This is what's wrong with Christian music

Please note, when I say "Christian music," I realize that this does not apply to every band that falls under the moniker. Indeed, there are many good Christian acts out there (although, sadly, many are now gone). However, this is an indictment of the industry as a whole and many of the acts that are at the center of the industry's focus.

While there are many things I could focus one besides the topics I cover here, I think that the things I dislike the most can be distilled into these four points.

1. Industry inbreeding and/or deriving from secular bands

Earlier this year, I came across a poster in a youth room from a church I was visiting. On it was a list of most of the "big Christian bands" at the time the poster was released. Across from each band was another list, this one letting potential listeners know which secular bands the Christian bands sounded like.

On the surface, this may seem acceptable to you. After all, there are so many subgenres and so many bands that many of them play in the same style, right? Well, sure, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I submit that it's symptomatic of a larger problem (well, two larger problems, but I'll address the second half in point four).

To so boldly link bands suggests that, rather than playing in the same genre, the bands on the left side of the poster were the "Christianized versions" of the bands on the right. This is not a good creative step for the Christian music industry, and whoever decided to actually broadcast this with a poster may have been a few beads short of a rosary.

This was more prominent in the late 90s/early 00s, but I used to hear (and still on occasion hear) that X Christian band was like "The Christian version of X secular band!" The phrase was bandied about in excitement, as if flaunting your unoriginality in musical taste was a badge of honor or something.

Let's face it. Music, Christian or secular, is notorious (even more so than other entertainment mediums) for copying everything else out there. However, this is almost encouraged in some circles of the Christian industry, which, if you think about it, is kind of insulting.

Christians are and have always been capable of coming up with original material, be it music, literature or ... well, I guess we're still waiting on film. However, the Christian music industry is full of bands that either ape secular bands or commit the probably worse sin of copying other Christian acts, most of whom are already copying others.

Take, for example, the trail of wreckage left by Relient k. When they started up, their band drew lots of comparisons to MXPX, NOFX and Jimmy Eat World. However, their first album, though basically generic garage punk, still managed to get in a few pretty good songs edgewise. It also (and many people don't recognize this) contained many vocal harmonies which added a bit to the songs and prefaced their very harmony-driven sound today. Speaking of today, they have since evolved into a talented pop-rock band that likes to take their sound in different directions, and most people have dropped charges of copying from Relient k's offenses.

Where's the problem then? Well, first, you have Hawk Nelson, a Christian punk-pop band that is always a couple of albums short of where Relient k is. They rode (some say hijacked) Relient k's introduction of Christian pop-punk to success, and they now feed off the success that they've had as Relient k-lite. Every now and then a good, original song will surface, but those songs are few and far between.

One rung down the ladder stands Stellar Kart, aka Hawk Nelson-lite. Stellar Kart is a few albums behind Hawk Nelson, who, as I've already said, is copying Relient k's style from a few years ago. Add that to the fact that you know that somewhere out there is a band that is taking their cues from Stellar Kart, and you have a mess.

The rest of the story? While still professing Christians, Relient k has distanced themselves from the industry and positioned themselves as more of a "we're a rock band who sings about whatever but a lot of the time it's our faith" kind of band. Like Switchfoot, except Relient k is actually good. OOOH, WHAT NOW?!?

This kind of stuff goes on all the time in Christian music. It happens in secular music too, but in the Christian world nobody minds. They even promote it! So, the next time you're on a Christian band's myspace and their "sounds like" section says "Like nothing else you've ever heard," keep in mind that it probably sounds just like all of the other bands that sound like nothing else you've ever heard.

Bottom line: Originality is important. While it's not bad for a band to have moments when you can hear their influences, it is bad for bands to try to be their influences, except, "y'know, we sing about God."

2. "Preachiness"

This one can even befall bands that are good, like Audio Adrenaline (see, Christian music industry, you CAN have a band that carves their own niche within a broad genre!), and it too often does in bands that are ok but have the potential to be better, like Sanctus Real. Sanctus, a band with one pretty solid album (not without its flaws, as you'll see momentarily) and a few albums with some good tracks on them, churned out a little number for their best album called "Mr. Deeds." Besides being a lame Adam Sandler reference, the chorus of the song goes like this:

"If you don't have faith you have nothing at all,
If you don't have deeds your faith will fall,
They can't be true without each other,
You can't have one without the other."

Apparently, Sanctus had been trying to listen to the market, and the market was saying something along the lines of "Gee, I totally want to hear a song that contains a simplified version of faith vs. works crammed awkwardly into a mediocre song structure. What do you mean, 'read James'? What the heck is that?"

Obviously, I am not against songs that convey spiritual truth. Nor am I necessarily against songs that contain simple lyrics. However, simple songs still can be innovative and catchy (see "She Loves You" by the Beatles or "Beautiful" by Audio Adrenaline), and spiritual truths do not need to be hamfistedly shoved into a song. Compare the above song with the lyrics to "Jealous Kind" by Jars of Clay, a song discussing the nature of God's jealousy:

"You know I've been unfaithful,
Lovers in lines,
While you're turning over tables with the rage of a jealous kind,
I chose the gallows to the aisle,
Thought that love would never find,
Hanging ropes will never keep you,
And your love of a jealous kind."

Simplistic and pandering vs. eloquent and poetic. Straight-forward to a fault vs. layered and complex. Incidentally, when a band cares about its lyrics, the music is usually better too, and these two songs are no exception.

