Lecrea is one of the best Christian artists around.

The song “Jesus Muzik” has a style that is totally intentional. If you delved deeper into his music you would discover that its the second song off an album called After the Music Stops. The first song off that album is self-entitled (After the Music Stops) and the main chorus is:

“After its over.. after it ends.. after the music stops, what then? Will you understand that CHrist is King or will you just like the words we sing, after the music stops!”

The idea is that he’s trying to lure in fans of popular rap artists with a similar style but hook them into the Word of God. He is using a strategy to EDIFY the masses.

On a side note his lyrics and emotion in his songs set him apart from a lot of other boring Christian songs with verse-chorus-verse, Nickelback style.

Lecrea and Trip Lee are two of the best,

-Ryan

I came across your article yesterday as I have been blogging about music more as of late. Anyway thanks for writing this, it really resonated with me.

My most recent blog post is an attempt at #4!

Drews last blog post..Christian Music Worth Listening To

Bands like Zao brought in what is now metalcore, hopesfall and Underoath spawned the heavy emo, Tantrum Of The Muse brought the rock, Extol and Kekal took death and black metal to the progressive edge, and Virgin Black is without parallel for doom.

You will occasionally find secular bands that match up (Opeth, Protest The Hero, etc) but there has been a significant number of bands that have come out of the Christian scenes that have shaped where we are today with heavy music.

So yes, late 90’s/early 2000s in heavy music is a case in point on how TO do it.

hewhocutsdowns last blog post..Celldweller

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. The history lesson was certainly informative. I think your conclusion hits the nail right on the head:

“What I’m trying to say is that while much of the “popular” Christian music is more banal than not, there is merit to be found in some of it, and there is enough in the underground to keep you occupied, should CCM prove to be too trying.”

This idea of pursuing underground acts (or quality acts in general) is exactly what I had in mind when I talked about searching for something better and spreading the word. By in large, CCM music is poor quality, but there is great music being made by believers out there, we just need to find it and support it!

On a related note, all this talk about hardcore makes me think that we should petition Scott to write something on the genre….

Secondly, we have to look at it as ebb & flow. There was a lot of really good music to come out of the underground during the 70’s (the Jesus Music movement), most of which never made a mark commercially. Listen to some of the more obscure Jesus Music groups of that time period, and you’ll find some rather well-written music that sometimes suffers from slightly dodgy production or a vocalist that perhaps wasn’t *quite* up to snuff. Otherwise, most of the material coming out was quite good. Then, you had the more prominent Jesus Music artists of the day (Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, The Way, Love Song, Phil Keaggy, 2nd Chapter of Acts, early Daniel Amos) making great music that mostly stood up to the secular scene, even if it was a couple years behind the curve.

When the 80’s hit, the whole “rock & roll is of the devil” thing took place, so other than trail-blazers like Ressurection Band, Barnabas, Petra, Servant, and like-minded groups trying to stay current (again, even if they were a bit behind the curve), too many churches pushed back & wanted nothing to do w/ those groups. Only by the mid-80’s were some of those artists accepted, and more innovative (or at least talented) artists like Steve Taylor, Whitecross, Stryper, etc. started to appear.

The 90’s were an interesting time for “Christian” music, because not only did “Christian” hip-hop begin to get attention (no thanks to DC Talk), but “alternative” and grunge bands (like Grammatrain) began to crop up. In addition, many of the Christian metal bands began to really hone their craft. Look at bands like Deliverance, Tourniquet, Mortification, and Saviour Machine. All fine examples of their respective genres, and groups that made great music while keeping things lyrically bold & interesting at the same time.

The mid-90’s brought the Christian hardcore scene, and with it the Tooth & Nail phenomenon, which was a much-needed shot in the arm for Christian music. It wasn’t all “Jesus-this and Jesus-that” (to quote Lt. Dan), but stuff was beginning to be more introspective & less “preachy” all the time. Christian metal had retreated to the underground, but that’s where it belonged, so new bands began to emerge that did great things, and old war-horses like Living Sacrifice reinvented themselves to great success (artically speaking).

The 2000’s have been another interesting period, both with a rise in the popularity (& marketability) of “Christian” music with bands like Skillet, Red, Thousand Foot Krutch, and the like getting mainstream radio play, but also of a lot more underground stuff (like the burgeoning Christian black metal scene, call it “unblack” if you wish). In addition, the continued strength of the Christian hardcore scene proves that while the variety may not always be there, the passion & conviction certainly are.

I didn’t mean for this to turn into a history lesson, per se, but I think it’s important to recognize the good here, from every decade specifically. I’d like to make a couple points about the current state of Christian music.

1. The Christian hardcore scene DESTROYS the secular scene. By that, I mean that the amount of passion, conviction, and QUALITY of material coming from Christian hardcore bands has, in the last 15 years, equaled or exceeded that coming from the secular hardcore underground. Some would cite newer metalcore acts like Killswitch Engage, or bands like Shadows Fall as good examples in the secular scene, & I would concur. However, most of the bands in the secular scene are “ventilators”, or bands that use their music strictly as an outlet to vent their anger/frustration/etc & less for making real statements about anything. In addition, many bands associated w/ the “Christian” hardcore scene gain acclaim from regular hardcore kids (xLooking Forwardx being a good example) because they are good at what they do, & they are steadfast in their convictions. Basically, while I listen to very few hardcore & metal bands in the secular scene, the Christian bands fill that gap nicely because they are quite good at what they do.

