Contemporary Christian Music (?)

Hello people!

Hope you are doing great. Because I'm not (not to be taken too seriously, I'm actually doing pretty good). And here's why. I'm a little disappointed with not being able to find too many good Christian music artists.

Now I do know the old argument that we shouldn't make a sacred-secular divide, and that there is no such thing as Christian music, blah blah blah... And I kinda agree with that too. But recently I've been granted extra grace by God, which has enabled me to really enjoy spending time with Him. And so I was in the mood to listen to some music which talk about God, and His wondrous works.

But the sad thing is that I couldn't find a lot of music that talk about God in the right way (right as in according to the Scripture) and are also good musically. There are the hymns of course, which I just love. Those old songs that are sung in the traditional Churches, you know? Like, "A Mighty Fortress is our God," "Just As I am," "Be Thou my vision," and so on. But if I want something newer, I don't know.

There is a lot of debate surrounding Contemporary Christian Music. There are a fair number of critics, and quite a few who defend it. The former say that it is vain repetition or that it is not Scripturally solid. There are a number of arguments used by the latter, but I'm going to focus on one in particular. "Why should the devil have all the good music?" That's a famous quote, by (I don't know who). And I guess it makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that it is used to defend music that is not actually all that good. Like, what happened to good song writing.

I know being Scripturally correct is the most important thing. I totally agree. But there are enough people talking about it. So let's talk about song-writing. Like, why don't we get Simon and Garfunkel quality songwriting both lyrically and musically. Or Bob Dylan quality lyrically. I don't want to come across as an elitist. But let's face it. The song writing in CCM gets tedious pretty soon. Which is why CCM songs don't last long. They come in waves. Whereas 'Sound of Silence'. That lasts. Or 'Blowing in the Wind'. Tremendous lyrics. No wonder he won the Nobel (though I know there's a fair bit of controversy with that and I don't want to go there.) And that's part of the reason why the great hymns have lasted too. I'm sure there were a number of Scripturally good hymns that are sort of forgotten today because of poor songwriting. And what about plagiarism in CCM. Let's be honest here. There's way too much plagiarism which is just annoying.

Petra is one good band that had great songwriting, and amazing music. And were Scripturally very good. I'm not saying there aren't any more examples. In fact, there are a lot. Southern Gospel music is really good. I grew up with the Gaither Homecoming CDs and I think they are great. I do sort of like Tenth Avenue North too. And I've heard there are some great rap artists in the Christian community. I've also heard there are some good heavy rock / metal bands that write music with Christian lyrics.

This blog post is somewhere between a rant and a plea for song / artist suggestions. I'm guessing there is a lot of good Christian music out there, and I don't know about it. So, if you guys know of any such artists, do let me know. I don't want artists in the rap, heavy rock / heavy metal, country, or CCM genres. I'm looking at more along the genres of classic rock, soft rock, alternative, Indie, jazz/blues, or some sort of fusion. Or even Celtic I guess. In fact if it's really good country music I don't mind. And what genre does Enya's music come under? Even that kind would be great. And I'm looking for good songwriting. Also, if you know of any good Indian music with Christian lyrics. In Hindi or Tamil, let me know. Like Keerthana songs are old Tamil songs written with Tamil tunes. Is there any such contemporary music?

Alright. That's it, I guess. Thanks in advance! :D Here's a meme I found on the internet to end it on a lighter note (did you note the pun I squeezed in there? Did it hit a chord with you? Okay I'm going to give it a rest...)

The Light Meets the Dark: the gospel in the context of hard questions

Today I had an interesting conversation with a friend. We were talking about the hard questions of life. And I'm guessing that if we are honest, each of us faces moments when we are confronted with hard questions. Questions that makes us uncomfortable. We are confronted with answers that don't feel good. And much too often, the natural tendency is to ignore such questions. Vinoth Ramachandra in his blog post, ""Deconstructing Equality", talks about the question of intrinsic and equal worth of human beings being side stepped or shouted out of view in our contemporary polarized discourse of equality, since it is a hard question.

When I came back home after the conversation, I started listening to an album by Tenth Avenue North, "The Light Meets the Dark." And for the first time, I noticed how the band does not shy away from asking tough questions. I have not been a big fan of contemporary Christian music due to many reasons, out of which one is that CCM often does not deal with hard questions, and just writes feel good inspirational music.

The third song of the album, 'you are more,' is one of the band's highly successful songs both critically as well as on the charts. The song talks about questions of self worth, and in quite unflattering tones claims that self worth cannot be drawn from the choices one has made in life. In a concert, lead singer and frontman, Mike Donehey says about the song, "We preach something like this, 'the choices you make make you who you are.' You know, only proud people say that, only people who've made good choices say that... Well, here's the gospel, you gotta admit you are a bum, and you don't need to prove a thing to anybody because He did it for you."

The first song of the album, 'healing begins,' makes an appeal to let down one's walls. The second verse says, Afraid to let your secrets out / Everything that you hide / Can come crashing through the door now / But too scared to face all your fear / So you hide but you find / That the shame won't disappear. And then the pre-chorus kicks in, So let it fall down / There's freedom waiting in the sound / When you let your walls fall to the ground / We're here now.

The last song of the album, 'Oh my dear', closes out the questions raised by "healing begins," in a very satisfactory manner by telling the story of a person opening up and talking about some of their deepest secrets: You said, 'I just don't think that you'll understand / You'll never look at me that way again / If you knew what I did.' // And so your tears fell and melted the snow / You told me secrets nobody had known / But I never loved you more, even though / Now I knew what you did. // Oh my dear, I'll wait for you / And grace tonight will pull us through / Until the tears have left your eyes / Until the fears can sleep at night / Until the demons that you're scared of disappear inside / Until this guilt begins to crack / And the weight falls from your back / Oh, my dear, I'll keep you in my arms tonight.

Each of the song in the album deals with heavy questions. The band deals with defeat, feelings of inferiority, fear, hurt, and the various challenges one faces while living the Christian faith, in a very succinct manner. And it is only in the context of asking the real tough questions that the hope and appeal of the gospel (the word gospel literally means 'good news') really stands out.

I experienced the album to be quite inspirational. But it does not inspire by ignoring and shying away from the difficult questions, but rather talks about hope in the midst of the ugly reality that we have to live in everyday.

Disclaimer: I am not good at critically analyzing music, and hence this is not so much an album review as much as a closer look at the message of the album from a purely lyrical perspective. I must also admit that I really love Tenth Avenue North and encourage all you readers to check out their music. The Light Meets the Dark is a good place to start, and here's the third song of the album, you are more. Cheers!