Okay, Tim Dixon's post in the "Missing the Point" thread has had me thinking about the relationship between contemporary Christian music and contemporary Christian literature/writing; I'm especially wondering what the corellation might be.
I grew up listening to Keith Green--a very dynamic singer/songwriter, who lived his whole life for God, until his death at 27 in a plane crash. To this day, I prefer the honest issues KG brought forth in his music.
The commercialism of Christian music today appalls me. I was raised to think that, in this genre, it's about ministry, no matter what medium (writing, singing) is used.
I would hope that it's still about the ministry for most of the artists. (BTW, I also am a fan of Keith Green music.) I think you can tell by their music and persona which ones have a genuine heart for God first (vs. fame and $); but the heart is always at risk of being lured to other loves, unfortunately.
I know a couple of people who make their living in this field. Some of them are very successful and have won Dove awards. Some of them are not as successful, but still exist solely off their income from music. Being able to see the behind the music scene with them has shown me that they are forced to be more business oriented than Christian writers that I read about. Some of them view what they do as their job and others as their ministry.
The people I know also hate the commercialism and "radio tunes" that are required to make it big. One of the biggest differences, I belive, in Christian writing and music is musicians are able to use what is essentially PoD for the music world and distribute via the web. Their credability is established in their tours, not via an editor. Andrew Peterson, one of my favorites - not that I know him very well at all - recently self-produced his own CD. This was after his old record label dropped him due to the fact he would not conform to their ideas about music. It has been a success, from what I read on his board, but only because it was cheap to produce and he distributes via the web and concert sales.
His product is just as professional as something Jars of Clay might produce. In the writing world we do not have that ability.
The touring is so hard on their personal lives that they have to really love what they do. They only make money when they tour.
When I think of musicians that have "sold out", it really comes down to style for me. There are obvious ones of course *cough* Amy Grant *cough*, but just going to a concert and listening to them will not tell you the whole story. I've seen to much backstage and before the concerts to believe anyone for good or bad. They are people like us; some struggle, some shine. Some very famous artists who you might think of as very spiritual are complete phoneys behind the scene and others who seem very professional are really spiritual giants.
Yeah, he's the first really stimulating musician I ever listened to. His lyrics tended to grab you and make you think about things from a new angle.
I love "Make My Life a Prayer to you" and "The Lord Is My Shepherd".
I grew up on his music and his ministry. And when I was involved with a Christian group that condemned anything with a "beat" to it, they still would find cover versions of his songs and talk about what an anointing those songs had!
His passion for God and for God's people always came through his music.
His biography is a really good read, too.
Music is like literature, salt to taste, but there is a machine which prefers trite and meaningless, because substance always tends to be controversial. I tend to dislike commercial driven art as a whole, because it comes from a dishonest place, a mask if you will. I don't like the secular or religious mass-marketed art.
Once you attach fame and money to anything artistic, it tends to draw self-seeking people whose primary agenda is marketing pablum, rather than an expression of the heart. You have copycat books, because people will fall into the mold of predicted success. And the music industry is worse when it comes to cloning.
There is a big difference between an artist and someone who minister's through their art. Easy fame and easy money tend to be draw immature people, and in some respects instant success stunts growth and breeds pride. So, you have an insdustry filled with people whose maturity is far less than their talent.
What I always liked about Keith Green was how he didn't charge for his records. Nada. He figured God gave him the music and He'd take care of his needs as long as Keith didn't worry about it. We were able to have several albums and be blessed by them back when we had no money for anything that wasn't life-or-death (food, rent, etc.) That policy changed after his death, for whatever reason, but it was an eye-opening, thought-producing thing back in the day.
Along with Keith Green, one of my all time favorites BTW and I have nearly all of his albums, is 2nd Chapter of Acts. They were very annointed and I still get goose bumps when I listen to their stuff. I enjoy some Christian music and some I don't. I think we have to be careful about judging the artists and if there is something wrong, believe me, God has a way of taking care of it. (Sandy Patty, First Call just to mention a couple.) I think God uses what is given to Him and just like any artist, life is a struggle. Some have kept their integrity and some have fallen. Being in the public eye must be very difficult.
I totally love Keith Green's music. Another great artist from years back is Steve Camp.
I don't buy a lot of Christian CD's anymore. I did more of that back when I was in High School and early college. I'm not appalled by main stream Christian music but it does feel too commercialized for me and I'm so not into commercialization, especially of anything Christian.
In High School I absolutely loved Michael W. Smith. Now I really don't care for his music because he seems so commercialized. The only CD's of his I listen to really anymore are the praise and worship ones. I love playing praise and worship in my CD player and I'm so glad that I now have a car with a CD player in it so that I can play CD's in my car instead of having to listen to the radio.
Which btw, K-Love says they're commercial free but they have a lot of non-music segments on there that sound an awful lot like commercials to me.
I loved the phrase "What would Jesus do?" when I was a kid at camp and one of the camp leaders posed that question to us saying we should ask it to ourselves before we do or say anything. But then years later the WWJD bracelets and merchandise came out and was such a huge fad that I ended up disliking it. I'm just not into fads or mainstream. I've always been rather independent in that regard.
Nowadays instead of asking myself "What would Jesus do?" I like the question, "Is it holy?" I think asking myself "is it holy?" is a much more powerful question.
Another Keith Green song that's very powerful and I saw others do a myme to is "The Prodigal Son Suite."
Another one of my all time favorite Keith Green songs is "Song to my Parents." Not to mentione "Rushing Wind" which we used to sing in church and "To Obey is Better than Sacrifice."
"The Lord is my Shepherd" doesn't appear to be on my cd. I'm not sure I've ever heard it.