Posted on February 7, 2009 at sometime around 12:14 pm
In my last post I ripped apart Christian music, in essence, for it’s lack of creativity. This rant is nothing new to people who enjoy good music. Most people who see the problems I see within the Christian music industry usually just rip it apart and then will not acknowledge who is at least doing the best they can. This is where I desire to be different from that crowd. Here is the deal with Christian radio: The people who support these radio stations (since they are generally listener supported rather than advertisement-based) are white, evangelicals in the age bracket of 35-65. What does this result in? A top 40 list of songs that all say the same thing we’ve been saying in Christian music for 20 years to a tune that sounds the same. Most people that are younger than that don’t listen to Christian radio because of differences in taste. I understand that the radio has to play what the listeners are looking for in order to be able to survive financially. So, at the end of the day, I understand the beast that you cannot please everyone, but my challenge to occasionally get out of the box to Christian listeners/radio stands. Read More »
Posted on February 3, 2009 at sometime around 5:17 pm
Nearly every time I am driving through a new city, I check out the different radio stations. Of course it is all the same (and usually about the same place on the dial). You have the rap station up in the 106 frequency, country at 105/103, top 40’s music around 101/96, Christian around 90, and indie or jazz at 88/89 on the FM dial. I throw that out there just as information for the next time you go to the next major city as a general guide, but it also serves my first point: radio is so predictable.
MTV killed the art of music. It took what used to have to be pictured and turned it into a visual platform. It is like when a children’s book, such as Chronicles of Narnia, gets turned into a movie and a child no longer has to make up a picture of Aslan (not that I did not enjoy the movies, just saying…). The imagination and open-ended side to the songs is now gone. That is what makes music good though! That ambiguity that allows you to identify with the song with where you are at and how you are feeling makes for a beautiful interpretation. Since every teenager has raging hormones that they do not know what to do with, MTV plays videos that play to their desires (well…they used to play music videos anyways). Don’t worry, I’m not insulting your intelligence by stating we live in a culture plagued by sex, it is just that when I went to MTV.com earlier today, I found this on the side panel: Read More »
