To me is simply depends on what the actual music is like. I certainly do not have issues with Christian music, assuming of course that the actual music blends together well. I am much more likely to listen to Christian rock than I am to listen to the ghetto (*)(*)(*)(*) that seems to be so popular today. I find the idea of worshiping something in the sky much less offensive that the sexualization and dismissal of women, glorifying a ghetto lifestyle, drug use, violence in the name of the street, and other silly destructive bull(*)(*)(*)(*) that seems to come that side of the arena. As I said before I have a few albums from bands that consider themselves Christian, I believe only one of them consider their music to be Christian. I suppose groups that part of the field just haven't jumped out at me. Could be that I am addicted to Tool. lol
I listen to Switchfoot, Flyleaf, and Jars of Clay, though mostly I don't listen to their actual praise songs.
If you look at what passes for contemporary popular music (rock, pop, rap, country etc), especially that which is sold my the major labels, then most of it pure dreck. If you add an agenda (, and it really doesn't matter which one, but since we are talking about Christian music, then we can stick to it), for some reason crappier music gets way more attention than it deserves. If it's good, it's good. One of my favourite artists is Johnny Cash. Much of his music with overtly Christian. It's beautiful. I don't miss The Messiah at Christmas. All of the music that I listen to and would be labelled 'Christian' is classical or old-school country. While I don't really have much exposure to modern Christian music (other than a local radio station and a couple channels on Sirius), I just find contemporary Christian music just absolute crap. That being said, I have no inclination to look for good Christian music, though I doubt that it exists.
I have listened to Christian-themed music before that I liked. It doesnt happen often though. Part of what makes it good though is the lyrics. The actual singing. I dont listen to a lot of instrumental stuff myself. I have been moved by Christian lyrics before. But not often. The Christian stuff I have liked has been mainstream or gospel. Their metal stuff does not appeal to me at all. Frankly it sounds odd.
I watched an interview with Tool once, Keenan said something along the line of (referring to today's popular music, crappy music that gets a lot of attention as you say) "that music shouldn't really be on a music chart, but a chart of ingenious marketing schemes. Like McNuggets and McDonalds.".
This is one of my critiques of our business-society (not to say capitalist, though I think to say so would be fair). Anythign that becomes popular is instantly devoured by suits. It used to be that some things could be popular for a while and maintain their integrity. Not anymore. Nowadays becoming popular and dying as an artform are sysnonymous. if someone like Bob Marley, the first true global artist and ultimate originator of so-called World Beat, came along today, the suits would immediately contruct a 100 artifical lookalike bands, hire some people to write the same kind of hooks, slather on some generic love-song or party lyrics...and Bob Marley himslef would be drowned under the steaming mound until all that was left would be "Bob who?"
The Atheists I know still love the classic Christmas Carols (even the ones that praise the birth of Jesus)...... And...as a Christian...I don't really care for modern Christian Music. Give me the old time gospels any day.
Yeah, pretty much. Business is a double edged sword, you hear music you may not have listened to otherwise, but at the same time, the business controls the music. Much of today's music is a good example, a good portion of todays rock is just blah, just some dudes playing power chords singing about getting laid. Not real exciting.
I'm an agnostic. One of my favorite songs is "Winds of Change" by Kutless, which is based on Isaiah 40. That said, another favorite song is "Dear God" by XTC, which is an atheist telling God why he doesn't believe in Him. Good music is good music. What makes "Winds of Change" good is that it isn't a beat-you-over-the-head sermon set to music. Like all good songs, it uses imagery and metaphor to paint a picture. The fact that the imagery is taken from the Bible is beside the point: it's good imagery, and a great tune. Too much Christian music is simply too earnest and awkward to be good. "Jesus is awesome" is a fine sentiment, but a lousy lyric -- just like "Satan is awesome" would be.
I have a couple favorite church songs from my catholic school days. I was just laughing with my sister the other day how she used to make me sing them to her at night when she was little. "Here I am Lord" is probably my all time favorite.
I would still argue that as long as free market principles reign, where success is measured by giving people what they want, one edge of that sword is sharper than the other. We are, after all, animals, and this means that in sum we will most often prefer those things that base instinct demands.
