Thursday, January 29, 2009

Is Christian music dying? Good or bad?

Not sure how you feel about the Contemporary Christian Music industry (CCM). Just read an interesting article by Scott McClellan over at COLLIDE and he referenced Charlie Peacock's ominous predictions for CCM.

Scott asks a great question in his article — Is Christian music missing something? He believes it is.

His message to artists, labels, and fans?

Artists — Innovate, don’t imitate.

Labels — Don’t play it safe; take some risks.

Fans — Support great art.

Is Christian Music Dying?

PREDICTIONS
Before we go much further, let’s establish what Charlie said. His complete essay, titled “The Future of Christian Music,” is currently available at www.ccmmagazine.com, but the five most important ideas Peacock put forward are:


  • The major labels aren’t in danger of going under anytime soon, but they’ll be forced to depend on dwindling revenue from their song catalogs.

  • The term CCM, or Christian Contemporary Music, will go away.

  • Christian music that matters won’t have any affiliation with the Christian music industry but instead will be written, recorded, and released in the mainstream.

  • Worship music serves a purpose within the Church, which guarantees its survival.

  • The big names from CCM’s glory days (Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, etc.) will survive, but many artists from the last decade will be left looking for a reason, roaming through the night to find their place in this world.

1 comment:

  1. James12:57 PM

    I've read Charlies article, and I'm actually on his side with this one. It's going to die if they don't change.

    A friend of mine did the whole Nashville scene and was around a lot of great songwriters and musicians. He expressed some distaste in the "worship music industry" because the worship music companies are not wanting songs that teach doctrines, they want songs that can be sung by any denomination because more churches can sing it which means they make more money. Even though God's judgment and wrath are mentioned more times in the Bible than God's love, then tend to censor the attributes of God that are less friendly.

    I think the changes that CCM needs to make are too risky for them to actually do it. Like Charlie said, CCM as we know it will die. However, I think CCM will still be around but in the indie realm, and we see people like Derek Webb that are doing a great job at it too. I think churches like Mars Hill (in Seattle) and Sojourn (in TN) will be the types of churches that shape the American Churches rather than the Worship Record Labels, frankly because the upcoming generation wants to know God in His entirety rather than a censored "seeker-friendly" version that is only a half truth.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)