Why Can I Only Take CCM In Small Doses?

[Christopher Pineau]

So I have been delving into the world of CCM recently; I've been putting on my local station in the background as I paint my miniatures lately. Aside from my wanting them to play more of a variety of music and artists, because they tend to play the same songs over and over? The one thing other than that which makes me turn it off after 60-90 minutes or so, saying "OK, I'm good," is that these songs all tend to sound alike. They also bludgeon you over the head in the lyrical realm, and even my thick Irish skull can only take so much of that. Though I do admit to enjoying "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)" because Katy Nichole sings that with so much feeling and conviction. (And sue me, but it doesn't hurt that she's a beauty)

Seriously, it's as though they all use the same few chord progressions, the same musical arrangements, and did I mention they all but beat you over the head with endless repetitions of lines like "There is power in the Name of Jesus/There is power, power in His name." Yes, I get that. I'm well aware of that. But to me--and I know for a fact I'm not the only one who thinks this--it all sounds the same and it becomes trite, sappy, and cliched in no time flat. Where can I find good Christian music that doesn't fall into the traps I mentioned, here?

CCM means well, but it doesn't do well most of the time, is my ultimate take away so far. It's as though certain people out there need to be constantly affirmed that they've made the right choice in life and CCM reflects that desire to always be reminded you Did The Right Thing and that you need to Shout It Out To The World. Only problem is, it's preaching to the choir, I think. Why not reach out to the rest of the world and find a way to bring in the Good News without alienating others outside the flock, as it were? As in not making non-Christians wince and say "Aw, man, quit preaching at me!" I have never appreciated being preached at and having things shoved in my face, so I can relate to how they feel. To me, if you can get their attention and pull them in with something interesting that gets their attention and then try to hold it when you reveal the workings of said "something interesting", that's a more rewarding thing.

Because if you insult people's intelligence and simply say "Do as I say, not as I do," that's when you lose them. Get them thinking and sometimes that will work. If it does, great! If it doesn't, it doesn't. Credit people with some intelligence (difficult to do at times, I know) and you get better results. CCM is not so good at that, I find, and that's why it only has a limited audience; it only reaches out to that select audience as opposed to the world. There's got to be a better way, right? Until that better way is found, then it will continue to be an extremely niche audience. What do y'all think?

 

[public hermit]

So I have been delving into the world of CCM recently; I've been putting on my local station in the background as I paint my miniatures lately. Aside from my wanting them to play more of a variety of music and artists, because they tend to play the same songs over and over? The one thing other than that which makes me turn it off after 60-90 minutes or so, saying "OK, I'm good," is that these songs all tend to sound alike. They also bludgeon you over the head in the lyrical realm, and even my thick Irish skull can only take so much of that. Though I do admit to enjoying "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)" because Katy Nichole sings that with so much feeling and conviction. (And sue me, but it doesn't hurt that she's a beauty)

Seriously, it's as though they all use the same few chord progressions, the same musical arrangements, and did I mention they all but beat you over the head with endless repetitions of lines like "There is power in the Name of Jesus/There is power, power in His name." Yes, I get that. I'm well aware of that. But to me--and I know for a fact I'm not the only one who thinks this--it all sounds the same and it becomes trite, sappy, and cliched in no time flat. Where can I find good Christian music that doesn't fall into the traps I mentioned, here?

CCM means well, but it doesn't do well most of the time, is my ultimate take away so far. It's as though certain people out there need to be constantly affirmed that they've made the right choice in life and CCM reflects that desire to always be reminded you Did The Right Thing and that you need to Shout It Out To The World. Only problem is, it's preaching to the choir, I think. Why not reach out to the rest of the world and find a way to bring in the Good News without alienating others outside the flock, as it were? As in not making non-Christians wince and say "Aw, man, quit preaching at me!" I have never appreciated being preached at and having things shoved in my face, so I can relate to how they feel. To me, if you can get their attention and pull them in with something interesting that gets their attention and then try to hold it when you reveal the workings of said "something interesting", that's a more rewarding thing.

Because if you insult people's intelligence and simply say "Do as I say, not as I do," that's when you lose them. Get them thinking and sometimes that will work. If it does, great! If it doesn't, it doesn't. Credit people with some intelligence (difficult to do at times, I know) and you get better results. CCM is not so good at that, I find, and that's why it only has a limited audience; it only reaches out to that select audience as opposed to the world. There's got to be a better way, right? Until that better way is found, then it will continue to be an extremely niche audience. What do y'all think?

Is CCM Christian Country Music?

