Posted on 09/14/2011 9:19:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
While some have sought to make Christian music more relevant by adding an electric guitar or a hip-hop beat to it, others prefer to listen and worship through more traditional forms of music, such as hymns. But should Christian music be limited to a designated genre, or can faith-based themes be effectively portrayed through any number of styles?
Though people may disagree on which style they like best, there's no denying that Christian or Gospel music is widely sought after.
A 2009 report from the Gospel Music Association indicates that Christian music sales total about half a billion dollars per year. In 2008, the Christian music industry sold over 56 million units in the form of CDs, cassettes, digital tracks and digital albums.
But a recent article by Will Edwards, which appeared in University of Alabama's student newspaper, The Crimson White, describes Christian music as being “unoriginal” and “genreless.”
Edwards' article, titled “Guitars killed Christian music, no resurrection in sight,” argues that Christian music, in the form of hymns and classical music composed by the likes of Mozart and Bach, made an impact because it once led the musical culture. With the rise of rock-and-roll and the increased use of broadcasting technology, however, Christian music was left behind and has been playing catch-up to secular culture ever since.
He accuses Christian music of lacking in originality, saying, “Many Christian songs have a near-identical equal in the secular music industry. It’s a knock-off of the original ... For the past 50 years, Christian music has been playing copycat to whatever is popular on secular radio. They haven’t changed the message, but the music that delivers it has become stale and unoriginal.”
Musician and minister Jimi Calhoun agrees with Edwards in many ways.
"There's a considerable amount of people who think that music hasn't been original since the '70s,” Calhoun told The Christian Post in an interview.
A resident of Austin, Texas, Calhoun previously worked as a professional bass guitar player, playing with a number of famous musicians including Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Etta James, Lou Rawls and more.
He said that, from his experience, Christian music is not well-respected in the broader music industry.
"It sells a lot of records ... if I were an executive I would want to try to get market share in this,” he said, but “from the player's standpoint ... it's not looked up to."
Calhoun's journey to Christ began on a trip to England, where he started his search for God and for inner peace. He studied both Buddhism and Metaphysics, but eventually ended up at Christianity and later became an ordained minister.
Though he has worked in several other ministries before, he is currently planning on starting his own church with the goal of bridging the gap between art and spirituality.
Calhoun pointed out that Christian music as an evangelism tool is “noneffective” and that “it's never utilized in an arena where people are going to hear it and make a decision for Christ.”
"It's an art form that goes directly to the choir. It's an edification thing, even though we tell ourselves that we're witnessing,” he explained.
Edwards doesn't just criticize Christian music for its lack of creativity, however. He also suggests that Christian music should be confined to a specific style of music.
“Christian music is genreless,” he writes. “Turn on the Christian radio station and listen for 30 minutes. You will hear two piano ballads, three pop/rock songs and one pseudo heavy metal thrasher. It doesn’t sound like anything specific. When I put on the pop station, I know what I’m getting. There’s a genre there, but Christian music lacks that.”
But Patrick McGuire, associate of Music and Worship at the Florida-based First Baptist Church Merritt Island, argued that Christian music doesn't have to fit into a particular style. To create a Christian-specific genre would be to limit the impact that Christian music has on the world.
"We're really called to be in the world and to serve the way that Christ did, and for us to have music that is explicitly religious and therefore not accessible to outsiders ... I don't really think that's the call of Christ," he stated.
McGuire has been working at the church for about a year and serves as its leader of the rhythm section. The church has a choir and orchestra, but they also play more contemporary music as well. First Baptist's worship team spent last summer writing and recording original music, which he says lends authenticity to corporate worship experiences.
"The most important thing that I relate to ... is just how powerful it is to see a twenty-something standing next to a 70-year-old in the choir and to hear them in one voice proclaim the Gospel,” he said.
These broadcasts were actually made during the 1950's. They're an hour long, and about 35 minutes consist of music by a choir accompanied by an organ, a piano, or both. There is a 20-minute message by the broadcast's founder Charles E. Fuller, and his wife spends about five minutes reading letters from listeners.
The music consists mostly of post-Civil War Protestant hymns and gospel songs, many from noted hymn writers such as Lelia Morris, Phillip Bliss, Fanny Crosby, James McGranahan, Ira Sankey, William Kirkpatrick, Charles Gabriel, and many others. The choir is led by Leland Green, who makes skillful use of dynamics, and the piano accompaniment is by the noted gospel pianist Rudy Atwood.
My mother belonged to this choir from 1942 to 1957, and she is on most of these broadcasts.
A number of "bootleg" transcripts of Old Fashioned Revival Hour broadcasts are available here.
That reminds me of the wonderful music used for the opening and closing of the "Thru the Bible" radio program with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. The opening is "How Firm a Foundation" and the ending music is "Jesus Paid It All".
Oh my, I do miss hearing that southern drawl and the wonderful Spirit-lead explanations of scripture from McGee. I used to do a lot of driving and had radio stations all across my territory where I could tune in Through The Bible Radio.
****These broadcasts were actually made during the 1950’s. ****
About 30 years ago my sister-in-law and her husband were cleaning out an old abandoned house in NE Oklahoma. There in a closet they found a box of 78 RPM records by THE CHUCKWAGON GANG, in perfect shape. I have a player and we sat and enjoyed this old 1950s music. She still has the records today.