We see this time and time again. It's no different in poetry. The very idea of Christian poetry makes me wince. Doubt versus Faith Doubt sees the obstacles, Faith sees the way. Doubt sees the darkest night, Faith sees the day. Doubt dreads to take a step, Faith soars on high. Doubt questions, "Who believes?" Faith answers, "I". Author Unknown ************ Such simpering pap! Try this. Maoli is the name of the poet's dog, who ran off one day. He can imagine the extinction of humanity, the end of the universe, but he will never know where his dog went. ************ The end of "Search Party", by WS Merwin You that see now with your own eyes All that there is as you suppose Though I could stare through broken glass And show you where the morning goes Though I could follow to their close Sparks of an exploding species And see where the world ends in ice I would not know where Maoli is
True, however I agree with the other poster in the sense that if group X is popular, then for the sake of profits, record company will pump out more groups like group X.
Did someone say Group X? http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/bang http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/schfiftyfive http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/toomanyguys
Like others here I am very fond of Church music from the medievel right up into the late baroque. Modern Christian Music is boring, anodyne, antiseptic and turgid. Gary Neuman's albun 'Pure' is a strong assertion of Atheism.
In the case of "rock and roll" which is derived from a double entendre between wild dancing and the sex act, The "Christian" version seems inappropriate, let alone anodyne. I enjoy some pieces of music which have a religious connection, but for their musical quality. The concept of a religious version of a particular genre of music sounds like a copy or a cover version of the real thing, rather than something of value in it's own right.
More thread necro? It's getting like Evil Dead in here. One of the bands I listen to is Coheed and Cambria. Their songs are a tale of science fiction. If a band sings about a god then that would be fiction too. Nothing wrong with that. I'm not keen on lyrics that advocate mistreatment of women or so on but if I'm honest, a good piece of music can make me overlook distasteful lyrics. Just like I can put up with a rape scene in a movie if it advances the plot and is not just there to be gratuitous.
Some Christian music is beautiful and interesting, of course I listen to it. Why would you make such a jump, is it all the bible verses that teach how awful the athiests are? Seriously? Perplex thyself not. This is just a simple equivocation fallacy. It is wrong to say 2 plus 2 is four. Its wrong to torture puppies. And the next level of equiv. fallacy is you picked the 'wrong' word, anyway. The Christian songs are about hope, belief, transcendence. It may not be all about reality but whoever said that art must be about reality of it is wrong? Does that answer your Q?
Good music is good music. The only difference is that I won't relate to the lyrics as well. Let me put it this way. I feel toward Christian music the same way Christians do toward Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam).
First off, this is a strawman. You're claiming there's a double standard from atheists when there's not. I listen to some Christian music, but it's from bands that aren't straight up doing praise music that's really obvious in it's lyrics. I listen to bands that, because of my background, I know they're Christian pretty quick even with more vague lyrics. It bothers me to some extent, but as long as it's fairly unaggressive and obvious in it's religiousness, I'll listen. Paper Route it one of my favorite bands, and they're a Christian band. I'd go see them live, but I wouldn't go to some show where they're preaching about god and trying to bring people to god, because I'm against that. I'd actually go see that before I'd see some rapper that promotes rape of women, which I've NEVER heard, and I've listened to a hell of a lot of rap over the years, including gansta rap, which isn't much of a thing anymore. As for the violence, most of the time, rappers are just talking about what they know, and it's not an outright promotion of such things. It's where they came from; it's what they see around them. Yes, it can appear glorified, and sometimes it is, but I'm not ok with that, just like I'm not ok with Christianity. But it's all in how hard it's actually pushed to the audience in terms of actually wanting them to be a part of that. I have yet to hear of a rapper telling people they should sell drugs, shoot people, and make hookers out of women, and if I did, I wouldn't go to their show. edit: I just realized I replied to a 2 year old thread of a banned guy, but oh well.
I am an atheist and don't think songs about """craven sex, irresponsibility, death, and gangsterism """.... are acceptable..so I don't listen to them....why do you think I would because I'm atheist??? There's no connection there at all unless you're just trying to make nasty unfounded and quite stupid comments on atheist's morals... """""The opposite of course, is the message of music. Obviously, no one can force you to listen to anything, but why is the message important? If so, why is a song about God bad, but a song about craven sex, irresponsibility, death, and gangsterism .... acceptable? That would seem to be .... running at cross purposes as, well, most atheists do not exactly advocate gangster violence or the rape and/or prostitution of women. So why is that message not equally as wrong? """ Could rephrase that paragraph...it just makes no sense. Out of it I did get "but why is the message important? "...I don't know , why do they sing religious songs with religious lyrics in churches???