However, while Jars of Clay is a popular band in some circles, they are nowhere as "in" the industry right now as Sanctus Real. In fact, there are many (far too many) people who will tell you that they got into Jars' first album (you know, the one with "Flood" and a bunch of other songs on it) and then never really liked anything else they did. The problem? Their first album is probably their worst one.

Bands end up being preachy way too often. Either that or they fall prey to problem number three, which I will discuss momentarily. Preachiness shows laziness or lack of talent, and it shouldn't be allowed to thrive when there are bands writing lyrics of substance.

Bottom line: If we want to do systematic theology, we'll read the Bible, not listen to your song that distills the subject into a Sunday School lesson for an eight year old. Give us something meaty to work with, or at least give us something easy that's catchy and different.

3. Lack of creativity

While point three can be tied to points two and one, it deserves its own section because it goes far beyond both of those points. There are many times when a band isn't being preachy or a copycat, but they still lack originality.

You know what I'm talking about. Bands that strum power chords over and over through every single song they ever do, never stopping to put in an ounce of originality, diversity or inspiration. Bands whose lyrics aren't preachy but are still utterly mundane and ill-conceived. Both Christian rock and CCM have made their fortunes as of late off of McMusic, and so many people are only too happy to lap up these exultations of the generic.

Take Chris Tomlin as an example. While he has a couple of good songs, most of his songs lack any sort of musical impact, and almost all of his songs could be categorized by singing "God is great, great is God, God is King, King God is great, etc. etc. ad nauseum."

David Crowder Band, on the other hand, is relatively popular among the CCM crowd, but the group definitely plays second fiddle to a truckload of CCM artists who it is better than by leaps and bounds, including Jeremy Camp, Tomlin, Casting Crowns and, well, almost anyone else, because David Crowder Band is one of the most original acts to hit the CCM scene in a long time. Compare almost all of Tomlin's lyrics with this snippet from Crowder's "Wholly Yours."

"I am full of earth,
You are heaven’s worth,
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity,
You are everything that is bright and clean,
The antonym of me,
You are divinity."

These lyrics essentially say everything that almost any of Tomlin's lyrics have ever said, but they transcend them and actually make you think about what you're listening to. Yes, God is great, but having "God is great" pounded into my head 20 times in three minutes isn't going to make me think about it any differently.

That's not even accounting for Crowder's music. His "A Collision" album is an absolutely marvelous display of musical complexity, both in adding in intricate unique details and using musical effects to enhance what his lyrics are trying to convey.

Worship isn't the only genre that cows to the mundane. Here are some lyrics from Everyday Sunday's "Wake Up! Wake Up!"

"Feels like I'm going through the motions in the dark,
In a world that leaves me with an uninspired heart,

All I know is I'm so tired,
Living life I barely feel,
Give me hope, give me fire,
Give me something real."

Yawn. I can only hope that the original title of this song was "Wake Me Up When It's Over." We can do better than to listen to stuff like this. The acceptance of bands like Everyday Sunday and their compatriots has given rise to an industry that is currently fawning over Family Force 5, a band who has taken being really generic and given it a twist by writing slightly more creative lyrics, coming up with such absurd stage names that you kind of want someone to beat them up and generally sucking at every aspect of making music.

Bottom line: Don't just be another face in the crowd. If you're making music, put some effort into it.

4. Attitudes of industry/consumers

This bothers me so, so much. The reason that bands like Family Force 5 and Thousand Foot Krutch and Stellar Kart exist is that no one cares that they aren't good. People don't take the time to actually listen to what they're hearing, and the only result is to push the good Christian bands into obscurity and tarnish the entire idea of Christian music. Why do you think that so many non-Christians hate listening to Christian music? They think it's preachy, derivative and boring, and, if they were to turn on your average Christian radio station, they'd be right at least 90% of the time.

But not enough Christians care. So the Christian music industry continues to put out crappy music, and that many more people go through their lives without ever appreciating what real music is or how good music sounds.

"Well," you might say, "that might be true, but it's the same way with secular music, right? There's lots of crap there. [and I agree, there is] Why is Christian music any worse?" Simply because of this: Christian music has a captive audience.

I know so many Christians who have some sort of vague distaste for secular music. They wouldn't really tell you it's wrong (most of them wouldn't, anyway), but deep down it's what they really think. "Christian music uplifts me," they say. "What's wrong with that?"

Nothing is wrong with that, but how are you being uplifted by mediocrity and mindless Chicken Soup for the Soul platitudes? Are we really that simple? Is that really all we need to reach some sort of higher spiritual plane? And, perhaps more importantly, have we really degraded an ancient art form that has been a part of mankind from the beginning to a point where its worth is not based on quality, but on whether it has some chic spirituality sentiment wrapped in it? Music is worth listening to not because it has some cute little message, but because it's music! Music is designed to make you think, feel, associate, let go, NOT to feed you Christianized fortune cookies!

I realize that I'm going into rant mode now, so I'll end this with two true stories. The first is that Jars of Clay, a few years ago, released a single called "The Valley Song." It's a touching song about loving and trusting God through the rocky parts of life, and it was written after one of the band mate's family members died. Many Christian stations refused to play the song because, rather than making listeners feel good, it reminded them of the trying times that they face. Apparently the station managers had never read, I dunno, Job, or most of the rest of the Bible for that matter.

The second story is about Carlos Santana, acclaimed guitarist who would be shunned by many Christians because he is A) not one and B) very into meditation and New Agey stuff. He wrote a song called "Heaven," which many Christians might recognize if they listened to any radio that wasn't Christian. However, it was recently covered by the acceptable Christian band Salvador, who changed none of the lyrics, and it became a minor Christian hit.

Looks like we're still rejecting the sinners after all.