) was when I made a public profession of faith on my network TV show. It wasn't something I was driven to do by an urge to convert anybody or spread the word of the Lord; I did it because people kept asking me where I stood, in interviews and letters to the netwrk, and I thought I ought to make it clear that yes, I was a Christian. I sang those gospel songs on the show not just because I like them as music (which I surely did) and definitely not because I wanted to appear holier than thou, but because they were part of me. Yes, in short, I meant the words I was singing. When I actually came out and said the words 'I am a Christian' on TV, that was the context: introducing a gospel song.
ABC didn't like it. I had one of the producers come up to me and tell me that I really oughtn't be talking about God and Jesus on network television.
I didn't like THAT. 'Well then,' I told him, 'you're producing the wrong man here, because gospel music - and the word gospel means the good news about Jesus Christ - is part of what I am and part of what I do.' "
Well, Mr. Ward, now that we know each other a little better, (and now that I know that wife of yours is in a position to tell potentially embarrasing stories about me...), I'm having even more fun with this correspondance.
I think we'd find much to agree upon about 'Christian music' today. I have spent most of my career in the professional arts world, (theatre and music primarily), and am finishing up a Masters in theology with an eye towards going into Arts Ministry.
I just don't see enough depth or bredth in Chrisian music today. I haven't heard a song that broke new lyrical or music ground out of the CCM establishment in years. The fringe is hot, but by definition it is not being heard as much.
I'm also quite with you on the whole compartmentalizing of life today. I'm not in favor of the concept of 'work life,' 'private life,' 'church life,' etc. Truth be told, I'm not even in favor of the concept of a 'prayer life!' Why separate prayer from the rest of how we interact with God in our life? We're expected to be a life with all these different parts somehow. I just don't see it working well. It's like we're a mirror that has been shattered into all these little parts. The current American Christian orthodoxy says to sweep all these pieces into as tight a pile as possible so that they can all be together in hopes of reflecting back more of God's light. But rather than a shattered mirror, what if we saw ourselves as a single diamond with many facets. Different planes, yes, but all part of a whole. Chizzled to catch more light, not broken to define different areas.
It's just an image. Maybe I'll develop into a post for later. All that to say, I'm with you. Good to know you, man.
I didn't read over that last post, so if there are spelling or grammar mistakes, I beg pardon.
I also wanted to say that I've been listening to some of your music, and I like!
Same to you! (the good to know you part)
Very nice image! I am so sick of compartmentalizing things i could puke. As far as prayer life goes, i think i know what you mean. It is as if we think that we can actually start and stop time with God at some period in the day. If i look at it that way, then i proabably will. I have started spending regular solitary times with God again but I don't look at my time with God anymore and give it some name "prayer life" or "QT" it is simply what it is, time alone with God. Jesus did it, so I guess if he needed it, and he was more in communion With God than any man that ever lived, then i suppose i probably need it as well, all the more.
I think he mostly needed it to get a break from all the dumb questions. And I think we need a break from asking all the dumb questions. like "what the heck is Christian music?" Yes the rest of my day is spent with God, but its mostly me talkin. I have to sit down and shut my yapper and ebrace and meditate on the Mystery that is God. I used to avoid "Quiet Times" because they suddenly became associated with cheap spiritual banter, crappy praise music, and people who spent too much time reading there bible so everyone could see and then get up in front of the Music school and fumble through their violin sonata because they didnt practice enough from too much bible reading.
Anyway, solitude with my Creator comes out of necessity these days rather than anything else. I wont sleep at night without it the older I get. It has become very simple. Almost caveman simple. Og hungry, need food, kill deer. Seth stressed, need God. shut mouth.
On a side note, have you read Chesterton's "Everlasting Man?" Holy crap i love this book.
Really great to get to know you man, hope that we can all get together in Waco in the near future.
oh and thanks for listening to the tunes!
I hear the needing it. I also used to be under the impression that my entire life is with God so what's the use of "prayer time" But I like how you put it - I need to listen. I'm learning this is the very most important thing in my life. I wish I really knew the true reality of God - I wish I knew fully how important it is to listen, to wait. That is my prayer - and I want to ask for it. For so long in my life I havn't asked for many things, but why not bring everything before Him and ask? This way, everything I recieve I will know it is from God and my whole life will be a fragrance of thanksgiving. I've experienced this with my soon to be fiance, and my life is more fragrant that it has been in a long time.
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