(originally written in June 2003)
Evanescence now has a hit called “Bring Me to Life.” To call it a smash would be a gross understatement. It has dominated both the Christian and secular charts for several months, and could go on to become one of the biggest hits of the year.
But they caused quite a stir in Christian circles recently when they announced that they wanted to be affiliated with a secular record label, in order to gain greater visibility in the secular world as a crossover artist. It seems that many Christians do not believe that an artist is truly Christian unless they are fully part of the Christian music system.
This brings to mind the question: What exactly is Christian music?
Many Christians believe that you cannot be truly serious about the things of God unless you only listen to Christian music. This has resulted in a genre of music that is defined entirely by its content and the fact that it is targeted to Christians only, supported by a Christian music culture that looks and feels exactly like the secular system, with the only differences being that everything is based in Nashville instead of Hollywood, and that everything is called Christian. This is what Christian music means in today’s culture.
But is that a proper definition of Christian music? Would it be better to say that Christian music is music made by artists who are Christian, who work and perform in the secular world but allow their Christian beliefs to influence the content of their music and the way they live their lives? Certainly Christian music would be much more effective in getting the Gospel message out to the world if this were the accepted definition of Christian music and its role in culture. (At least that’s what I think, Of course I may be the only person on the face of the earth who holds this view.)
Look what has resulted from our current culture of Christian music. We now have a whole series of artists who are worth listening to only because they sound like certain popular secular artists. I am not impressed by that. If I want to listen to Sheryl Crow, then I will listen to Sheryl Crow, not some Christian singer who is trying to sound like Sheryl Crow. If I want to listen to Pearl Jam, then I’ll listen to Pearl Jam. If I want to listen to the Spice Girls, then I’ll listen to Abba, because if not for Abba the Spice Girls would never have been possible in a million years.
Also, many Christian artists sound just like each other. Have you listened to Christian radio lately? Not only does it sound just like the soft rock stations did about a decade ago, but they only play the same two or three songs. The words, the key, the melody, and the artist may vary slightly, but other than that all the songs are essentially the same. Because of this, I am able to streamline my Christian music collection greatly by following only a few select artists.
But there’s something even worse than this. The lifestyles of many Christian musicians do not line up with the message that they claim to represent. In 1999 Amy Grant met Vince Gill when he sang with her on her most recent Christmas album. They hit it off, started fooling around, and within a year Amy Grant was divorcing her then-husband Gary Chapman to marry him. Her justification for this was the flimsy statement that “I just feel in my heart that the Lord wants me to be happy.” The whole Christian world was in an uproar over this. Several well-known Christian commentators (Chuck Colson, Bill Bright, etc.) made their obligatory statements of moral outrage. But now, the outrage has all but disappeared and Amy Grant is still just as successful as ever.
Sandi Patty did the exact same thing back in 1995. (Not with Vince Gill, mind you. Though it would have been a very interesting situation if both Amy Grant and Sandi Patty had divorced their husbands to marry Vince Gill. Can you imagine the field day that the Christian commentators would have had with that one?) She was working on a Christmas album when that story broke. At the time, there was talk that her record label might suspend production of that album, but they did not. That album is available in stores (it is called O Holy Night, in case you are interested), and since that time Sandi Patty has gone on to record many more successful albums.
Do you see what we are willing to accept in order to preserve the Christian music system as it is today? It is clearly not worth preserving, because of its ineffectiveness in reaching the lost world, and because of its musical shortcomings which I noted earlier. Why are we willing to preserve such a system? Because it makes a nice living for the producers, promoters, etc. who make their living off the current system. Also, it gives us a convenient means by which to gauge the spiritual maturity of others without actually getting to know them and seeing how they live their lives. Thus we can, all from the comfort and safety of our own homes, denounce other believers who listen to secular music simply because they desire a little variety in their musical taste, while we demonstrate the blandness of our own musical taste by the Christian music that we consider good. We can also denounce artists like Evanescence who allow their Christian belief to influence the content of their music far more effectively than many other Christian artists, simply because they desire a broader platform by which to get their message out into the secular world, while accepting Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Sandi Patty, and their revolving-door marriages. How convenient! And all in the name of Christ!
