History Main / NotChristianRock

** Of note: "Silent Scream" (the movie) is fairly obscure outside of evangelical and Catholic anti-abortion circles. Tom Araya (who penned the lyrics) is actually a [[http://www.themetalinquisition.com/2008/01/tom-araya-is-catholic-kerry-king-is.html rather devout Catholic]].

** And it was also covered by the Christian band dc Talk, who changed one of the lyric lines to saying "You know that I'm a sinner, we all sinned, but I have a friend in Jesus".

* "Spirit in the Sky": Norman Greenbaum is Jewish, but he thought it would be fun to write a gospel song, even though he knew nothing about gospel music. Of course, he had no idea that he'd end up as a OneHitWonder, with [[BlackSheepHit that song]] as his one hit. The fact that it has [[EpicRiff the most epic fuzz guitar riff ever recorded]] didn't hurt, either.

* Music/AlyAndAJ (now 78violet) originally were rather Christian pop-rock - as shown in songs like "Never Far Behind", which is a song about ThePowerOfFriendship with the line "God is never far behind" in it - however after their debut album they abandoned the religious themes. Until, of course, their nudes got hacked, and after that they dropped all traces of Christianity from their images.

** ''The Last Stand'' unsurprisingly, seeing as it's about the last stand of the Swiss Guards during the Sack of Rome in 1527, has a ''lot'' of religious imagery. The chorus can be easily mistaken for Christian rock, with lyrics like "For the grace, for the might of the Lord!/For the home of the holy!". [[PeripheryDemographic Reading the comments on YouTube lyrics videos for "The Last Stand" makes it clear that the song is quite popular with]] [[RealMenLoveJesus a certain type of Christians.]]

* PostHardcore band Hundredth is not Christian, but as their lyrics have a very positive and uplifting and occasionally vaguely religious message (example is "Greater", which seems to be about a distressed and misanthropic person accepting God's love as the only way to improve their life.) (despite the occasional use of the PrecisionFStrike) and they have played with many, they are often mistaken for one.

* The 1980s British indie rock band The Housemartins often seemed like a borderline Christian band. Lead singer Paul Heaton was a devout Christian, and his faith was readily apparent in many of his lyrics. But there were several things that kept the group as a strictly secular act. First was Heaton's famously biting wit; His lyrics were often just as scathingly satirical against Thatcherism or the British class system as they were religious. Heaton and his bandmates were also Marxists, and their politics were just as important to understanding his songwriting and their aesthetic as their Christianity was. Their debut album's liner notes even included the message "Take Jesus, take Marx, take hope" and later pressings added a song called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iRcn-x0gBc I'll Be Your Shelter]]" which ends with a gospel-style coda that praises both Jesus and Marx. Heaton would carry these traits, albeit with the religious aspects downplayed, to his next project Music/TheBeautifulSouth.

* FunkMetal band Music/{{Extreme}} falls into this quite often. The lead singer and main song write, Gary Cherone, is in fact an outspoken christian, but they are not a Christian band. Still, several songs have decidedly overt Christian themes. "Watching, Waiting" is about the Crucifixion, the narrator of the song being in awe of it. "Hole Hearted" is about the concept of a God-shaped hole, and how only through Him can the singer find meaning. The three part epic ProgressiveRock suite "Everything's Under the Sun" explicitly references the Bible, and is full of Christian themes. "Peace (Saudade)" urges the listener to pray for peace. While most of their songs aren't religious in nature, often the whole theme of an album has some sort of Christian bend. Still, they are never in your face about it.

* Music/TwistedSister fall into this, with songs like "Sin After Sin" and "Burn in Hell" being warnings about sin, "Kill or be Killed" being about the end times (with the last line sung being "burn or save your soul") and "Power and the Glory" being a song in praise of God for a conversion. Dee Snyder ''is'' a Christian, but the band isn't considered Christian rock.

* In the late 1960s, [[https://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/07/pastor_john_ryd.html Pastor John Rydgren]]'s ''Silhouette'' and [[https://blog.timesunion.com/chuckmiller/brother-jon-rivers-and-the-other-powerline/23899/ Brother Jon Rivers]]' ''Powerline'' were weekly radio shows to call young people to Jesus. This was in the era immediately preceding the "Jesus Freak" movement, and prior to the invention of Christian rock. Currently popular Top 40 love songs were played within this context so that phrses of devotion (I love you, I don't know what I'd do without you, etc.) were implied to be addressed to God.

* The song "Let It Be" has such overt religious overtones that it's often sung in churches and by choirs. Music/TheBeatles (especially Music/PaulMcCartney) deny that this song has any religious meaning, and that references to "Mother Mary" are of Paul's actual mother. The version in ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse'' is arranged as a gospel choir piece, being performed at Jojo's son's funeral after he dies during a race riot.

