I really enjoyed preparing for today’s class. I am a fan of and frequently listen to contemporary Christian music. Someone made a comment in class that all Christian music sounds the same. I respectfully disagree with this statement. Over the course of several years, I have compiled a playlist of contemporary Christian music on spotify with the title “How He Loves Us”. I borrowed the playlist title from the title of one of my favorite David Crowder song’s. From this playlist, I conducted some research on some of my favorite Christian songs. Phil Wickham’s song “At Your Name (Yahweh, Yahweh)” expresses the sentiment of Psalm 66:1-3, “Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious. Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You”, and Psalm 81: 1, “Sing aloud to God our strength; Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob”. Christ Tomlin’s famous song “I will follow” alludes to Ruth 1:16, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God”. I found that the opening lines of “There is Power” by Lincoln Brewster allude to Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them”.
One of my favorite Christian songs, “I am not alone” by Kari Jobe references one of my favorite bible verses, Deuteronomy 31:8, “it is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed”.
I would challenge individuals who claim that all Christian music sounds the same to listen to “Won My Heart” by Chris Quilala. The rhythm of this song sounds like something that would be played on a popular music station. I would also encourage individuals who are skeptical of contemporary Christian music to listen to some of the music of Hillsong United. This Australian group has produced incredibly creative and innovative music. I would recommend “Here Now (Madness)”, “Relentless”, and “Even When it Hurts (Praise Song)”. Rend Collective similarly represents a unique branch of contemporary Christian music. Their music sounds very folksy due to their use of acoustic guitar, banjo, and the fiddle.
2 responses so far ↓
Anonymous // Apr 1st 2017 at 11:23 pm
Brittany,
I happened to be the person mentioned who said “all Christian music sounds the same.” To clarify, I would like to state it was one of my friends I was quoting on this comment. I completely agree there is a vast amount of differing messages and sounds alike produced in contemporary Christian music, as you supported in this post. I did not intend to insult contemporary Christian music or artists in any way, but merely bring a new topic for discussion in this class. I too am a fan of this genre, especially Hillsong United.
Thank you for your understanding.
Anonymous // Apr 1st 2017 at 11:28 pm
This is Haley Huelsman. I promise I was not attempting to be passive aggressive in posting as “Anonymous.” I did not notice it was going to be published that way until it was too late.
Again, thank you for understanding.
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