There has been and continues to be, great spiritual, gospel, bluegrass and even classical Christian music that I as a non-Christian can appreciate, enjoy and derive a sense of excitement from.
But contemporary Christian music, heard almost exclusively in the realm of fundamentalists, is so tired, flat, dull, uninspired and repetitive, that I can only believe that fundamentalists share those qualities with it. And I’ve seen first hand that theirs is a forced appreciation. I was driving two of my fundamentalist nephews to the store one time with some other type of music on the radio. The youngest one said he didn’t like that music. I asked him what kind of music he liked, expecting to hear “Christian Music” (I’d heard his mother tell them once that R&R was devil music), but he said “country”. Immediately, his older brother nudged him in the ribs and he stammered, “well, Christian music is best”.
I think it’s lack of inspiration is a symptom of souls that have had joy in living so regimented, that any spirit they have has atrophied to the point that the emotions that are supposed to drive their faith is phony at best–and evil at worst. I say all this as just another tack, not to be casting stones, but to throw some light into the darkness and maybe catch a few with their eyes open.
I am a fan of J.S. Bach. Black gospel music has contributed some of the best songs in American history IMO and continues to produce stirring performances. Most of the Christian pop music that I have heard was derivative from trends established by mainstream pop. The copy is seldom as good as the original. Some Christian musicians have had cross-over appeal. But I rarely listen to contemporary Christian music, so my knowledge of the artists, compositions, and performances is quite limited.
I have no knowledge of Com-chris artists etc. at all, but I can tell it in a few seconds when I’m scanning the radio dial. The little Christian pop or rock that I’ve heard isn’t that bad or good, but I’ve can be listening to a song sometimes and not know that’s what it is until I hear the lyrics.
Right… Dream Theater. You read my mind. I only listened to it for a few minutes but they seemed to do it very well. But, again, this way of playing was developed somewhere else, they slap some Christian lyrics on it and Voila it’s Christian music! On the other hand you have U2 who has “appropriated” a lot of Christian content into virtually every song they have ever done. Then you have Creed which is a Christian band gone mainstream. But their sound was always derivative of what was going on in rock at the time.
So, can we say that these days, the playing is mainly traveling from the secular side to the Christian side, but the imagery is flowing from the Christian side to the secular side? In the past, the black gospel style of playing had a huge impact on R&B. So the influence can go both ways. But I don’t hear that happening today. Contemporary Christian rock does not seem to have a distinctive sound.
The imagery probably seems as if it’s flowing from the christian to the secular because our western culture is inherently christian. So, whether as an affirmation or a refutation, or even when not talking about religion, the western, christian themes are there. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing most of the time, just a cultural thing.
The biggest mistake religious people make is when they mistake “believing in God” for “believing in believing in God.”
The first form is perfect happiness, the second is a disease that sprouts fundamentalism, dogmatism, and the “forced appreciation” that you mention, along with a host of other corruptions.
