Rough Around the Edges
Don't know why I felt like blogging this, but I did, so I will. This is no startling discovery, but something I've struggled to articulate to people whose tastes are otherwise. Here it is:
Why I like British and Brit-ish rock music so much and can hardly stomach 99% of what's on Christian radio:
Brit-rock is generally underpolished, underproduced, underscripted and underfiltered. It's raw, rough around the edges, authentic, generally passionate, often ideologically laden, and definitely creative and on the cutting edge. It is British bands whom American bands are emulating (and generally butchering) years later.
Mainstream Christian pop/pop-folk-rock, even some of the more recent albums of some of my favorite artists, give an altogether different vibe. Pristine production, shimmering instrumental ensembles (most often including the infamous string quartet) in multitudinous, impenetrable layers of 'sound', scripted, refined, and pop-theologized to the letter... and just long enough to fit into a two-and-a-half-minute radio slot, one after another. Same, long-worn-out cliches (if I hear another song about "grace like rain...washing away my pain" I think I'm going to vomit... again).
Don't get me wrong, there are a number of good bands out there who proclaim Christ creatively, passionately, and authentically. I just wish there were more of them, and many, many fewer of the others.
Again, I'm not really sure why I felt like writing this, I just did.
P.S. If anyone in the Chicagoland area is interested, Crowder Band and Phil Wickham are playing at House of Blues November 1st, and Melissa and I are going. Those guys keep it fresh and real.
Rock on.
Why I like British and Brit-ish rock music so much and can hardly stomach 99% of what's on Christian radio:
Brit-rock is generally underpolished, underproduced, underscripted and underfiltered. It's raw, rough around the edges, authentic, generally passionate, often ideologically laden, and definitely creative and on the cutting edge. It is British bands whom American bands are emulating (and generally butchering) years later.
Mainstream Christian pop/pop-folk-rock, even some of the more recent albums of some of my favorite artists, give an altogether different vibe. Pristine production, shimmering instrumental ensembles (most often including the infamous string quartet) in multitudinous, impenetrable layers of 'sound', scripted, refined, and pop-theologized to the letter... and just long enough to fit into a two-and-a-half-minute radio slot, one after another. Same, long-worn-out cliches (if I hear another song about "grace like rain...washing away my pain" I think I'm going to vomit... again).
Don't get me wrong, there are a number of good bands out there who proclaim Christ creatively, passionately, and authentically. I just wish there were more of them, and many, many fewer of the others.
Again, I'm not really sure why I felt like writing this, I just did.
P.S. If anyone in the Chicagoland area is interested, Crowder Band and Phil Wickham are playing at House of Blues November 1st, and Melissa and I are going. Those guys keep it fresh and real.
Rock on.
agreed. i would lump most of what is in the adult aleternative genre - the radio format - into the descriptor you gave. raw, underproduced, heart-on-the-sleeve. echoes of real life. top 40 and its 'echoes' - slick, overproduced - ring hollow...
ReplyDeleteYeah, top 40, whether secular or sacred, virtually all fits that description. Thanks for pointing out that it isn't just the Christian stuff. Although the Christian stuff causes a lot of eyes to roll to an even greater extent because song writers are notoriously peppy and in denial of the struggles of real life. Either that or they smooth them over with some overspiritualized cliche (as I mentioned). Then you have guys like Tim Hughes who writes a song like "When the Tears Fall", Andrew Peterson with a song like "The Silence of God", or Martin Smith with "Obsession"... gut-wrenching honest and beautiful. That is, until some cheesy, worship bandwagon band like the Newsboys buys and butchers it. Talk about ripping your heart out. The saddest part of all of it is that the American people, and the Church no less, has been so numbed by top 40 garbage that they no longer recognize, let alone appreciate, truly good music. This grieves my heart to no end.
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