I hear you touching on two related but separate things: content and musical chord progressions. I like what you are saying about content and preaching to the choir. In my opinion, much of Christian music is by default insular because it is explicit. It won't reach those who don't want to be lambasted by the same message over and over. This is why some artists who are Christian but not always in your face with their message reach a much wider audience, e.g., Sufjan Stevens.


The other thing I hear you addressing is musicality. Some genres have set chord patterns and rhythms; there's just no avoiding that, e.g., blues, country, classic rock n roll. Often, they are variations of the 1, 4, and 5 chords of a given key.

In my opinion, if someone listens to a lot of music and loves music, their "ears" mature over time so that what satisfied before no longer does as much. I still love all the music I grew up with, but my taste has matured so that I often would rather listen to more complex chords structures. For instance, during the work day I usually listen to jazz. It's just a more satisfying background for me. You might try exploring more complex (richer?) music and see if that helps. If you like country but want a little more you might try Bill Frisell. It's instrumental but some of his stuff has a distinct country flavor, e.g, his album Disfarmer, which also has a fascinating back story.


ETA- Christian Contemporary Music? Oh well, Bill Frisell is still pretty great.

 

[Christopher Pineau]

I've heard of Bill Frisell, and I've heard good things, so I may just give him a listen as a proper music based life form should. I grew up on 80's shred guitar instrumentals, so instrumental music is not a problem for me. Which by the way, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Tony MacAlpine are some of the best in that realm, should you be curious. They don't just write shredding exercises, they write songs that just so happen to not have vocals or lyrics. "Passion and Warfare" is one of the best guitar albums ever written, most think, and Tony's first two albums, "Edge of Insanity" and "Maximum Security" are also essential, in my opinion. Most anything of Joe's is worth listening to, but his most recent single that I know of, "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is brilliant.

 

[Kees Boer]

Yes, I was talking about that in the studio, where we recorded our music. Most of the modern Christian music is very formulaic. That's why it all seems to sound the same... and it's over produced. Also behind all of those studios are secular studios.... Huge ones... It's not run by Christians behind the scenes. But I'm about to into the studio in half an hour. So, I got to get going.

 

[lightninboy]

Most of the real CCM was made in the 20th century.

 

[The Liturgist]

So I have been delving into the world of CCM recently; I've been putting on my local station in the background as I paint my miniatures lately. Aside from my wanting them to play more of a variety of music and artists, because they tend to play the same songs over and over? The one thing other than that which makes me turn it off after 60-90 minutes or so, saying "OK, I'm good," is that these songs all tend to sound alike. They also bludgeon you over the head in the lyrical realm, and even my thick Irish skull can only take so much of that. Though I do admit to enjoying "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)" because Katy Nichole sings that with so much feeling and conviction. (And sue me, but it doesn't hurt that she's a beauty)

Seriously, it's as though they all use the same few chord progressions, the same musical arrangements, and did I mention they all but beat you over the head with endless repetitions of lines like "There is power in the Name of Jesus/There is power, power in His name." Yes, I get that. I'm well aware of that. But to me--and I know for a fact I'm not the only one who thinks this--it all sounds the same and it becomes trite, sappy, and cliched in no time flat. Where can I find good Christian music that doesn't fall into the traps I mentioned, here?

CCM means well, but it doesn't do well most of the time, is my ultimate take away so far. It's as though certain people out there need to be constantly affirmed that they've made the right choice in life and CCM reflects that desire to always be reminded you Did The Right Thing and that you need to Shout It Out To The World. Only problem is, it's preaching to the choir, I think. Why not reach out to the rest of the world and find a way to bring in the Good News without alienating others outside the flock, as it were? As in not making non-Christians wince and say "Aw, man, quit preaching at me!" I have never appreciated being preached at and having things shoved in my face, so I can relate to how they feel. To me, if you can get their attention and pull them in with something interesting that gets their attention and then try to hold it when you reveal the workings of said "something interesting", that's a more rewarding thing.

Because if you insult people's intelligence and simply say "Do as I say, not as I do," that's when you lose them. Get them thinking and sometimes that will work. If it does, great! If it doesn't, it doesn't. Credit people with some intelligence (difficult to do at times, I know) and you get better results. CCM is not so good at that, I find, and that's why it only has a limited audience; it only reaches out to that select audience as opposed to the world. There's got to be a better way, right? Until that better way is found, then it will continue to be an extremely niche audience. What do y'all think?

If it is any consolation, I cannot stand CCM for any length of time. Indeed I am categorically opposed to it.

