More CCM rants
A while back during the fallout from Evanescence’s Christian market fiasco, I found some interesting comments about Christians and the CCM industry at a general music and entertainment industry “insider” messageboard, The Velvet Rope. Well, “the Rope” is at it again, this time in a discussion about Krystal Meyers (Disclaimer: you’ll likely to find some offensive language at “the Rope”), a new artist being marketed as “the Christian Avril Lavigne.” As always, these kind of discussions bring out the anti-religious types and those who just want to make a cheap joke, but the most insightful comment so far comes from a Christian.
As a Christian I firmly reject Christian Contemporary Music. I find it to express its convictions in such grossly sentimental terms that it makes belief utterly banal and cartoonish. Also my own intuition tells me that many “Christian” artists are using this arena as shrewd marketing. That is to say people of marginal belief selling a product to a captive audience that they pander to.
I don’t know that I’m quite as soured on CCM as this person, but it’s a valid point.
Back when I was a member of Indieheaven, there was a lot of talk about a band called Building 429, who had just signed with a major CCM label. People fawned over them as an example of how indie artists can succeed and get noticed in the Christian “mainstream.” I’m sure they’re completely sincere in what they do, but nobody ever talked about how they sound like just about every other “supposedly hip and edgy but not too hard for adult contemporary radio” pop-rock band out there, and their lyrics are pretty much cliche upon cliche, as Tim Challies noted a while back. Just what the “market” wants - someone else telling people what they want to hear, the way they want to hear it.
Thank God for people like Derek Webb, who aren’t afraid to be capital-A-Artists, instead of “singing Jesus salesmen.”
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June 24th, 2005 at 4:14 pm
You’ll be amused to note that I’ve been with Derek to a festival where Building 429 was present. Derek swapped with the festival guy to be the opener instead of the headliner. The crowd—your youth festival normals—didn’t get it at all. He played “T-Shirts”, which made me just cackle.
July 9th, 2005 at 3:11 am
I do a CCM radio show every Sunday morning - my “dreaded day of death” as i call it - anyway, it’s a bit tough at this point because i’m being paid to promote music i can’t stand…and it goes beyond just the ’sound’ - the ‘content’ is sickening most of the time