Take me to church: A #threesongtuesday post
I've had this theme on the back burner for quite a while now. It's not that I haven't wanted to post about it, but I wasn't really sure how it would be received. For good reason, there are a lot of people who are turned off by organized religion. Due to that fact, they pretty much shut out anything that has to do with religion or church.
I've already accepted the fact that I might not get as many upvotes on this post as I usually do, but I'm not ashamed of what I believe, plus, I made a promise.
Just about a week ago, @whywhy shared a song by a CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) artist and we agreed (I think anyway) that we would both make that the theme this week in our #threetunetuesday post sponsored by @ablaze.
I grew up in a pretty conservative household, but that doesn't mean we listened to church hymns all the time. In fact, the bulk of my music listening while growing up revolved around the local oldies channel playing hits from the 50's and 60's. If my dad was driving. If my mom was driving, we listened to a local AM station that had a talk show where they shared recipes.
Amazing how different life was before we had the world at our fingertips huh?
As I entered my teens, I was introduced to Contemporary Christian Music, there even used to be a magazine centered around it like Rolling Stone that I subscribed to called CCM. Remember those Columbia House and BMG CD Clubs? They had one dedicated solely to Christian music. Needless to say, besides the local top 40 radio stations, that was the bulk of my music listening.
We didn't even have cable, so MTV was this magical thing that only my rich friends got to watch.
Let's get started:
Even though I enjoyed listening to CCM music, there was always something about it that made me feel like it was "less than" the other music that was out at the time. I don't know if it was the production quality or just the fact that it was so "on the nose", but although it was good, it was just never as good as pop music.
WhiteHeart was one of the first bands to come out and kind of change that perspective for me. They had several albums out before Tales of Wonder and the song "Unchain", but this was one of the first I can remember that didn't feel so much like a CCM album. The production just seemed better and in some of the songs the veiled references to God and religion weren't as in your face. I'm not sure why that seemed better to me, but it solidified that separation between church music and regular music for me.
I just realized how hard it is going to be to pick only three songs.
Believe it or not, WhiteHeart and Whitecross were actually separate bands. Along with other bands like Petra, it appears I was a bit of a metal head before I even knew it. At least an appreciator of the hair band. It would seem there were a lot of them out there at the time. I never really got into Stryper, but Whitecross was definitely one of my favorite bands at the time. This song "My Love" is a perfect example of that 80's hair metal style and how they walked the line between it being something that could be a love song and being an outright Christian song.
I didn't find this out until much later, but apparently one of the guitar players from Whitecross was from my hometown and he lived next door to one of my best friends in high school. By then I don't even know if the band was still together and I had moved on to other music, but I still busted out my Whitecross CD's from time to time.
As the grunge and alternative music scene really started to explode in the secular world, many Christian bands popped up that were following suit. Audio Adrenaline kind of started out as a club our house style band if you listen to their early stuff, but then they gradually moved over to alternative rock.
"Never Gonna be as Big as Jesus" was probably one of my favorite songs from I think their third studio album called Bloom. They came out around the same time as Jars of Clay who actually had a bit of success on regular radio with the song "Flood". Fun fact, my brother in law went to university with the guys in Jars of Clay and was their resident admin before they even were called JoC.
Back to Audio Adrenaline... Listening to them evolve from what they were to what they became was pretty cool. If you listen to their whole catalog, you can really hear the change between Don't Censor Me and Bloom.
They even did a cover of Edgar Winters "Free Ride" on one of their albums that is pretty dang good!
Finally, I am going to leave you with a bonus track from a more obscure band called Dakoda Motor Company. "Stand Up" starts with a bass line that even @verhp11 can appreciate. This band had a really fun breezy California style that was fun to listen to. It was also one of the rare Christian bands at the time that was fronted by a female singer. They definitely had a bit of a Donna's or even Garbage vibe to them.
Maybe even a little Save Ferris without as much of the Ska.
I know there are a few people out there who grew up listening to this kind of music as well. I have run across them here and there on the blockchain. @nuthman comes to mind, I hope this is a nice walk for him down memory lane if he happens to pop in.
As I said, there are a ton of other artists I could share here. The Waiting had some really good stuff that was out of the ordinary and didn't quite fit the mold of other Christian Music at the time. Pray For Rain had a Beatles vibe that was really appealing as well. Petra, Rez Band, and Barren Cross were some "heavier" bands that had a definite draw from the rock crowd. There was even Christian Rap from artists like ETW and SFC.
