The Deceit of the Christian Music Industry

I've been a Christian for the majority of my life and grew up on Christian music.  As a teenager, I began to move away from radio mainstream forms of music and started getting into bands like Underoath, As Cities Burn, Emery, blessthefall, and The Devil Wears Prada.  They were still considered Christian, but were definitely not being played on Christian radio.

I still love these bands, and as a result I listen to the BadChristian Podcast, which is hosted by two members of the band Emery (and Pastor Joey).  When my music tastes began to evolve as a teen, I could no longer connect to Christian radio because something about it wasn't authentic to me.  My suspicions have been confirmed after listening to episode #219 of the BadChristian Podcast with Aaron Gillespie, the drummer of Underoath.   

Please don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying all Christian radio artists are purposely being deceitful.  There are definitely some very talented artists in this genre who are in it for the right reasons.  What I am saying is there is a huge problem within this realm of people writing music that doesn't come from the heart.  The goal is to appeal to the masses and make money, and that disgusts me.

At about 20 minutes into the podcast, Aaron talks about his experience with the Christian music industry.  Here are a couple of quotes I pulled that shocked me, but then again, this makes sense.

"You have to be perfect in order to make it in Christian radio."  "I've sat at tables in song writing meetings with Christian labels before and had them tell me that this song has to feel a certain way to a certain age group and it's a mid 30's soccer mom whose husband is messing around on them...she's got five kids, a ton of shit to do, and her life is falling apart.  You need to write a song for her.  And that's when I started to think years ago, I don't want any part of this.  This isn't holy, this is business."

Toby from Emery goes on to say that he and Matt were told the same things when they went to write Christian music for their side project, Matt and Toby.

We as Christians should be insulted this is the goal for songs that are meant to bring glory to our God.  The foundation should be about Jesus, not a generic formula designed to make money.  As a woman, I'm greatly offended by this mentality, especially if these business people think the generic pop that ends up on Christian radio is what would appeal to most women.  Maybe I am in the minority because of my taste in metal/hardcore, etc., but this still breaks my heart.

I would like to see a movement towards authentic Christian music being created.  As Aaron puts it, "I believe that people find the most hope, the most actual hope in something that is genuine, and something that is not invented..." and that is what Christian artists should have in mind when writing music.  He goes on to say "Christian music should be insane...the music we should make to His glory should be...full of soul and full of art and, most importantly, is genuine."

BadChristian has a music label and from what I've seen, they and other labels like Tooth & Nail and Solid State are putting out quality Christian music, it's just not mainstream.  That's fine with me because I've always been into alternative forms of entertainment anyway, but I just want the people within Christian culture to wake up and realize what they're buying into.

All the credit for this inside info comes from the podcast episode mentioned and linked above so I highly recommend you listen to it!