Posts Tagged ‘Music Genre’

Why is Christian Rock Music so Popular?

“Christian Rock”, the genre often scoffed at by traditional rock artists, enthusiasts & critics alike is gaining popularity and stamping its place as a sort after genre for the young generation of head-banging, mosh-pitting gurus! Didn’t Christian rock die a couple of years ago, you ask? Christian rock music is growing faster than ever before with Daily News of Christian Rock Music, new artists & albums streaming across the Internet and pumping the airways continuously every day. So where did this religious music come from? I mean this is new right?

This type of rock music wasn’t around 20 years ago, was it? Well I didn’t think so until recently, the reality is Christian music or should I say Christian rock music has been around seemingly since the dawn of creation! So why seeing it today all the time? Where were the God Rocker’s for so long and what happened to the voice of damnation for those participating in anything other than a church hymn or Sunday school choir? The chastity belt of today’s Christian rock is alive and kicking. There are many religious organisations who oppose this form of music, I will talk more about this opposition later.

Most Christians are in favor of this “movement” feeling that Christian rock music is another way to reach people with the importance of the Christian faith. So why the controversy?, what is so different about Non-Christian rock music in comparison to Christian rock? Many have asked this question and instead of quoting Mr. Bob Dylan “the answer is blowing in the wind”, I thought I would analyze the facts and see why there is so much “opposition” to the sounds of “thumping grace”. After reviewing many rock & heavy metal music bands and performances and then compared them to their Christian counterparts, I did see differences but not many! The stage performance was very similar with the exception of Non-Christian heavy metal revealing more of a dark or sadistic side at times in general there was little if no difference in presentation from Christian rock to standard or Non-Christian music. The only real difference I could see was in the lyrical content, with Christian rock music singing words from the Bible and preaching family values.

So why was Christian rock music introverted for so many years, seemingly hiding in the shadows from more upright members of the Christian community? Well apparently they weren’t hiding at all, it’s just that I like many people didn’t even know they were around back then! Good old fashioned Christian rock bands like Petra, Stryper, Bloodgood, Whitecross and Tourniquet have been rocking Christians and secular music lovers alike for generations.

The voice of rock damnation is still screaming louder than ever in some Christian circles although seemingly falling on deaf ears of a Christian Rocker community that grows bigger every day. Who opposes this Christian liberation? Who else but other Christians! It seems some segments of who have not advanced to modern day sounds are Bible bashing these Christian rock music head bangers with eternal consequences for their “misguidance”. The most dramatic example I came across was the seventh day adventist (SDA) church who proclaim that Christian rock music is quote “Devil music”. The seventh day adventist church preach that all rock music has the “beat of the devil” borrowed from primate heathen rituals, beating in time with the body’s “natural rhythms”. I found it hard to believe that people could think this way at first, but indeed it is true and the SDA church is serious about stamping out any and all rock music, or anything for that matter that has a drum beat!

The Cycle of Pop Music




c has always had its critics and those that wish that rock and pop music would just go away. But over the years rock has proven to be pretty resilient and has withstood the test of time. Pop music is a bit of a different animal than rock music although the two genres do tend to cross over a great deal. Rock music is usually classified as music driven by electric guitar and all the various sub-genres of rock are usually identified with electric guitar driven music. Rock usually has a certain angst or message to it and many in the rock music industry take their music and their message very seriously. Pop music is usually a little more encompassing than rock music. Pop music is used to identify music that seems to be universally popular with a large audience and can cross over from genre to genre. Pop is usually accepted as being short for popular so what we are really dealing with here is what the music industry considers to be popular music which translates into music that has greater potential to sell a lot of records. Pop music is music that is designed to be catchy to the ear and grab a large audience right away. Many newer country artists are starting to write songs that are country but are also being classified as pop because of their universally catchy hooks. Sometimes pop can create other genres of music due to the growing popularity of the music within the pop genre. Disco was pop music until it evolved into its own music genre and became very popular in the 1970’s. Hip Hop is a mixing of rap and pop music that has become an extremely popular sub-genre of pop and stands today as one of the most popular genres of music in the industry. But rock music always seems to be there whether it is in the background as it was in the 1980’s or in the foreground as it was in the 1960’s and seems to be again today. Rock music seems to work in cycles and those cycles are definitely influenced by the popularity of pop music at the time. It seems that there is a large audience within the music industry that likes to jump from one genre to the next and that audience is the one that creates the pop music crazes that rule from year to year and that audience also dictates when rock music is at its peak and when rock music seems to be in decline. In the days when Britney Spears and Christine Aguilera were at the peak of their popularity pop music was at its peak which cause people to lose interest in rock music. Artists such as Pearl Jam and Metallica seemed to lose their luster and their record sales shifted to those acts offering a more pop music sound. Today acts like The White Stripes and The Killers are starting to bring rock music back to the forefront and it won’t be long before rock music is giving hip hop and other forms of pop music a run for their money. For more information on music, visit http://concertsmicroblog.com and http://djmicroblog.com