Godly Tunes
Recently, but not too recently, I was introduced to a kind of music I barely
even knew existed. A type of music that I had no real interest in and a type
of music that my sampling of at the time was, thankfully, not representative of
the genre as a whole. That music was Christian rock or Contemporary Christian
music, as it is often referred.
The problem with the label of Contemporary Christian music is somewhat indicative
of my past problems with Christian music as a whole. See, “Contemporary Christian”
music really covers the gamut of music styles, a gamut that is crowded with
all sorts of music from rock to gospel, but is overwhelmingly represented by
what I would call light tunes. You know, the kind of music that sounds like
Yanni got a hold of some classic 80’s pop and slowed it down a bit for the old folks.
The majority of Contemporary Christian music played on the radio very much falls
into this or the gospel category. Neither of these particularly interest me
so I never really gave any Christian music the time of day.
Well, along came a spider in the form of some mp3’s from
Steven Curtis Chapman,
borrowed from a friend partially by accident. It just happened to tag along with some
other stuff I was interested in. Funny thing is, my first impressions weren’t
all that positive, something along the lines of “Wow, this is a bit too in
your face for me”. I hadn’t really heard faith expressed so openly in a form
of music I really liked. I gave it more play time and the album,
Speechless,
is now probably one of my favorite albums of all time. I still enjoy it.
Timing is everything. The current state of rock has really bored me. I don’t
know what it is. Maybe I’m growing up and my tastes are changing. The
Lynyrd Synyrd, Rush, and Led Zepplin well was exhausted years ago (although
Rush’s new one isn’t bad and the new Lynyrd Synryrd stuff is really good).
Dave Matthew’s Band, the Bare Naked Ladies, Creed, and others haven’t
been releasing things quickly enough. A lot of the rock released the past
couple of years could have been done by the same band for all I know. So
what am I to do? Look for more stuff like the album that initially grabbed
my interest.
And boy did I. First, I went after some more stuff by Steven Curtis Chapman.
He has a ton of albums, and just happened to release a new one a month
after I heard Speechless. Since then, I’ve added
Third Day, which is probably my
favorite Christian band at the moment, and Jennifer Knapp (actually, I grabbed
one of her albums before I ever heard Mr. Chapman’s tunes, but that is another
story) along with bands such as Mercy Me to my play, and CD, list. I even added
Nichole Nordeman before going
to see both Steven Curtis Chapman and her in concert.
Nichole, by the way, has one of the best Christian songs out there, named Why,
from her This Mystery album.Check it out if you get the chance.
At a later date I may go more into what has drawn me to Christian music and
what I’m listening to now. But for now, especially since this entry is running
a bit long, I’m just happy to tap my foot (along with the desk, my legs, and
other random objects) along to something that both inspires me and gives me
something to listen to until the next
Eminem CD makes it way out the door.
Yep, I own the last two albums of his, including the new one. Sue me.
Laura
July 28th, 2002 at 5:27 pm #
Ever listened closely to Creed’s “My own prison?”
“Hear the thunder in the distance, see a vision of a cross. Feel the pain that was given on a sad day of loss. A lion roars in the darkness only he holds the key, to free me from my burden and grant me life eternally.” Who do you suppose their singing about? ;)
It’s out there in the mainstream too, just a bit more subtle.