You might think that Christian music is all sunshine and roses, but there were other artists like Steve Taylor, and The Seventy Sevens that called out specific parts of religion or made fun of the stereotypes that many people had/have about Christians. It's some really compelling stuff if you get the chance to dig into it.
So there you go, no Hosier, no REM, and no U2, just some CCM music from my youth.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
Thanks for sharing Bozz. This is a totally new genre for me and I never heard any of these tunes before. They are quite easy going and I would listen to them if they were on. The final song was pretty cool. I used to go to Sunday Club when I was younger, but it was nothing quite like these that ever got played lol
No, we didn't learn or sing songs like this either. It was mostly kids songs and hymns. The artists like this were a nice change of pace from the traditional stuff.
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Well, we all have our choices. Thw fact that I'm not a Christian would not stop me from listening to some of their interesting songs
Hahaha
The songs are nice!
Thanks, I appreciate that. The music is definitely good and some of the artists are quite accomplished musicians.
Those are some fun picks! Dakoda Motor Co I had never heard of, but pretty good!
I think they only had a couple albums, but they were always one of my favorites.
Only one you mention I vaguely remember, Whitecross although there were many groups who sang gospel when we were growing up.
Cliff Richard visited our shores a couple of times, permission granted only due to the fact shows were religious songs presented to audiences here in South Africa.
George Harrison, Arlo Guthrie, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin to name a few I remember.
Nothing wrong with that pic but I get your point, but I love that Whitecross song. Never heard of them before but I am back in the late 80s and loving it. And yes we agreed sort of, and sticked to it...although nobody got the hint yet !LOLZ
I kind of lost track just how good some of these 80's Christian Hair bands really were. I am starting to appreciate them a bit more again now that I am older. I have a folder on Spotify that has a bunch of my favorites in it.
I didn´t know that those even existed, I had some Christian metal bands but that whole Christian themed thing is really niche at this side of the Atlantic
My one exposure to this type of music was at university. I was already following the Buddhist scene so I wasn't interested in Christian groups, but there was a girl I was chasing... I'm sure you can see where this is going. She always went to the local university christian group every sunday, so I started going. It was pretty much your basic church, but instead of hymns they sang christian rock. The "Jars of Clay" songs jumped out at me and I enjoyed them enough that I actually bought a Jars of Clay CD.
Funny enough, that girl later became somewhat disillusioned with christianity and stopped going but I continued to go for awhile, mainly just for the music.
Very interesting! I'm glad you found Jars of Clay. They were pretty game changing when they broke the scene. Before that the only people who had crossover success were the R&B artists, Amy Grant, and Michael W. Smith. These days there is a lot more crossover I think. Organized religion in general definitely has a lot to pick apart and distrust. That's part of the reason I see Christianity as less of a religion and more of personal relationship with my God. I think that was part of the intent of God sending Jesus in the first place.
I went through a period in my teens when I was exclusively listening to Christian music. I can't remember if I told you, but I went to a boarding school for a while near Hazard Kentucky called Oneida Baptist Institute. Any non-Christian music was considered contraband, so you had to get used to Christian music or nothing at all!
Wow, I don't think I could handle that. Those Baptists are pretty strict for sure. My friend is one and her dad is a pastor. A bit further north though! I figured you might recognize some of the stuff in here!
I had a friend at the time who was the son of a Baptist pastor. His dad used to make him answer the phone at home "Jesus loves you, Elijah speaking"
It was funny because when he wasn't at home, Eli was one of the craziest kids I knew.
That's usually the way it goes! Those pastor's kids are pretty wild once they spread their wings!
That's indeed a groovy bassline :) Great song also !!
Christian music are much fun to listen, fillied with so much positive vibrations and energy.. i loved number two more, will add it up to my collection
Yeah, it is some good stuff. It's always been a big part of my life.
Rendering service to God without expecting anything in returns, is the greatest gift ever, as things will start taking shapes miraculously
Amigo yo soy cristiano y la palabra dice en mateo 10:32 -33 A cualquiera, pues, que me confiese delante de los hombres, yo también le confesaré delante de mi Padre que está en los cielos. Y a cualquiera que me niegue delante de los hombres, yo también le negaré delante de mi Padre que está en los cielos. Así que bien haces en hablar de Dios.
Very interesting songs, it is actually quite addictive.
I'm glad you liked them!