2. There’s nothing wrong w/ wearing your Christianity on your sleeve. For some bands, that’s the right thing to do. That may be what they feel called to do. Perhaps their goal of evangelism is incongruent w/ their ultra-bold lyrical approach (due to non-Christians usually being turned off by “preachy” lyrics), but I think we need to move past the bean counter approach (how many souls have you won?) & look at the overall picture. If a band feels led to make their lyrics really bold, they should do so because that is their conviction. God will use them in a positive way regardless of their perceived “cheesy” approach. If God wants to save souls via their influence, He will. If He prefers that band be a “feed the body” type of group, they will. We all respond differently to varying lyrical styles & approaches, so despite my distaste for most of today’s CCM (the praise-and-worship stuff, some of the lighter rock), I understand that there’s an audience for it & that God is using those people to further His work, either through ministering to the lost, or providing encouragement to His children.

What I’m trying to say is that while much of the “popular” Christian music is more banal than not, there is merit to be found in some of it, and there is enough in the underground to keep you occupied, should CCM prove to be too trying.

If literature were like that, there wouldn’t be any essays on economics, books by Noam Chomsky, etc. because they would all be using the same formula, which would eventually numb the minds of readers to the point of extinction.

The Danes last blog post..20080505

Thanks for the comment. There are quite a few things I’d like to address, but let me just point out something about your main objection.

The last point, “Spread the word” refers to telling other people about what good music we find. It does not say, “Spread the Word.” Although I would not be opposed to Christians spreading the “Word” in music, what I had in mind was the idea that if we want music made by Christians to get better, we need to tell other people when we find good music.

As atheists, my group of friends have resorted to asking if the information, music, paper, website, is Christian based. If the answer is something like, “Just see it, listen too it, read it, or yes. . . then we immediately pass it by.

True, we may miss some genuinely good musicians, writers, etc, but we will not miss having rerun after rerun about theistic religious beliefs using the same formula as we’ve heard 10, 000 times before. We know you love God, and that God loves us. We know you think you’re going to Heaven. We know you think God works in strange ways and created the universe, etc., and on and on.

Why can’t Christians talk, write, play music about life without preaching the Word? It just gets really, really old to the point of mundanes when you hear the same theme repeated over and over an infinitum.

If literature were like that, there wouldn’t be any Faulkner’s, Camus,’ etc. because they would all be using the same formula, which would eventually numb the minds of readers to the point of extinction.

I don’t want nor need to get into a religious discussion about my beliefs, but I will say that as atheists we do not discount the possibility of a creator or creators. We simply believe that if there is a creator or creators, then it is nothing like any theistically construed reality yet printed or believed.

So in conclusion, I just wanted to pass along what we believe in the long run does more damage than good to any movement–repeating your beliefs to people over and over again using the same methods but changing the vectors–literature, music, politics, etc.

I know it’s what you are suppose to do, but consider the above. Keep your faith, but please consider that reality is not a closed system and linear, and that repeating that belief may cause, ultimately, more damage than construction.

Thanks for your reply. Here in the UK there is only a very small Christian music scene. Even looking in the Christian bookshops the vast majority of CD’s are by American artists.

I totally agree with you that Christian artists can sing about trees, tv etc and be speaking the truth however these days when I’m listening to a christian band I like it when there is a discernable difference between them and a secular band. This is broadly what I think you are saying in your opening paragraph. In the UK there is definately the feeling that if a christian band wants to make the mainstream then they have to downplay their faith.

I guess as i am getting older i am just looking for some depth to the music i listen to when it concerns my faith. When i listen to a christian artist sing about love i would like to hear something other than ‘Love is good, hating sucks’ or if they sing about tv i don’t want to hear ‘Baywatch is my favourite show. I like to watch it in slo-mo’

I totally take your point about the risk of a christian artist not singing explicitly about God running the risk of alienating their audience as this happened to Delirious when they released Mezzamorphis.

This comment is mostly an excuse for me to upload my avatar, since that is a new feature to CAPC, but I did want to point out that the topic of my post was not the poor quality of CCM out there, but how we can practically improve things. Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. I think your point about the lack of improvisation in modern music is an interesting observation. I hadn’t thought much about that.

Richard,

Thanks for your comment and giving us a UK perspective! Speaking from (some, quite limited and amateur) experience, I can say that if a Christian artist refrains from explicitly singing (or raping) about God and their faith, fear is probably not the reason. In the current Christian music market, singing explicitly about God and faith will bring you more success, not less. So in this sense at least, whenever an artist who is a Christian doesn’t sing explicitly about God, they are taking a serious risk at alienating a potential audience.

In our case, we decided to openly rap about God and our faith when it was relevant, but we also talk about other things, since there are other things in life besides God (although He is Lord over all), like rocks, and trees, and love, and TV, etc….

I once had a listener message me and say that he liked our music but he wanted us to talk more about God and Christ and the Gospel. I wrote back and explained to him that the whole album is about Christ since it is from a Christian worldview. And I suspect that when people like Sufjan Stevens, for example, write songs that don’t directly refer to God, he would tell you that all his songs are about God since they are all about the Truth.

-Alan