Christian Rock-The thread

I'd say the issue lies in what a lot of really hardcore evangelicals are willing to tolerate musically, which is to say much self-styled Christian music isn't simply religious in content and context, but tailored to the tastes of an extremely conservative market. Dig deeper and you'll find quite a lot of exceptionally intriguing and strange music, but what rises to the surface is often determined by people who value the reinforcement of a narrow interpretation of theology and the worldview which is at one with it over, well, pretty much everything. There are mainstream Christian bands which are something of an exception but they tend to have fairly varied repertoires to begin with.

The thing is, Christian rock's main problem is right there in the name - not because of the religion, but because of the very narrow range of lyrical themes. If a band wants to sing exclusively about Jesus, they're either really pious or they want to use the religious demographic to get big. And it's usually the latter case. There are artists who talk about Christianity in their songs, but they can sing about other things too so it doesn't get old. Pixies, as liberal as most of their fan base are, use biblical themes a lot. And there's Kendrick Lamar, who, while he only talks about God openly in a couple of instances, preaches a philosophy close in its ideals to the religion. It's all about being subtle.

I heard from a guy who used to do promotion for Joy Electric. Back in the mid-00s, he tried to get websites and mags to review JE's newest album. These same places were going nuts for other synthpop bands, so it seemed like a natural fit, right? No, these publications said "He's Christian, right? I dunno. I don't think our readers would be interested in songs about Jesus."

Which just went to show that either they didn't listen to the album, or they seriously think surreal lyrics like...

Which I'd say is a dual issue of the label feeding into narrow expectations based on the biggest bands in the arena and the fact that too many people in music journalism equate express admissions of faith as a personal value with preachiness and self-righteousness. And I'm honestly really glad that this stigma is beginning to weaken a little despite not being conventionally religious myself. Really entertaining artists like the aforementioned Joy Electric deserve more attention.

Incidentally, I feel like it's easier to get away with explicitly religious themes if one's religion is not part of the cultural hegemony, particularly if one is non-dogmatic—although Matisyahu might be an exception to that rule—and fairer game still to tackle faith in a searching or questioning way, perhaps because self-doubt is intrinsically universal. This is extremely far from popular music per se, but the increasing popularity of Mizmor in the metal underground is an interesting case to me, in that his lyrical themes are strongly tied to questions of faith within a Jewish religious context.

From what I gather, Christian Rock usually puts the music itself on the backseat because lyrics, and worse, many Christian lyrics writers just play it safe. It's easy to write that you love Jesus and you need His presence (what Christian could ever accuse such lyrics of being bad?), but to write from the heart? Not so much.

I miss the mid/late-2000s christian metalcore scene though, they actually invested on the music, particularly on the second half of that decade. Destroy the Runner, Still Remains, Cry Of The Afflicted, Haste The Day... Well, at least Still Remains are around (to avoid a terrible pun).

EDIT: Oh, it seems Destroy The Runner regrouped as well. Great!

edited 9th Jun '17 12:46:30 PM by NEO

There's still some good ones out there who don't mind being label "Christian Rock," which I too, agree is a misnomer of sorts. NEEDTOBREATHE is going strong still, as well as many artists that tour with them (Colony House, Drew Holcolmb and the Neighbors, The Oh Hellos - more folk, but still fantastic - as well as many others). And as others have said, there are those who don't lump themselves in with Christian music, like Twenty One Pilots.

Speaking of Joy Electric, Ronnie Martin finally released a full (barely) album from his side project Said Fantasy—which he first teased seven years ago. There are a few grandiose moments (the buildup in "Her Solitary Migration" and the extended jam at the end of "Chariot of God") but for the most part this is Ronnie's starkest, most stripped-down album ever. And he's singing about an octave lower than ever before, with a bit of an edge to his voice; the dude barely sounds like himself at all.

It almost sounds like listening to an alternate universe where Joy Division used monosynths and only monosynths to record Unknown Pleasures.

In other news, I just got some albums by The 77s, one of the big three bands that helped create the underground Christian scene in the first place. Their debut Ping Pong Over the Abyss is pretty awkward, lyrically and musically, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of the band. But their next two, All Fall Down and 77s, show the band growing by leaps and bounds. They play a disparate mix of new wave, anthematic 80s arena rock, jangle pop, rockabilly—and they make them work together somehow. I definitely see how the 77s could have been a big mainstream success if they had received more advertising support from their labels, and if they had toured to support their albums more.

(But, ironically, I still like their outtakes compilation Sticks and Stones better than any of their normal albums so far.)