Why is CCM so bland and boring?

iluvatar5150 · Aug 29, 2021

A_Thinker said:
The church uses music to minister, ... there is not much use for reinventing the wheel ... not that God doesn't inspire some invention now and again ...

If CCM were entirely generated within churches for the purposes of ministering to their congregations, then I might cede that point. But it’s not. A lot of it is purely commercial in nature.

A_Thinker · Aug 29, 2021

iluvatar5150 said:
If CCM were entirely generated within churches for the purposes of ministering to their congregations, then I might cede that point. But it’s not. A lot of it is purely commercial in nature.

Christians don't only live their lives within the confines of the organized church. Contemporary christian music ministered to me personally during a time when I was gong through, and I needed more encouragement than I could get once a week. I needed to be able to turn on the radio ... and be ministered to. I've heard similar testimonies from many other christians. Ministry doesn't only happen inside the building ...

Halbhh · Aug 31, 2021

Solum Aeternum said:
I used to be someone who always listened to stations like K-Love. A few years ago where I live K-Love moved to another channel and in that channels place came a new Christian station which is slightly better, more rock, some hip hop mixed in but still has the same problems. In CCM stations whether it be local or satellite, all the songs sounds the same, same repetitive chords and voices. Nothing just sounds creative, it's all bland. It's all boring. I am a Christian but I admit I do have my own musical tastes and the slow worship songs are fine but not for me. Why does Christian radio have the most boring and bland collection of Christian music? You really have to search for actual good Christian artist, I been looking at more indie Christian musicians and other alternative bands who you won't hear on CCM radio and they are great. Sometimes I would rather listen to secular music because those artists for the most part care about creating art, why can't Christian music have that mentality, you can still worship God while creating something good.

"You really have to search for actual good Christian artist" -- Yes! Very much so.

To me, Klove can be like sifting through dirt for an occasional gem, many times. Sometimes a DJ will come on that plays more than 1 great song in a row, if I could just know when that DJ is on.

Since I was in a rock/jazz group in high school, I tend to like musically interesting songs, but lyrics matter a lot also. Lyrics can make or sink a song regardless.

Anyway, I'm curious what genres you might like, whether we might have any overlap.

Here's a few genres below.

(Don't listen more than 20 or 30 seconds if ya don't like the sound!)

An old fav that's still as much fun as 40 years ago

This one's just a kick, fun dynamic

I liked this for the dramatic and wonderful 1rst Cor 13 lyrics

While it might sound slower (?), here's an old Jesus Culture one that is fun to me, and it has a talented guitarist when he was still very young to give it some extra, but if you don't like the sound in the 1rst minute it might not be your thing.

Flyleaf, and lyrics that accurately describe the feeling some have

iluvatar5150 · Sep 1, 2021

A_Thinker said:
Christians don't only live their lives within the confines of the organized church. Contemporary christian music ministered to me personally during a time when I was gong through, and I needed more encouragement than I could get once a week. I needed to be able to turn on the radio ... and be ministered to. I've heard similar testimonies from many other christians. Ministry doesn't only happen inside the building ...

I would disagree with the notion that all Christian music is founded on a desire to minister - I'm way too cynical for that. But either way, if it helped you, that's great. But your finding comfort in a piece is somewhat separate from its being interesting or innovative. I don't mean that as a criticism - I said I listen to a lot of folk music, and its kind of embarrassing how frequently I get choked up over songs are unquestionably cheesy.

A_Thinker · Sep 1, 2021

iluvatar5150 said:
But your finding comfort in a piece is somewhat separate from its being interesting or innovative.

I agree ... and raises the question of the worth of Christian music being interesting or innovative.

I sang hymns in church for 20 years ... some of the least interesting and innovative music I've ever encountered ...

Halbhh · Sep 1, 2021

A_Thinker said:
I agree ... and raises the question of the worth of Christian music being interesting or innovative.

I sang hymns in church for 20 years ... some of the least interesting and innovative music I've ever encountered ...

Yes, some of the best of all are so simple.

