Favorite CCM/Christian rock music, old and new
ChastMastr
Shipmate
in Heaven
So for those of us into, or into years ago, CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) or Christian rock, what artists are you into, or were you into? Been rediscovering some old favorites.
Comments
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MU8uuHiHrhU&list=OLAK5uy_lsxH0kB40JojEzsrSSwapejmWei8Ghmlk&index=2
Right. My impression is that it's become more varied and professional, but then as music in general has fractured into a million genres there are loads of things to listen to constantly that I don't feel the need to investigate.
I'm with @Graven Image. None.
After The Fire were alright.
I never particularly liked overly Christian music. Much of it wasn’t as good as the secular stuff we were meant to be keeping away from.
Saw him last year at a concert at a local church, and yes he did perform Paid on the Nail, I was singing along, really brought back memories!
I think this is the core issue. "Christian X", where X is any musical genre, is always going to be a niche market, and the statistics more or less guarantee that "Christian X" bands aren't going to be as good, musically speaking, as generic "X" bands. Perhaps I am fortunate that my taste in Christian music is more Palestrina than Pantokrator.
I could 100% guarantee that this thread would bring out of the woodwork all the people who felt a need to post on it just to say that they DON'T like CCM, never liked it, no value in it at all. I respect that people feel that way and they don't have to like it, but I also don't like being made to feel ashamed for loving some of the music that's been important to me over the years.
I have loved a lot of CCM over the years. I used to be a huge fan of the late great Rich Mullins and his music still has a lot of meaning for me. A lot of that meaning is in the music and lyrics themselves, but some is attached to the fact that a very dear friend of mine who also loved Rich's music passed away in 2011. One of the last things we did on my last visit to him (when we knew he was dying) was sit and listen to A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band together, holding hands, talking about the lyrics, and crying while Rich sang "Hold Me Jesus." Both of us had experienced a lot of changes in our faith since we were young, "on fire for the Lord," and hanging out at the Christian record store choosing albums (my friend had experienced considerably more loss and changes than I had, having lost his church community after he came out). Rich's music was one thing that still connected us to God, to each other, and to those past versions of ourselves.
In recent years another Christian musician I've become very fond of is Matt Maher. He's based in the US (Tennessee I think), though originally he is not just Canadian but from my hometown, which is pretty obscure. Unusually for a lot of people in the Christian music business, he's also Catholic, and while I'm not, I really like the fact that he is coming from a somewhat different place (theologically and geographically!) than a lot of American evangelicals. I didn't used to listen to his music a lot because it fell into the "praise and worship" category which I often don't like (too much repetition and the lyrics can be bland), but there was a period during the lockdown days of 2020 when I started listening to his song "Lord I Need You" (duet with Audrey Assad who is also very good!), and for awhile, listening to that on repeat was about the only music I could handle.
Yeah, I hear that, and occasionally I track down something I listened to in the past, but am somewhat out of touch with CCM as it exists currently.
For a while I used to use the pray as you podcast as a prayer aide while commuting, and was occasionally struck by some of their musical choices (more so on the classical and world music side rather than CCM).
Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you feel ashamed.
Many of the really successful CCM artists I remember from back in the day were from the US. Many of them were / are musically excellent but the world they were singing about didn’t resonate much.
I had a good friend, sadly no longer with us, who was a DJ and something of an expert on CCM. Good for him. He championed some of the less well known artists who had a lot of integrity.
I'm not knocking that.
But give me Allegri, Palestrina, Bach and Mahalia Jackson any day of the week.
No serious offense taken, but I often find that here on the Ship, even in our cozy little Heavenly corner, someone will start a thread by saying something like, "I like fantasy novels/manga/trains/CCM/rom-com movies/Shakespeare/Terry's chocolate oranges -- can those of us who like those things have a conversation about it?"
And the first several responses will include several people saying "Oh, [that thing you like] is terrible, I can't stand it at all, it's absolute trash."
All perspectives are valid, of course, but I'm just surprised by the impulse to jump in on a thread about something you're not into, just to make the point that you're not into it. And there's always the possibility that someone might feel quite genuinely hurt, that so many folks are piling on to say "I really dislike that thing you like." So I guess that's why I decided to mention it -- to interrogate that practice. But the human tendency to do that is probably better questioned in Purgatory than in Heaven, so my comment may just be a distraction.
But like many people have mentioned, most CCM just wasn't as good as "secular" bands.
I have long appreciated U2 not always for their music (but mostly) but their commitment to justice work and critique.
One of the all time best CCM cds I know of might really be DCCM (D for deconstructing) -- Derek Webb's album Mockingbird. Will it ever not be relevant in the US? Probably not in my lifetime.
Lore have mercy.
Can't be helped. He drank the "not allowed to pray in school" coolaid as well.
I liked Pardon Me.
Better known artists include: Deacon Blue, Fat and Frantic, Martyn Joseph
Less well known artists:
Nick and Anita Haigh (former teaching colleagues of mine, he's now a PP in our diocese. They are members of the Northumbria Community, write and have produced three excellent albums of Celtic style music).
My son in law, Aaron Frith who played in several Christian bands at festivals like Spring Harvest and has written countless songs- this is one of his more well known ones:
https://thepushcommunity.bandcamp.com/track/carry-me-aaron-david-frith
Godfrey Birtell, a sort of wandering Christian minstrel
And a series of albums by Ian White of the Psalms set to modern music.
I think they were good live, as they tended to cut loose a bit and become heavier and more improvisational.
Being of limited funds there was definitely a choice between spending money on music or books and books won every time.
When Cheery husband was part of the music team at church he would try to buy some current music to try to introduce more recent music to the congregation, I don't think he's bought anything new in the last 7 or so years and I don't listen to a lot of music of any description these days.
Second Chapter of Acts, Chris Rice, John Michael Talbot, Michael Card are artists I listen to now and again.
Might be more productive, then, to start thread called Why CCM Is So Awful.
(Which I, for the record, would be totally supportive of, since takedown threads are usually pretty entertaining.)
There were certainly awful groups back in the day, and awful ones now. Some artists like Steve Taylor have talked about problems in the industry, and even written songs about it, like “Sock Heaven”—
Iona were good live.
Martyn Joseph is good live too. I've seen him 3 times in a pub not far from here and he was excellent. Somehow, though, his recordings don't do much for me.
Some of the others mentioned were certainly good at what they did but again didn't light my fire for whatever reason.
@Stetson, I'm such a contrary so-and-so that if anyone started a thread on why CCM was so awful I'm go on there and defend it against such a charge. 😉
Or else say that it was both/and ...
I could set up my own CCM beat combo, The Both And Band.
They would have to be supported by the Overegged Pudding Ensemble