On this blog I often attempt to use pop culture to illustrate Christian points in way to reach those who normally wouldn't want to discuss spiritual matters. In this blog I'm going to be a lot less "preachy" and more just give my opinion and try to open up dialogue on what's wrong with today's main stream music. While I do think a lot of today's Christian music is head and shoulder's above what mainstream artist are producing, I want to stay away from using the life style of either as an arguing point. My reason for this is because I feel there are some "closet Christian" in main stream music who could be a great witness if they weren't afraid to take a stand. Just as there are some wolves in sheep's clothing Christian artist who just view Christian music as a vehicle to stardom in a genre where some feel it's easier to get their big break. I say all that to say, I want feed back on this, suggestions to good music, what others feel the problem is, or anything else this might stir up, but the artist's life style is off limits.
I've had discussions with friends on separate occasions over who will be the bands from the 2000's who will stand the test of time and still be around twenty years from now. The more I thought about it, the more I realised I hate today's mainstream music. From time to time a song will come out that I can tolerate but for the most part my radio is either set to contemporary Christian music, or classic rock. When I went back and tried to name bands I like, all of the ones still making music now started out in the 90's or earlier, with the exception of any band Jack White is in, so far he gets the lone pass. The fact that I have two pre teen daughters doesn't help matters at all. Over the past couple of years they have educated me on the fact that a guy's vocal ability is determined by the transitive property of how cute they are.
I'm serious, if that's not the case then some one please explain to me why the Jonas Brothers or Justin Bieber ever became relevant? Don't get me wrong these guys could, and probably should warrant the same pop and fizzle Hanson did, and but the way the media has acted like they are the second coming of the Beatles is just insane. Seriously if Bob Dylan debuted today he would be told he didn't have "the look". For the record I'm not hating on boy bands, my all time favorite band started out as a boy band, except they played instruments, wrote their own songs, and evolved past the bubble gum pop on the way to setting the bar for all music that followed, thank you Beatles.
But it's not just that, it seems music today is almost pointless. Rolling Stone magazine named the Black Eyed Peas the number one reason to get excited about music again. If songs like "Where is the Love" was the bulk of what they where putting out I could get behind that statement. A song about helping your fellow man, fighting racism, and taking social responsibility is just what we need. Sadly however instead of having a conscious they are more content to talk about "all that junk inside yo trunk, my humps, my humps." I get they tunes are catchy and what not, but where is the substance? We are living in times of more turmoil than the past couple of decades before us and the best we get from our musicians, who are the philosophers of our time can give is "P p p poker face my p poker face"? (I don't care if she is the new Madonna, I've never cared for her music either.)
Even rap music which was at one time the most social active genre of music has lost it. You may not have liked the language or the violence, but groups like Public Enemy and N.W.A., had something to say. Today rap seems to be all about either a glorified insult contest, bragging about how much money one has, or just plain crazy. A few weeks ago a friend wanted me to hear Wacka Flocka and that was about twenty seconds of my life that I wasted and probably lost a few IQ points, thanks Matt.
It sees to me main stream music has lost it's passion. Somewhere in the age of digital downloads the idea of making a great album has gone out the window and now it's about making one okay song. I remember buying CDs in middle school where the entire disc was good. No need to press skip, just let it play. Now you're lucky if a song is any good once you get past the chorus and hook. I'm not sure if the problem with today's music if that it's all about the money or just complacency.
On the flip side Christian music seems to be experiencing a bit of a revolution. Chris Tomlin is writing some of the best worship music that has come out in a while. TobyMac is putting out music that has a message while making you feel good when you hear it. Jeremy Camp is blazing a trial of what Christian music can be, and these artist all have one thing in common. Passion. They are writing music about something that matters to them, their lord and savior Jesus Christ. The music isn't written to make money, while I'm sure that's not a bad perk of the job, but it's written to glorify God.
Now putting God in music doesn't automatically make it good. In fact I'm not a fan of older contemporary Christian music. Back then it sounded like artist where more concerned with fitting in. A lot of the music sounded like they where taking chords and rhythms from rock songs and changing the words. Back in 2004 when I went back to church for the first time in almost seven years I couldn't believe it. They where singing Christian music but the base line to the song sounded just like Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Give Me Three Steps", I wanted to shout "Free Bird".
What I'm saying is music can be great. It has been great, but with out passion it's garbage. I just think we deserve better and shouldn't settle for what we are force fed by main stream radio.
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