Contemporary Christian Whores
In their attempt to appropriate the sounds of secular pop music, many singers of so-called Contemporary Christian Music ("CCM") have adopted the vocal stylings of the singers whose sound they want to emulate. Listen to 104.7 THE FISH and you'll hear female CCM singers emulating Britney Spears, Christine Aguilera, Whitney Houston, Sarah McLachlan, Mandy Moore, and Jessica Simpson. The logic is this: people like the sounds of these secular women, and the CCM singers could sell albums if they sing in a style that is already popular.
I think the CCM women have copied too much, however, because by emulating the grunts, moans, and glottal stops of the pop singers' vocalization techniques, they sound like they are making porn. You see, female pop stars emulate bedroom moans and grunts for the purpose of sounding sexy. Those secular women are popular because they often sound like they are singing while getting it put to them rather well. At least for men, this sounds like a preview of what sounds could be heard were they lucky enough to bed one of the singers. Sex sells, and when the primary medium is a sound recording rather than a video, sex has to be communicated through words and/or sexual vocalizations.
So while the female CCM singers are singing words about Jesus or God (sometimes), they actually sound like they're getting it put to them rather well. I hope that it is obvious that that would detract from the supposed "message" of the songs, e.g., the lyrics themselves.
Let's not mince words: the message is confusing, at best. "Jesus loves you, and I'm getting f__ked."
I think the CCM women have copied too much, however, because by emulating the grunts, moans, and glottal stops of the pop singers' vocalization techniques, they sound like they are making porn. You see, female pop stars emulate bedroom moans and grunts for the purpose of sounding sexy. Those secular women are popular because they often sound like they are singing while getting it put to them rather well. At least for men, this sounds like a preview of what sounds could be heard were they lucky enough to bed one of the singers. Sex sells, and when the primary medium is a sound recording rather than a video, sex has to be communicated through words and/or sexual vocalizations.
So while the female CCM singers are singing words about Jesus or God (sometimes), they actually sound like they're getting it put to them rather well. I hope that it is obvious that that would detract from the supposed "message" of the songs, e.g., the lyrics themselves.
Let's not mince words: the message is confusing, at best. "Jesus loves you, and I'm getting f__ked."
posted by Jason at 11:33 AM
2 Comments:
Such an interesting question: why is recorded Christian music so bad? I don't know nearly as much about music as you do, Jason, but I could go on and on about this. Not just the CCM on "The Fish," but the self-consciously non-contemporary music that you hear on Christian radio here in Macon. It all sounds so . . . false. Larded with sentimentality, overwrought, shallow and derivative of other musical forms.
To hear CCM musicians imitate pop styles is an ironic reversal. Surely one of the foremost influences on American popular music in the last fifty years has been the music of the low church, particularly the Southern and Black churches. When Lou Rawls died a couple of weeks ago, NPR played a recording of an old interview. Like many other black pop singers of the 60s and 70s, he got his start singing in church. He joked that the only difference between a gospel song and a blues song was whether you sang "my Jesus" or "my woman," and illustrated it with a couple of songs.
In the 50s and 60s, pop musicians wanted to imitate church music because that church music had an honesty and power that weren't to be found in the stuff being manufactured on Tin Pan Alley. And it is no coincidence that the most honest and powerful music came from the suffering churches of Mississippi and South Georgia, not from the First Presbyterian Church of Oak Park, Illinois.
Maybe our music has lost its power because we have become so fearful of suffering. The gospel has to be, "Jesus makes me happy," and if I'm not happy, then I must not be a Christian, and certainly I wouldn't dare tell an unbeliever that sometimes Jesus makes me miserable, that sometimes being in Christ makes it even more painful to live in this lost and lonely world.
As for the eroticism of some CCM, I don't know that we should necessarily flee a certain erotic element in some Christian music. It may even be argued that the problem with CCM is that, like modern pop music, it embraces an empty eroticism. Jesus is this really cool boyfriend who never forgets Valentine's Day and knows how to make me feel good. Isn't the real lover of our souls quite a bit more imposing, even frightening?
Nate posted the following comment to this post under my post about Internet sex. Here's what he said:
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"Jason,
" 'You said in this post, "How can one sinner call another sinner 'pervert'? A Pharisee can. A self-righteous Christian can. But not the humble Christian who fears God and knows his sin.'
"I changed a few words in your quote........
"How can one sinner call another sinner 'Contemporary Christian Whore'? A Pharisee can. A self-righteous Christian can. But not the humble Christian who fears God and knows his sin.
Nate Thom"
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First, Nate, thanks for signing your name.
Second, you are right. My response is to repent of 1) any superiority I feel in having thought that I'm above the same temptation, 2) liking that I have sight where they are blind.
My sin is not in pointing out the blatant sexuality of their vocalizations or the dishonor brought to Christ by their singing so in His name. My sin is in my attitude towards them and my lack of sorrow over the disgrace brought to Christ in His name. What "the humble Christian who fears God and knows his sin" should feel is deep sadness that these sins are being committed against God, both the sin of the CCM singers and people like me who complain about them but don't pray for them.
I really pray that I can be like Paul in this respect: able to speak the truth in love. In this post, I did not do so.
Thank you, Nate, for loving me enough to point out my own sin.
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