Christian Music Enters Mainstream
by Tamara Gilkes
The music industry is rapidly changing but one branch of the industry, Christian music, seems to have only benefited. Religious leaders have started to notice the general rise in popularity of Christian music in the last few years.
As stated by Ken Tucker in “Radio’s Christendom Gets Bigger,” published in the Billboard Radio Monitor, “As of March [2005], the M Street Journal counted 693 commercial religious music stations, up from 543 stations 10 years ago.” Christian stations are on the rise in popularity, and as a result many record labels have added Christian bands to their line-ups.
Some may think that the bands that have been added to these labels are probably only reaching out to a specific group of people, mainly church-going individuals, but this is not always the case. Many of these bands can be seen in mainstream pop and rock and roll. Recently, Christian pop/punk rock band Relient K had a steady spot on MTV’s Total Request Live, and other bands, like the rock band Switchfoot, have stood at the top of the charts for some time now. Switchfoot managed to sell over 2.5 million copies of their CD The Beautiful Letdown without many of their fans knowing that their uplifting tunes of rising above adverse conditions actually stem from their Christian beliefs.
Relient K is a pop/punk rock band that many may have seen at the Vans Warped Tour this summer. According to the official fan web site, in their songs “there’s a lot about making mistakes, failing, how amazing grace is and picking yourself back up.” The band also provides brief explanations of their recent songs. “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” is about the times in a person’s life when the world doesn’t seem to be going is/her way. In the end they tell their audience that God does allow for a second opportunity. Many of their songs speak of avoiding avarice, living each day to its fullest extent, as well as many other Christian beliefs.
Band member Thiessen states through the web site, “We’ve also found it to be the hardest thing in the world to say ‘Jesus’ in a song and not be cheesy, so we definitely have our own way of singing about spirituality. But in the end that’s who we are and what we believe in. We hope between that and the music, it connects with someone out there.”
Apparently they have, as Christian music’s popularity continues to soar. Mark Allan Powell of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said in his web article “Contemporary Christian Music: What Can We Learn?” that, “In many ways CCM artists have replaced television evangelists as the primary media connection between pop culture and pop religion.”
Switchfoot continues to show that trend as they bring religion to the airwaves. In their newest album, Nothing is Sound, the band continues to question the world using their Christianity.
“I ask myself questions and sing about it,” said band member and lead singer Jon Foreman on the band’s official web site. “A lot of these songs are like an oyster. A bit of sand gets in and it’s abrasive and troublesome. The oyster starts working on it and a few years later you open it up and there’s a pearl in there. That’s what I do in my songs—chew on the more abrasive parts of my life.”
On their newest album, the band tackles topics such as the commercial use of sex, and how it has turned the intimate act into a commercial target, in the song “Easier Than Love,” as well as the topic of loneliness in “Lonely Nation.” The song “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine” was influenced by the band’s recent trip to South Africa to see for themselves the effects of poverty and AIDS. “You realize how poor we are as Americans,” Foreman said on the site. “We might have a nice SUV, but nothing to show for our humanity.”
Even overseas in Australia, the sales have risen. Author Adam Bell states in his article “Christians Rock On: Praise Music Grabs $30m Market Slice” that “Christian music captured a $30.2 million slice or 5.6 per cent of the total recorded music sales market in Australia in 2004.” It seems that the negative stigma that used to follow Christian music is fading in the mainstream world. With many other Christian music musicians out there, such as Mary Mary, Sixpence None the Richer, the Newsboys, and Starflyer 59, it appears that their popularity will only continue to rise and Christian music lovers will gain a larger place in the popular music world.
Sources:
Bell, Adam. “Christians Rock On: Praise Music Grabs $30m Market Slice” 21 August 2005. http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=006f50a6458d949e5 9ce98dee587f610&_docnum=34&wchp=dGLbVzz-zSkVb&_md5=64952a824c 2318ed a204b58bdc9802a5.
Powell, Mark Allan. “Contemporary Christian Music: What Can We Learn?” Lutheran Partners. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. http://www.elca.org/lp/ conmusic.html.
Relient K official website: http://www.relientk.com/photos.asp.
Switchfoot’s official website: http://www.switchfoot.com/bandmain.htm.
Tucker, Ken. “Radio's Christendom Gets Bigger.” Billboard Radio Monitor. 8 April 2005. http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=07b04d857c660eb418 26e1d372d68c62&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVzz-zSkVb&_md5=c5a00ce d3d27c4374e24d37200f5d309.