Dreams65 · Sep 3, 2021

I became a Believer in 1980, when I was 15. At the time many Christians convinced me that rock music, of any genre, was from the devil and was to be avoided. I was a huge fan of bands such as: Boston, Rush, Styx (pre Cornerstone), Yes and various other bands. So, after throwing away my albums I began looking for "Christian" music. Most in the churches I attended pointed me in the direction of CCM. Even though some of those CCM artists helped me in my early years as a Believer, most of the CCM content was so cheesy that I just couldn't listen to it.

After a few years I found an article from Keith Green (Can God Use Rock Music?) that explained, in detail, that rock music is not from the devil. In general, he said that music itself is neutral, it's what we do with it that matters. After reading that I stopped listening to Christian minders and began to look for music that inspired me. Currently I have a huge collection of "Christian" and non "Christian" artists and bands. I still listen to CCM artists such as: 2nd Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, Michael Card and such, even though I still feel that most CCM music is way to cheesy for my taste.

On the flip side, my wife is a huge fan of CCM and worship music and loves cheese of all flavors.

Halbhh · Sep 3, 2021

Dreams65 said:
I became a Believer in 1980, when I was 15. At the time many Christians convinced me that rock music, of any genre, was from the devil and was to be avoided. I was a huge fan of bands such as: Boston, Rush, Styx (pre Cornerstone), Yes and various other bands. So, after throwing away my albums I began looking for "Christian" music. Most in the churches I attended pointed me in the direction of CCM. Even though some of those CCM artists helped me in my early years as a Believer, most of the CCM content was so cheesy that I just couldn't listen to it.

After a few years I found an article from Keith Green (Can God Use Rock Music?) that explained, in detail, that rock music is not from the devil. In general, he said that music itself is neutral, it's what we do with it that matters. After reading that I stopped listening to Christian minders and began to look for music that inspired me. Currently I have a huge collection of "Christian" and non "Christian" artists and bands. I still listen to CCM artists such as: 2nd Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, Michael Card and such, even though I still feel that most CCM music is way to cheesy for my taste.

On the flip side, my wife is a huge fan of CCM and worship music and loves cheese of all flavors.

Boston, Rush, and Styx -- there's some great rock bands (we actually went to see the R40 tour when a friend in church invited us), and I'm curious what you think of the songs in post #23 just above. (they are only a few among 100-200 I have saved in Christian songs I enjoy, but I like to know whether others like these)

Dreams65 · Sep 3, 2021

Halbhh said:
Boston, Rush, and Styx -- there's some great rock bands (we actually went to see the R40 tour when a friend in church invited us), and I'm curious what you think of the songs in post #23 just above. (they are only a few among 100-200 I have saved in Christian songs I enjoy, but I like to know whether others like these)

The Doobie Brothers and Flyleaf songs I know. I have all the Flyleaf albums and several single tracks from the Doobie Brothers. Really good stuff! I haven't heard the other tracks you listed...not yet.

My favorite genre is progressive rock and metal. I have a ton of content from this genre (mostly secular). There are some "Christian" progressive bands out there, but not nearly as much as I would like to see.

Examples of ones I like:

Affector
Ajalon
Amaran's Plight (a one album project by various artists)
Glass Hammer
Iona
Neal Morse
PJ Bostic
Proto-Kaw
Teramaze
Visual Cliff

...and a few others

Unfortunately I don't have a favorite "Christian" rock band. All the rock bands I know are too inconsistent with the quality of their albums. One is good and one isn't. It seems that most try to reinvent themselves after every album. I do have favorite albums though and, in my opinion, some of them are better than their secular counterparts.

Halbhh · Sep 3, 2021

Dreams65 said:
The Doobie Brothers and Flyleaf songs I know. I have all the Flyleaf albums and several single tracks from the Doobie Brothers. Really good stuff! I haven't heard the other tracks you listed...not yet.

My favorite genre is progressive rock and metal. I have a ton of content from this genre (mostly secular). There are some "Christian" progressive bands out there, but not nearly as much as I would like to see.