* [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Death/Thrash/Groove]] metal band The Showdown is an interesting case. Their first album is clearly Christian (all of the songs are bible stories, and the last song is a prayerfully song power ballad about finding rest in Heaven), but after that album, the Christian refrences got more and more subtle (they are still there however). All the members are Christians, but they do not consider themselves a Christian band.

* Hirax, an American ThrashMetal band, has been called Christian for songs like "Demon's Evil Forces" where their singer plays God, so to speak with the lines "You will go down, down to the demons, and when you get there, you'll be in Hell" and "You must believe in me my son, I am the Lord God, the Holy One"... They have since denied direct involvement in the Christian music scene, though some of their members are indeed Christian.

* The members of the Soul/Metal hybrid trio Music/{{KingsX}} were all devout Christians, but explicitly resisted the Christian Rock tag. Despite that, the members religious beliefs and generally clean, vaguely spiritual lyrics led to them being treated as a Christian Rock band, and gaining a fairly large evangelical following. Then Doug Pinnick came out as being gay, and suddenly the band was being condemned from all quarters as heathens and betrayers of their Christian Rock fandom -- something they had never sought in the first place.

* Creator/JohnnyYongBosch's band Eyeshine arose partly from Johnny and a friend playing in a band for their church. Their song lyrics could be considered ambiguously romantic or religious for the most part, but rarely were overtly religious, the 2011 album "Xmas" notwithstanding. The intention was that the band's music would have the widest possible appeal. Notably, however, one instrumental track of theirs is titled "Selah". The name comes from a biblical term which shows up several times in the Psalms but is so esoteric that it's not always translated. It's basically a call for the reader to pause and think about the passages preceding it.

* TheRedJumpsuitApparatus do not describe themselves as a Christian band and are often played on regular rock stations; however, many of their songs, such as "Don't Lose Hope," contain Christian themes. It's even been speculated that "Wake Me Up" is about Christ, not a girl.

** Frontman Randy Blythe admitting to being somewhat of a Deist during a Reddit interview should [[StealthPun lay to rest]] any notions of them being a Christian band.

* Music/TheGooGooDolls' 2006 hit "Better Days" starts out talking about what the singer wants for Christmas ("just a chance that maybe we'll find better days"), and later explicitly references "one poor child who saved this world" and "tonight's the night the world begins again." Their breakout hit "Iris" also caused some confusion over whether it was supposed to communicate Christian messages, but the song ''was'' written for [[Film/CityOfAngels a movie about angels]] and closely parallels the experiences of the movie's angel protagonist. Interestingly, as of 2010 the Goo Goo Dolls are touring with legitimately-Christian (though with crossover appeal) group Switchfoot.

* Bono of Music/{{U2}} is a Christian, and many of his lyrics have Christian subtext. However, they're usually more of the "JesusWasWayCool" kind that one would expect given his views on social justice, rather than songs about the power of faith and other such things that are often found in Christian music. However, there is the occasional song that directly addresses faith and the need for redemption with God's help ("When Love Came to Town" explicitly discusses the crucifixion of Christ, and the song "Yahweh" gets its name from the Hebrew name for God).

* A Christian radio station in Winnipeg actually tried to use this as their ''format'' for a period. They wanted to downplay their status to appeal to compete with the secular stations, so they promoted themselves as "FREQ 107, The New Rock Alternative", and [[LoopholeAbuse supposedly remained in compliance with the station's license actually requiring them to play religious music]], by defining the category broadly to include such examples of Not Christian Rock. It ended up being an [[AudienceAlienatingPremise advertiser-alienating premise]]; religious advertisers were turned off by their secular skew, while mainstream advertisers were [[AvoidTheDreadedGRating reluctant to advertise on a Christian station]]. Admitting defeat (especially after the CRTC denied them permission to reduce their religious music to 31% of its weekly programming), their new owner played the Total Abandonment card twice; first to a Christian format targeting a younger audience (as a sister to a now-sister station), and then to classical music.

* Progressive metal band ''Music/{{Kamelot}}'' contains a lot of Christian themes in their music, especially in the Myth/{{Faust}}-inspired concept albums ''Epica'' and ''The Black Halo'', but they are not explicitly Christian. It is believed that religious friction, along with general creative differences, lead to the departure of longtime lead singer Roy Khan, who is a born-again Christian.

* Music/{{Mineral}} is an interesting case. On the one hand a very good percentage of their lyrics were obvious references to Jesus and God and frequently referenced or even quoted Literature/TheBible. On the other hand the band frequently played with secular bands, never associated with the Christian music scene, and never spoke of religion publicly outside of their lyrics. Debating whether they should be considered a Christian band is a surefire way to start an InternetBackdraft.

Contrast GodIsLoveSongs, which are about God but may appear to be secular tunes. Songs that take an outright negative view of faith are {{Religion Rant Song}}s. {{Subtrope}} of AmbiguouslyChristian.