When I was a member of an Episcopal Church about eight years ago to spend time with my friend Fr. Dean before he retired, I would make a point of attending the said service because the music director during the main choral Eucharist tended to incompetently blend CCM and traditional hymns, and thus I was a member of a small and somewhat elderly group of conservative members who preferred the said Eucharist (in Anglicanism, a said service is one without music).

One thing which got me into Orthodoxy was serenity over the knowledge that Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy do not change their musical traditions. Indeed, one encounters controversy even with minor and benevolent developments such as the exquisite tonal four part harmony one finds in more recent Orthodox music.

Likewise, one reason why I am extremely upset about the recent crackdown against the Traditional Latin Mass communities in the Roman Catholic Church is the decreased accessibility of traditional Gregorian chant and the beautiful Renaissance polyphony of Byrd, Tallis, Palestrina, Morales et al this change will cause. (Another reason is these traditional masses tend to attract large congregations including numerous families with young children and seem to punch above their weight compared to the Novus Ordo Missae in attendance, which is something we also see with traditional liturgics in Protestantism and Orthodoxy).

Speaking of Protestantism which has become in particular too much of a home for CCM, even more so than the Roman Catholic Church (where distressingly in the Southwestern US one is still more likely to hear an electric guitar than either an organ or Gregorian Chant), the Protestant churches developed their own rich and beautiful musical heritage, which includes the Chorales, which are the traditional organ-accompanied hymns written by Martin Luther, Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Arthur Sullivan, Vaughn Williams and others, the beautiful settings for a capella and accompanied Psalmody we encounter in, for example, the metrical Psalters used by the Reformed Presbyterians and in the system of Anglican Chant made famous by boys choirs in the great cathedrals and chapels royal of the Church of England, like Westminster Abbey, and likewise, the exquisite organ preludes composed by the likes of Bach, Buxtehude, et al, and also by more recent composers, in particular Anglican composers such as Herbert Howells, C.V. Stanford, Edward Bairstow, George Dyson, Healey Willan, T. Tertius Noble, and Sir Francis Jackson, who reposed in February of this year at the age of 93, with the latter group of Anglicans also composing exquisite settings of the canticles for morning and evening prayer and beautiful choral anthems. Indeed the first Anglican composer to fit into the category I just described was Sebastian S. Wesley, who was a nephew of John and Charles Wesley, who like the others composed beautiful settings of Morning Prayer and Evensong, but also composed truly exquisite anthems, such as Ascribe Unto the Lord and The Wildnerness.

Given all this exquisite beauty, I cannot accept CCM with its limitations, which include but are not limited to copying the prevailing secular styles of popular music, a lack of deep theology and the sense of “preaching to the choir” that @public hermit cites, the repetitive nature which @Christopher Pineau refers to, and other factors.

I simply will not accept it, because I am firmly convicted that Christian music is a sacred thing, and that sacred music should move in its own direction and not be influenced by vulgar popular music. I am not even comfortable with “jazz masses” and I actually like jazz music.

 

[WolfGate]

IMO, it is because CCM radio stations play a very narrow, formulaic slice of Christian music. It has shifted over time, but the radio stations never seem to broaden their playlist, just move the style of music played. It takes a lot more work to research, but you can find Christian music spread across almost every genre from pop to country to metal to rap to rock to adult contemporary to...

 

[pen_and_poetry]

I shop at thrift stores and I thought I was tired of the 'oldies but goodies' they play on the store radio... until one Salvation Army store played CCM for about twenty minutes and I never thought I'd be asking for the oldies, but I was LOL. I don't know who the artists were but like you said, repetitive lyrics that I constantly found myself replying, "yes... I know God is great... what else you got?"

Before I was Orthodox, I couldn't stand CCM anyway. However, I always loved traditional hymns that I sang as a child in church. There's a lot of gold to mined from those, but then I know some well-meaning churches that give hymns the CCM treatment and it's kind of tragic and a waste.

I do struggle listening to the top 40 or any other secular popular radio stations because they also tend to play the same limited number of songs on repeat.

 

[WolfGate]

then I know some well-meaning churches that give hymns the CCM treatment and it's kind of tragic and a waste.

They change the words and meaning of the lyrics???

 

[pen_and_poetry]

They change the words and meaning of the lyrics???

Well, they go for that kind of CCM-style instrumentation and one church I know of likes to add cheesy lyric bridges to "make it more interesting."

 

[chilehed]

Why Can I Only Take CCM In Small Doses?​

Because it stinks?

(I was actually thinking a different, less polite word)

 

[WolfGate]

Well, they go for that kind of CCM-style instrumentation and one church I know of likes to add cheesy lyric bridges to "make it more interesting."

Personal preference for music style is a pretty low bar for a tragedy.

