Lightbulb.

Earlier this year, I was surprised when my boyfriend (a Christian) told me that he didn't like listening to Christian music.  I mean, every Christian is supposed to like Christian music, right?  It was shocking to me at first.  He would change the channel on the radio when it was playing in my car, and would generally say things like "it all sounds the same."  And honestly, he was the first Christian that I had come across that openly admitted to disliking today's popular Christian music.  He also openly professed that he loved old hymns -- you will find that most Christians that you speak to will say the opposite is true for them.  I suspect, however, that his type is more popular than most people would lead on. There's an element of peer pressure that is found in all friend groups, including (and sometimes especially) Christian ones. 

I recently came across this article about Christian music.  Read it.  The rest of this post doesn't have much meat in it unless you do :-) The author of the article (or I guess it's a blog) is a lead in a Christian music band (Michael Gungor).  So yeah.  He's writing about his fellow musicians and the music they create. 

I guess I never really thought about it before.  I have enjoyed listening to Christian music since it was first introduced to me in high school, but I think that most of my fondness for it stems not from the artistic nature and the music itself, but the worship and feelings that it conjures.  If you look at a typical piece of popular Christian music from today, it is actually very un-original.  The article also mentions a feeling of false emotion:

"There’s just something more believable about the whispery sexy voice that is singing about sex on the mainstream radio station than the voice that copies that style of singing while putting lyrics in about being in the arms of Jesus." - Michcael Gungor

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but seriously.  I, too, am VERY good at the game that Michael Gungor describes in his post, which is guessing within seconds whether or not a song is secular or Christian.  It's an easy, easy game, even without having heard a single word.  And do you know why it's an easy game?  LIGHTBULB.  Because there is rarely anything creative or artistic about it.  As a whole, it's very generic and easy to spot.  Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to stop listening to Third Day anytime soon (but if you listen to their music, it's one of the worst offenders of the generic/false emotion type of sound), but I will listen to them because frankly, sometimes I just need to belt out a few worship songs in the car on the way to Wegman's.  But I recognize that there is other, better music out there.  Lots of it.  

He also has some interesting points on the culture of drinking in today's American Christian society.  I won't get into it too much, but he seems to be on point with that too as far as I can tell.  In the article he writes about being a Christian musician performing at bars:

"Sometimes the promoters would just buy out the bar so there wouldn’t be any liquor sales at all.  I’m not saying that I wished that everybody was getting hammered at the show… But for crying out loud, buy one beer. Or heck, if you don’t drink beer, buy a Coke."

Teehee.  I think I like him.  Or at least his writing style.  Very blunt and to-the-point.

That is all.  And I know lots of you have thoughts on this topic, so please share them! 

Oh, and check out his music.