I was scanning through my feedreader today and came upon a great post from Collide Magazine, and found something that was really surprising. CCM, the giant of Christian Music publishing, is stopping their paper based magazine. As an artist that pulled out of music altogether for several years, and is just now thinking about starting again, I find this really interesting.
The Collide article (written by Scott McClellan) is a response to this article in the last print issue of CCM. McClellan really offers some good thoughts into the original CCM article by Charlie Peacock.
The basic gist of the whole thing is the the contemporary Christian music machine was just a vehicle for business and to offer an alternative to mainstream rock acts. Anyone remember those posters that had band comparison's ie..."If you like Sepultura and Napalm Death check out Audio Adrenaline"? The only "Christian" artists that I have continually liked have been The Normals and Waterdeep, both bands writing highly innovative music. Their are a score of other bands that happen to be christian but don't actively pursue an evangelistic career (anything on Tooth and Nail/SolidState).
What I liked the most about McClellan's article was that the segmentation of Christian Music lead to a non-holistic experience. Their almost seemed to be a checklist of what you could write songs about, and I remember this sort of frustration when I was playing CCMish music.
I really agree with what Peacock said, as an artist whose faith happens to be the primary influence this really speaks what some of us have been struggling with for years. I actually feel like I picked a good time to start writing and playing music again.
I forgot to tell you that I picked up a The Normals cd in St. Louis for 99 cents. I like it, especially the price.
Posted by: adamcaldwell | August 25, 2008 at 05:54 PM