 

[The Liturgist]

Personal preference for music style is a pretty low bar for a tragedy.

It is a tragedy when the cultural and theological heritage of traditional Christian music is being discarded wholesale by so many churches.

 

[Hazelelponi]

So I have been delving into the world of CCM recently; I've been putting on my local station in the background as I paint my miniatures lately. Aside from my wanting them to play more of a variety of music and artists, because they tend to play the same songs over and over? The one thing other than that which makes me turn it off after 60-90 minutes or so, saying "OK, I'm good," is that these songs all tend to sound alike. They also bludgeon you over the head in the lyrical realm, and even my thick Irish skull can only take so much of that. Though I do admit to enjoying "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)" because Katy Nichole sings that with so much feeling and conviction. (And sue me, but it doesn't hurt that she's a beauty)

Seriously, it's as though they all use the same few chord progressions, the same musical arrangements, and did I mention they all but beat you over the head with endless repetitions of lines like "There is power in the Name of Jesus/There is power, power in His name." Yes, I get that. I'm well aware of that. But to me--and I know for a fact I'm not the only one who thinks this--it all sounds the same and it becomes trite, sappy, and cliched in no time flat. Where can I find good Christian music that doesn't fall into the traps I mentioned, here?

CCM means well, but it doesn't do well most of the time, is my ultimate take away so far. It's as though certain people out there need to be constantly affirmed that they've made the right choice in life and CCM reflects that desire to always be reminded you Did The Right Thing and that you need to Shout It Out To The World. Only problem is, it's preaching to the choir, I think. Why not reach out to the rest of the world and find a way to bring in the Good News without alienating others outside the flock, as it were? As in not making non-Christians wince and say "Aw, man, quit preaching at me!" I have never appreciated being preached at and having things shoved in my face, so I can relate to how they feel. To me, if you can get their attention and pull them in with something interesting that gets their attention and then try to hold it when you reveal the workings of said "something interesting", that's a more rewarding thing.

Because if you insult people's intelligence and simply say "Do as I say, not as I do," that's when you lose them. Get them thinking and sometimes that will work. If it does, great! If it doesn't, it doesn't. Credit people with some intelligence (difficult to do at times, I know) and you get better results. CCM is not so good at that, I find, and that's why it only has a limited audience; it only reaches out to that select audience as opposed to the world. There's got to be a better way, right? Until that better way is found, then it will continue to be an extremely niche audience. What do y'all think?

I'm not clear what the letters CCM stand for, but this does appear to do with popular Christian music - so I thought I would chime in.

There are songs that seem on the surface to be shallow and self serving moreso than not, but there's time's we do need the reminder of who we are, as people standing before both God and the world - the good stuff.

However I agree that sort of thing should have no need of being often, and there's better music that does far better at both teaching and showing our faith, or at least in expressing our faith.

I go through the various genres of music, and pick out songs that I actually think are good, well written and Scripturally accurate. There are pockets and cubbyholes all over the internet filled with all manner of Christian music, some new, some very very old, and many you find are treasures.

Once you track them down you have a personal playlist to play whenever you feel like you're in the mood for private praise and worship. No need of radio when you can design your own.

Periodically you find more music so you're not growing overly bored with a limited selection - and you don't listen to music every day. This last is important, because if you listen to have white noise it will become for you just that - white noise.

 

[The Liturgist]

Here is a video featuring a Coptic Orthodox priest offering some very important criticism of CCM (which a few years ago according to my friend @dzheremi there was an attempt to introduce CCM into the Coptic church to replace their beautiful ancient hymns and chant known as tasbeha; the hymns and chants used in the Coptic church are in many cases 1,500 years old or older, for example, the Trisagion “Hagios O Theos” and the hymn O Monogenes sung on Good Friday in the Coptic tradition.

 

[Halbhh]

Here is a video featuring a Coptic Orthodox priest offering some very important criticism of CCM (which a few years ago according to my friend @dzheremi there was an attempt to introduce CCM into the Coptic church to replace their beautiful ancient hymns and chant known as tasbeha; the hymns and chants used in the Coptic church are in many cases 1,500 years old or older, for example, the Trisagion “Hagios O Theos” and the hymn O Monogenes sung on Good Friday in the Coptic tradition.

Some of my favorite music is gregorian chants, so I thought I'd listen to “Hagios O Theos”, and the first one I found was very enjoyable to hear, but without lyrics. I want to read the lyrics (of course), as the words are so central, key to any Christian music. (it's all about the words). Do you have a translation?

Heaven will be so full of people, from every nation, and we can only wonder at all the amazing music/singing that will be there.