I think you'll enjoy this article from the Dallas Morning News about our native Texan, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. Much like you, hearing the opening theme of "Thru the Bible" on the radio as I drove across the South and Southwest guaranteed that the next half hour of listening was going to be time well spent.
I've heard some of those broadcasts as well. Another radio ministry that featured good music was the People's Gospel Hour, hosted for about six decades by the Rev. Perry Rockwood, The Family Radio Network also features good Christian music, especially on their half-hour programs "Hymn Time" and "Family Radio Hymn Sing," which air on weekends. An archive of recordings of hymns is also available on their website.
Notable exceptions: old Michael Omartian, Phil Keaggy, Iona, Margaret Becker, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Larry Norman, D.C. Talk.
Phil Keaggy in particular has so much talent it's unfair to other guitarists.
Cheers!
Interestingly, J. Vernon McGee preached at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, which was started by Reuben Torrey. Charles E. Fuller, who ran the Old Fashioned Revival Hour and started the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. modeled his preaching style after Torrey’s.
Resurrection Band (Rez Band).
...And Rich Mulllins (RIP).
Cheers!
Neal Morse (his Testimony Live DVD is unspeakably good.
And two of the best concept albums *ever* were Kemper Crabb's The Vigil (a musical of a medieval knight consecrating himself before a crusade) and The 2nd Chapter of Acts' The Roar Of Love (a celebration of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe).
Truly, I say unto you,
Cheers!
Hello RE! The best singing I ever heard was in Glenrothes, Scotland. Small congregation. Maybe 75? Everyone was singing without books and they were singing with all their heart. I don’t think a note was hit properly one time, but it didn’t matter, because fellowship and love was all around. People looked at each other as they sang and everyone was smiling. Makes me teary eyed just remembering.
God’s instrument, the “heart-string” is by far the best to play in singing praises to Him! After all, it was created by him in the first place, what could possibly be better?
I”m glad you brought this up...it was nice to remember that moment! :-)
Some people aren't going to like you saying that. It's true though. :)
I think part of the problem is that people equate love with eros and only with eros today. It is why every book that has a strong male friendship in it is now taken as being "gay".
Love is also agape, philia, and storge but popular culture has so influenced people that when they hear someone sing of their love for God that they automatically make it into eros. The fault is not in the song or the singer but in the mind and heart of the listener.
:puts on helmet:
Let the rock throwing begin!
Perhaps the rush to denigrate those expressions reflects the widespread disillusionment with marriage and human romantic relationships in general. I'm inclined to give secular romantic music a "Yeah, get real," at best, but to take that approach to the possibility of intimacy with God is a serious theological error.
“Those who say only classical sacred music or hymns are “Christian” forget that Charles and John Wesley (and others) set Christian lyrics to popular drinking songs of the day - many of which eventually made it into the hymnal.”
Complete and utter HOGWASH! It’s time Christians got a little more informed about music, and stopped spreading these dreadful myths. This sort of story arises from confusion about terminology. Many of the hymns of the Wesleys (and Luther, about whom the same myth is perpetuated) are written in “bar” (or “barre”) form. It refers to the construction of the music. The uninformed keep interpreting this as referring to bar or drinking songs.
The Wesleys and Luther were extremely fussy about what sort of music they wished to be used for their hymns, and were not interested in secular tunes. Luther did use one folk tune, but subsequently wrote his own tune for that hymn when he realised that it was difficult to separate out the secular message associated with the tune, from the message of the hymn.
Just as there is no crying in baseball there are no guitar solos in Amazing Grace. The author has had too much time to think
And you two are the EXACT reason why Christian music so stagnant and unpopular. Guitars=Satan? Knock if off before you break a hip.
Until yesterday, I had never seen a picture of McGee. After our exchange, I searched Google for a picture. He appears, oddly enough, very much the way my minds eye imagined him to appear. Thanks be to God for men such as J. Vernon McGee. Such servants of God/from God’s Spirit enable we lesser Christians to search for the ‘David place’. *Thank you, Lord, for those you so empower to help and guide us these few short years before waking in your Glorious Presence.
Diapason -
After reading your response, I did some research and found that virtually every link I found was to one article by a man named McIntyre, referred to as a “music expert” in the UMC. His arguments seemed to me to be based solely on the theory that “John and Charles Wesley would never have done that”.
I did find something on the Asbury Seminary website that said “the claim lacks evidence to support it”; however, he goes on to say:
“John and Charles Wesley gathered fitting tunes from a wide assortment of sources. They collected them from the Protestant Reformation, collections of hymn tunes, classic composers, Hebrew refrains, folk songs, and new melodies from their own day.”
I do believe that a familiar tune can be attractive, and if the scriptural lyrics that accompany it are both firmly grounded and technically attractive from a composition standpoint, the song has the potential to reach people.
I appreciate the information you posted; however, I think the hog may still be a little dirty.
While I will agree that “some” contemporary Christian music makes me gag, I’ve been to traditional churches that have left a bad impression. The pastors and the attendees where such legalistic white wash tombs I just couldn’t take it.
I grew up in a traditional baptist church — first memories early 1960’s in Laurel, Mississippi! I’ll take my contemporary church with its contemporary music any day over a traditional church filled with legalistic believers singing songs from the 1600 century that don’t make sense to the younger generations.
Every time I see this video I long to fall flat on my face before God!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vh7-RSPuAA
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.