Bono wants contemporary Christian music to get more honest

[Fantine]

I agree that contemporary Christian music has some problems, especially the mushy ones that go blathering on about Jesus being the singer's "lover."

And Bono loves the psalms (and so do I--and, BTW, a lot of contemporary Catholic hymns are based on the psalms...)

Of course, the old hymns conservative Catholics consider their gold standards have the repetition of the same four chords, and the same sets of reliably inspirational words...they are no better, and I've played tons of them...you can play Amazing Grace with three chords, or Tantum Ergo...lots of them. The melody just walks up and down the scale like a rote exercise a lot of the time.

Modern Christian worship music has often been critiqued for its mediocrity — the repetition of the same four chords, the same set of reliably inspirational words, and theological jargon that leaves outsiders bewildered.

Bono, who has become more outspoken about his Christian faith in recent years, is advocating for a return to the raw and honest emotion of the Psalms.

“The psalmist is brutally honest about the explosive joy that he’s feeling and the deep sorrow or confusion,” the singer said in Fuller Studio‘s newly released documentary “The Psalms.” “And I often think, ‘Gosh, well, why isn’t church music more like that?’”

Bono Wants Christian Music To Get More Honest | HuffPost

Could you all post just one contemporary Christian song you admire musically or lyrically?

Here's one I like:

Here's one based on the words of Mother Teresa:

 

[Chesterton]

 

[tadoflamb]

Here's a song I liked right after converting. I actually was a regular on this guys forum and took Mrs. tadoflamb to see him twice which is exactly the number of times I've ventured into evangelical churches.

As it turned out, although he wasn't Catholic he went to mass regularly.

 

[Fantine]

Inexplicably I like the liveliness of Toby Mac, and there's something about his lyrics that speak to me:

Thanks for your participation.

 

[dzheremi]

The Coptic Orthodox Church is somewhat new to the idea of popular/contemporary Christian music, and most of what is produced in that genre is in Arabic only. A lot of it is used to soundtrack Coptic movies produced in Egypt.

But since the departure of HH Pope Shenouda III in 2012, I have noticed that some Copts have begun to translate his poetry into English and put it to music (HH was a poet from an early age; in contrast to the stereotype of Copts as being doctors and pharmacists, HH studied English, Classics, and History in college before entering the seminary). Here is one example, called "I lived as a stranger in this world" (Ghariba 'ashet fi al duniya). It shows HH's deep love for and elevation of the monastic ideal which he lived in a cave outside of the Monastery of the Syrians (with the monastic name Antonios El Suryani) from 1956 to 1962, until he was appointed as bishop for Christian education and dean of the theological seminary by HH Pope St. Cyril VI.

 

[Fantine]

Very interesting--the melody and intervals are a little reminiscent of Israeli music, and I can tell that it has been translated because the stressed syllables don't quite fit with the music (I'm sure it would be even more beautiful in its original language).

It's quite mournful and haunting.

(Don't mind me--I can get very analytical about music--I really do love th song).

 

[dzheremi]

I'm glad you enjoy it, Fantine. Like I wrote, there's not a lot of this kind of material in my own church's tradition in English, so there's not a lot to choose from, really.

In fact, if you go looking for Coptic songs on Youtube and cannot type in Arabic (or converted Arabic in Latin characters), you're likely to find some very modern-sounding stuff that is, in fact, ancient liturgical or paraliturgical texts set to pop music, for some reason...so that's kind of a draw, right? It sounds contemporary, but the texts themselves are hundreds, perhaps many hundreds, of years old. Copts have a weird idea of what 'modern' consists of.

I nearly fell out of my chair the first time I heard this, the first doxology for the Coptic month of Kiahk (in praise of the Theotokos), sung in Coptic by a children's choir with what sounds like the Egyptian version of a smooth 1990s R&B pop song for a backing track:

I'm still torn on whether I like it, or if it's the worst thing ever and where is these darn kids' bishop to put a stop to this. I think I like it. The child who sings the solo verses has a very nice voice, and very clear and exact pronunciation. I guess if this is what it takes to get the youth to learn Coptic, I can't complain! (I certainly couldn't recite it this well. Maybe I'm just jealous. Haha.)