"Sing to the LORD a new song; Sing to the LORD, all the earth.". That's Psalm 96:1 from the Bible, and perhaps one of the best iconic verses in all of the Bible. It proclaims that worship is essential, and all the Earth should sing songs to God, song filled creativity and joy, or possibly even doubt and frustration with God's ways. It sends out a commission of sorts for creativity in praising God, but unfortunately, I fell like we're falling short nowadays.
Listen to the top 10 songs on the Praise and Worship chart on Billboard right now. Which artists stand out? Who's the most creative and original with their music? I don't know about you, but whenever I listen to Christian radio, there's few who stand out in any way, good or bad. Every artist sounds like they're trying to mimic modern Hot 100 hits. Think about that. God urges us to sing a new song, not be derivative. Here are some specific problems I have with Christian music.
- Every song feels the same
This is a pretty general point, but I feel it's one of the strongest points against Christian music. Look up the lyrics to the top songs of Christian radio, and read them. Do you see similar lyrical themes? This is to be expected, since this is music used to glorify God and his power, but it's not done creatively. Creativity is key to creating good music or at least music that catches your eye. The thing is, these lyrics are all about worshiping God forever or how he's brought so much into your life, and there's not much variety. Sure, they're good messages that I stand by as a Christian, but the stanza are about as deep as a puddle. Read the lyrics to the song
You Say by Lauren Daigle, a Christian song that actually broke the Hot 100, and notice how mediocre they are. Fighting voices in your head, God saying you're something better when you think you're glorifying God, and stating you believe. It's some of the most cliched lyric writing in the book. I've written songs of about this quality lyrically within a 10 to 15 minute span. I'm not a great lyricist or anything; In fact, if anything, I'm terrible, but I know the difference between a set of good, well-written stanza from mediocre, uninteresting and repetitive lyrics. I'd suggest listening to and looking up the lyrics to
Liability by Lorde, which is a secular song, but listen to it. Visualize the images in your head. Let the song run through you. Do you feel the passion and the emotion poured out in the track? That's what I feel Christian music should be; Passionate and real. Maybe not as depressing as this particular song is (I get close to tears every time I hear it), but taking the time to write something that makes you feel empowered, depressed, or possibly angry. That's the power of great lyricism.
The instrumentation and production is pretty mediocre too. Listen to these songs and listen for the instrumentation. What's there? Unless you came across something else, you're probably hearing basic, washed out piano notes, either that "happy", upbeat drumbeat, or the more subtle, laid back choice, and maybe some simple acoustic or electric guitar. Simple instrumentation is not a bad thing. Even though I am bias towards composition of an extremely high level (*cough* Rush *cough*), simple melodies and hooks are fun if done right. Take for instance AC/DC and albums like Highway To Hell or Back In Black. Those songs are ridiculously simple, but they work because they're so much fun and have a unique character. With this, I swear I'm hearing the same 5 instrumentals just remixed or altered slightly. There's nothing charming about them, and they lack character or any creative passion. Even the ones that stand out like Rend Collective only sound slightly different because they have folk influences. And yeah, you could argue that these songs focus on lyrical content and the instrumental is secondary. However, when the lyrical content is shallow and boring, at least give me a decent instrumental of some sort and I might give it a pass, but every song sounds the same because of how repetitive and formulaic they are.
I already touched on this somewhat, so I'll condense this. When you heard those songs, didn't they sound heavily influenced by modern radio? That's probably because it was made with that audience in mind. It wants to reach for the people to listen to radio stations who play mainstream artists, and there are even various Christian artists who are arguably ripping off their sounds. Lauren Daigle, who I previously mentioned, sounds like a more upbeat Adele, and For King & Country sound like Imagine Dragons. I encourage you hear to hear at least one song from each of these artists and tell me they don't sound at least somewhat similar. It's not a bad thing to reach for this audience if you want more people to become part of the Church, but at least try to have your own voice. I can't tell half of these artists apart because they sound so derivative at both modern artists and even of other Christians artists in their scene. There's almost no way to tell them all apart.
Here we go. Of the three points I decided to put on this list, this one ticked me off the most. Here it goes...
- They're not singing new songs
I touched on this somewhat before on the first point as well, but I want to go further here. This is very personal to me, and I get angry about this. Remember the Bible verse I started with? Psalm 96:1, which I believe should be the foundation of Christian music. It's a simple statement, but a rather poignant one for me when I look at Christian Contemporary Music. As I said before, the verse states that we should sing new songs to God, as should the world, which technically, we are doing. The problem is that they sound passionless, but we listen to them and they don't improve anyway. Ask an atheist about Christian music. What will he/she probably say? Perhaps say something along the lines of "It's pathetic" or "It's boring" or maybe "It's uninspired". I don't want this to be an attack of Christian artists, I really don't. This is just a way to convey my thoughts in this manner, and I can sound harsh. I bet many of these artists are genuinely good people who have strong beliefs, but your music isn't quite there. You're not reaching many people, and the people you have reached don't have much of a reason to convert other then they heard a middling song on the radio. Don't appeal to a mainstream audience just because you want to bring new followers in. Be yourself, take the time to be creative for God, and figure out a way to bring a true new song and voice to God. Don't conform to the ways of the world; Make the world better by being you.
That's basically all I have to say about this topic. I wrote this quickly because my problems with the industry are growing by the day. If you want a good Christian artist that I absolutely love, check out Benjamin James. He's a indie folk singer-songwriter that even many a Christian hipster wouldn't know about (Don't worry; I'm not a hipster), and his 2016 album Penumbra is one of the most beautiful, surreal, and passionate albums I've ever heard. It's legitimately in my top 10-15 albums of all time. This is what I feel Christian music should be, and I hope you do too. It's for the best of the Kingdom of God. If you disagree with what I say, that's fine. I'm just some guy on the internet. Enjoy life.
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