Christian Music Online

Christian music charts are rockin

June 5, 2005 – 9:33 am

Christian music charts are rockin‘ - Something sort of interesting happened while praise and worship music was attracting a lot of attention in contemporary Christian music.

Rock ‘n’ roll took over Christian music charts.

Yeah, it’s several decades behind the rest of our culture. But the emergence of rock acts as the top sellers in Christian pop music does mark a pretty significant milestone in the genre.

Jay Swartzendruber, editor of CCM Magazine noted in his column in the magazine’s April edition that rock album sales in 2004 doubled the total of 2003.

Adult Contemporary (AC) and Christian Hit Radio (CHR) are no longer in, he said in an interview in April.

“They’re redefining what CHR is, and now CHR has a much more rock sound,” Swartzendruber said. “And on AC, now you have modern rock bands getting their slow songs, but still modern rock songs, becoming these No. 1 charting songs on AC radio. That never would have happened in the mid-’90s.

“The Newsboys were considered a stretch, then.”

Now, the Aussie band seems quite mild in the face of acts such as Pillar, bringing a fire to Christian pop music.

Of course, there have always been Christian rock acts. Swartzendruber points out that the contemporary Christian music movement started in rock ‘n’ roll, and there have consistently been envelope-pushing acts like modern rock mocker Steve Taylor and heavy metal artists Stryper in the genre. But they were on the fringes, and you basically had to buy their albums to hear them.

But as Christian music grew from a grass-roots movement to an industry, the gatekeepers tended to bar the door to edgier bands, preferring adult contemporary acts such as Amy Grant.

“And she was considered edgy, for crying out loud,” Swartzendruber says, with a laugh. “So many Christian radio stations were non-profits, funded by donations, so what you had happening was the people who decided what got played were the parents, or even the grandparents, because they thought it was good for the young people. But in most cases, they weren’t playing what the young people wanted to hear, because it was too rock ‘n’ roll, too controversial, too — in some circles — satanic, because of the beat.”

But now, the kids have become the gatekeepers.

“Look at me,” Swartzendruber says. “I’m the editor of CCM Magazine, and 20 years ago I was one of CCM’s ardent readers. The kids who were stepping out and listening to rock ‘n’ roll, the fringe stuff away from the church, are now the gatekeepers.”

He says he’s not alone among Christian music officials and gatekeepers who come from a generation that grew up enjoying faith-based rock. Tooth & Nail Records owner Brandon Eble has turned his label into the No. 3 Christian recording company on the strength of bands such as Thousand Foot Krutch and Project 86.

A lot of those new gatekeepers also come to the table without an inherent prejudice against rock, a feeling there is something inherently evil in the music, regardless of the words.

The new attitude is paying off not only on Christian charts but in mainstream music, where bands such as Switchfoot now wield a strong influence.

In fact, most any emerging act now immediately is geared toward the mainstream, and while that changes the face of the genre, it also means Christian pop is no longer just preaching to the choir
By Rich Copley
HERALD-LEADER ARTS WRITER

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