Examples of ones I like:

Affector

Ajalon

Amaran's Plight (a one album project by various artists)

Glass Hammer

Iona

Neal Morse

PJ Bostic

Proto-Kaw

Teramaze

Visual Cliff

...and a few others

Unfortunately I don't have a favorite "Christian" rock band. All the rock bands I know are too inconsistent with the quality of their albums. One is good and one isn't. It seems that most try to reinvent themselves after every album. I do have favorite albums though and, in my opinion, some of them are better than their secular counterparts.

I'd like to hear a few selected songs, if you will.

Dreams65 · Sep 4, 2021

Here's a few...

the members of Harmony's second band

lead singer of Harmony's third band

...there is much more.

Dreams65 · Sep 4, 2021

Something from one of my favorite albums...

A_Thinker · Sep 4, 2021

Some recent top CCM picks.

They are folksy, but folk music is essentially the music of the people (i.e. popular music). Everything else is rather niche ...

dms1972 · Sep 19, 2021

I think it would be a sweeping generalisation to suggest all CCM is bland or boring (there is almost five decades of CCM since the Jesus People came on the scene). I haven't listened to a lot of the more recent stuff however so cannot comment.

CCM is quite broad and goes back to late 1960s. Later there was an American Magazine called CCM Magazine, and in the UK one called Cross Rhythms that had articles and reviews covering a lot of it.

Back in the 1980s and 90s there was a lot of high quality christian music, some of it seemed consciously produced as an alternative to some of the secular bands and singers around then - I cannot remember now what was meant to be an alternative for what - but there did seem to be attempts to produce music which was aimed at christian teens who might otherwise listen to secular acts like Gloria Estefan, or Paula Abdul etc.

So I think CCM is a very broad category, and I would say within it there is what could be called Christian Alternative Music, but that does not usually contain songs meant to be used for worship, or in churches, except for a few acts like Michael W Smith and Twila Paris whose oeuvre spanned contemporary christian pop music and contemporary worship music.

lightninboy · Sep 26, 2021

Aaron Lewis had a song "That Ain't Country."

That ain't country
That's a natural fact
It's full of tales of good times and happy endings
My life ain't like that
So I'll keep listening to the old songs that my Grandad used to play
Full of pain and heartache and desperation and the ones that got away
The ones that speak to me, the way I feel today

But there could have been a similar song "That Ain't CCM."

dms1972 · Sep 27, 2021

lightninboy said:
Aaron Lewis had a song "That Ain't Country."

That ain't country
That's a natural fact
It's full of tales of good times and happy endings
My life ain't like that
So I'll keep listening to the old songs that my Grandad used to play
Full of pain and heartache and desperation and the ones that got away
The ones that speak to me, the way I feel today

But there could have been a similar song "That Ain't CCM."

Country isn't CCM. Country as in lyrical content. But there is CCM that is country music style.

lightninboy · Sep 27, 2021

I know country isn't CCM. I'm saying there are too many CCM and P & W songs today with good times and happy endings and not enough pain and heartache and desperation and speaking to me the way I feel today.

Yeah, I sort of noticed there's a formula for writing CCM songs back in 2012.

Is a rebellion against praise and worship music inevitable?

Gregory Thompson · Sep 27, 2021

Maria Billingsley said:
The repetetivness is intentional. The pulpit requires it in order to hypnotize the congregation into an altered emotionally driven state.

It's suspiciously juxtaposed to a suggestion to give money.

dms1972 · Sep 27, 2021

Solid lyrical content is lacking sometimes. Though I am sure there are notable exceptions a lot of P&W is deficient of scriptural truth. Sometimes it is also too individualistic and subjective. You only need to look through an older hymnbook to see the difference.

dms1972 · Sep 27, 2021

I don't quite understand the Lauren Daigle phenomenon, but I would say internet has a lot to do with it. It is impossible to measure ministry value of a song or artist. I didn't dislike You Say when I heard it first, but now it seems spiritually vague to me. A christian has their sufficiency through faith in Christ Jesus, not in and of themselves. She isn't saying she has her worth from herself, but why does the "You" of You Say say what He says? That is what I mean by the song being vague and lacking in spiritual and doctrinal articulateness.

Why is CCM so bland and boring?

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