For the record, I agree with what Marc Barnes said. Except I would have highlighted Brooke Frasier’s peppy “Something in the Water” instead of the beautiful but solemn “Flags“. As a mom of a 1, 2, and 3-year-old I need peppy, something to make me shake it and keep me going so I don’t fall flat on my face, exhausted.
Something like this:
If I may add to the conversation that Marc began, I’d like to talk about salty music. In the book Pop Goes Religion: Faith in Popular Culture by Terry Mattingly, Mr. Mattingly makes the point that Christianity used to flavor the culture. Christians were the salt of the earth – literally bringing flavor, culture, beauty, and good taste to the world they lived in. Not so anymore.
Today, as Marc pointed out, most mainstream Christian music is made for people who are Christians. As in Christians who go to church every Sunday and probably at least once in the work week as well. Christian music today is not for those searching, doubting, or not believing. For the most part it is not going to bring a lukewarm Christian to a rapid boil. It might even make those who are not “sold” on Christianity even more disinterested. Actually, one of the reasons I never left my Catholic faith was because I found the protestant culture, much of it defined by it’s music, seriously lacking. Even kind of hokey.
I’m not saying that it‘s all bad. In fact, the music I used to define as “hokey” I know really enjoy. But there is still a problem with Christian music on the radio. And I think the problem is that most of the Top 40 Christian music is praise and worship music. Couple that with the fact that most Catholic music on the radio (at least my local EWTN station) is heavy on the organ. And I’m not talking Steppenwolf’s organ in Magic Carpet Ride. I’m talking dirge-like at times. Remember when I said I need peppy?
So EWTN might not be doing anything for me musically, but what’s so wrong with praise and worship? Well, sometimes it’s not salty enough. I truly believe that it is important to praise Him in the storm, but we also should acknowledge that sometimes life is hard. Sometimes it kinda sucks. That’s when we need a song like Jars of Clay’s Work. “I’m not afraid of drowning, it’s the breathing that’s taking all this work.”
That is a song with which I can identify and so can a lot of people – Christians or not. These men are speaking honestly about hardship, fear, and the temptation to just give up. You wouldn’t know by listening to this song, but they’re Christians and so even though the song has a lot of pain in it there is also the undercurrent of hope. “Do you know what I mean when I say I don’t want to be alone?” Their words are like King David’s, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice.”
Or how about a song that is about the best in life: love.
Songs like these, ones that don’t name God but are Christian because they’re written and preformed by Christians, is what we need more of. These are the types of songs that bring flavor to our culture. They infiltrate and win us over because they show that Jesus freaks are just like everyone else – we love, we fear, we want to be beautiful, we don’t want to be alone – but the huge difference is there is always the undercurrent of hope. Of faith. Of Love. This music is filled with God, as our lives are filled with God, though He may be unspoken much of the time since Christ is in all that I do (or that’s the goal), though His Name is not in all that I say.
I know that having more music like this is not the magic key to winning back the culture and having droves of catechumens enter the Church this Easter Vigil. But certainly giving salty music more prominence could help.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Mt 5:13
10 thoughts on “salty music”
Switchfoot is awesome:
http://www.switchfoot.com/switchfoot/c/index-b
Check out KLOVE.com for more excellent Christian music!
The guys of Jars are (were?) Episcopalian. They have liturgy, thus they understand beauty. Check out their NPR interview here.
Brent, I didn’t know they were/are Episcopalian! No wonder they seem so Catholic to me at times. Thanks for the link.
This is such a great post; great points. I listen to the Christian radio station on the way to and from work as a positive pep-up, and I really appreciate the pep. I get a little perturbed at some of the bad theology that goes into lyrics, but I really do love the positive message and emphasis on God. Thanks for this, Bonnie!
Or, as an alternative, don’t check out KLOVE.com
http://moresacredsounds.blogspot.com/2011/09/problem-with-christian-radio-i.html
I like that Jars of Clay song too. Thank God for Klove. They were the only Christian music station in our area for a while. They aren’t the strongest signal, but the other Christian station is much weaker. It is better to listen to praise music even if it doesn’t pass Marc Barnes grade for originality, than what else is out there too. Can’t listen to Modest Mouse or even Mumford and Sons two better songs in front of the kiddies since they followed Eminem’s lead and went with explicit lyrics. Really, couldn’t find a word other than the f-bomb, and they are supposed to be so original!
Nice article. Christian music suffers from a lack of competition. More Christians = better music.
“Songs like these, ones that don’t name God but are Christian because they’re written and performed by Christians, is what we need more of. These are the types of songs that bring flavor to our culture. They infiltrate and win us over because they show that Jesus freaks are just like everyone else – we love, we fear, we want to be beautiful, we don’t want to be alone – but the huge difference is there is always the undercurrent of hope. Of faith. Of Love. This music is filled with God, as our lives are filled with God, though He may be unspoken much of the time since Christ is in all that I do (or that’s the goal), though His Name is not in all that I say.”
Bonnie, I totally agree with this. We need to learn how to be culture creators and how to receive inspiration from where ever it is…even if that means secular music.
I have developed a method for doing this for myself with playlists. I look through the thousands of songs I have collected through the years as a lifetime music lover and divide them into playlists with titles such as: hope, love, joy, gratitude, play, and change & transformation. So, the idea is to simply enjoy beautiful music that affects you in a positive way.
This is a comment I made on Marc’s music post…but too late (a few weeks after it was written). But, since the music topic has been brought up again. Here it is:
I am a singer/songwriter and Catholic but do not write “Christian music”. Music is human, so I try to write it from as human (honest) of a place as I can. Songwriting feels like more of a testimony about my personal truths instead of Truth. Ironically, more of Christ seems to be expressed and received in the songs I write this way.
I agree that Christian music can be inauthentic. But, why this statement so controversial is what is most interesting to me. Is Christian culture suffering from a similar problem?
Mainstream society has a lot of issues with Christians and not with Jesus. Some of our churches (and blogs) can be more safe places for Christians from the rest of the world… instead of a place that reaches out to people of the world or even for seekers to come find God and community.
If we want Christian music to be more authentic, Christian cultural is going to need to change as well. We need to live more wholehearted lives where what we say is representative of what we believe and how we act.
There seems to be a general discomfort with what we are unable to define. Everything is suppose to be: good or bad, right or wrong, a person is one of “us” or one of “them”. But, most amazing art is full of fascinating contrasts that somehow fit together. I think our lives are like this as well with beauty in the complexities. JPII says in his Letter to Artists, “Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: In a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.”
As young adults living today we are faced with the unique challenge of staying grounded in a rapidly changing world. We need to learn how to love “the strangers” in our lives better and find ways to build bridges between people of other creeds, lifestyles, and cultures. “The stranger” within ourselves also need to be shown more compassion as well… the places that make us feel vulnerable, uncomfortable, or afraid.
If we hope to make truthful, sincere art in life and of life, we need to be allowed to ask ourselves hard, unpopular questions. And, not require the answers right away. In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke writes, “Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…Live the questions now.”
I think that moving forward creatively and spiritually requires an increasing tolerance for this type of discomfort… as individuals and a society. I pray that we all find this type of ordinary courage.
p.s. Sorry this was so long 🙂
Good Monsters is a really good Jars album. God is never mentioned once and it has the dark/edgy feel of a good Tim Burton movie… but at the same time, it very much epitomizes “memento mori.” I really like that album.