BTW the coworking space I'm at plays music in the background always and today I shazamed a track I really liked and it happened to be Panic, thought of you @TakingTheSteps!
Yup, it was House Of Memories haha, love it! Such an unknown song, only 400 million listens on Spotify
Oh nice! That's a good one ^_^ my current favorite of theirs is High Hopes. But I think my favorite album in general is Pretty. Odd.
International Anthems for the Human Race by All Star United is the best album in time and space, all others pale in comparison and there was no longer any point in making music after 1998, when sonic perfection was achieved.
I don't really keep up with new music. I've just heard that one song, and I enjoyed it, so I listen to it a lot on YT Music. The only full albums I've listened to of theirs are Pretty. Odd., A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, and Death of a Bachelor. I'm one of those old school people who mostly just listens to CDs in my car. Which means I rarely listen to music, but when I do, it's whatever I happen to own. Lol
My favourite record of all time is actually Ultraviolence by Lana Del Rey. To the point I got it tattooed on the left of my chest over the heart
Mostly that was a . People love their nostalgia, and since my adolescent "pop" culture was largely limited to Christian Evangelical subculture, my nostalgia is restricted and tends to be of lower quality than most. I mean, art is subjective. The quality of art, of music, is subjective. But objectively, Christian music has a more narrow range of topics they are expected to address. Some artists have complained their music doesn't have enough "Jesus Per Minute" to satisfy Evangelical audiences, but of course any mention of faith automatically disqualifies them from secular charts. There are also fewer Christian artists out there. A strictly mediocre song by most standards can be a hit on the Christian charts, since there's nothing better on. I, and Ian Eskelin, leader and frontman of the band All Star United, were/are very aware of all of this. So when the second track of the album opens with an enthusiastic announcer hollering "Ladies and Gentlemen! The Greatest Band in the World: ALL STAR UNITED!!!," a band most people have never even heard of, much less recognize as "great..." It's a level of self-aware irony I appreciate on a near spiritual level. All Star knows exactly what they are, and they are okay with it. At least, they are okay with acknowledging it. Okay with acerbically mocking secular idol worship, even more acerbically mocking the Christian Evangelical consumerism they themselves profit from, and even mocking themselves for taking advantage. It's a problem, they are saying. We're part of the problem. The world is a mess. Despite all that, however, they don't phone it in. The tunes are happy bubblegum pop with rock and ska influences, rife with riffs and replete with hooks; bouncy, enthusiastic, earnest, even joyful, which takes the sting out of what would otherwise be cynical social criticism. The songs are fun to hear, a delight to listen to, and the lyrics are not all cleverly cutting, either. They provide hope, they name a solution in a straight-faced declaration, "If we were lovers/Loving like we say/All the ghosts of doubt would crash and burn away." The piece that moves it from a good album to a great one, though, is the flow from track to track. It's not a string of songs piled onto a CD, because remember, this is 1998 and CDs were how we listened to music (God, they were so much better than cassettes). This is an Album, a journey, for full effect it should be listened to in order. I don't know if you have to have been in a specific place and time to "get" the lyrics, but the music is, I think, charming and endearing, even if it isn't my usual. I genuinely believe this was and is a great album, even though I tend to have a dim view of most of the music I listened to in that era. There are other Christian albums and tracks that achieved a high bar, in my opinion. Of course all of mid to late '90's Christian rock stands in the shadow of DC Talk's 1995 release, "Jesus Freak." Jon Foreman, as an individual artist and as frontman for the band Switchfoot, I believe is incapable of releasing a bad track. A band called Pax 217's self-titled debut has an appeal that might be strictly nostalgic for me, but then maybe not. Chasing Furies was limited to their own self-titled debut and then they disappeared, but the music was experimental and what I thought of as cool, and Sarah MacIntosh's voice is a rare instrument, even by popular standards. Then there's a couple that get even more random and weird, and specific to my own tastes. I don't know that Christian audiences knew what to do with Burlap to Cashmere's esoteric poetry (In the Winter lies a naked man/With a horse, and a gun/I will never see his face again/'Cause I have won), or their wild, gorgeous, intensely technical acoustic guitar picking, or Atomic Opera's lyrics just as critical of Christian culture as All Star, but accompanied by experimental prog rock instead of All Star's delightful spoonful of sugar. But these are far and away better than most of the bands and tunes I grew up on. I don't want to disparage those artists. Art is hard, and I believe Christian art is even harder for reasons I don't need to go into here. I just... I won't name names, but when I hear these bands and tracks again, as an adult and having been exposed to a wider range of aural art, I cringe. If you bothered to listen to those tracks I said are comparably good, just imagine what makes me cringe. But us puckered holy-rollers were so desperate for sounds more updated than 4 Hymn or the Gaither Vocal Band, we'd have listened to anything. And that was in the late '90's to early '00's, I haven't kept up with Christian music but even then I thought CCM was extraordinarily bad. Replace the lyric "Jesus" with "baby," and they were just sappy, sub-par love songs, which is not only horrible art, but atrocious, even destructive theology as well. Anyway, that was a stupidly long response to a very simple question, a glimpse into a bizzare, exclusive music underground you probably never knew existed, and never needed to know. In fact, if you read this entire post you deserve some kind of merit badge or something. If you want an overall takeaway, it's that people LOVE music and there's something for everyone. And if you bother to check out the linked tracks, you can learn for yourself how weird (but maybe cute because they're trying so hard?) Christian music can be.
I'm very aware of its existence since growing up I was only allowed to listen to Christian music. I didn't listen to much of All Star United but I remember their song Smash Hit. I didn't realise their songs were ironic but I can see it now. I don't listen to much Christian music nowadays but there are still a few I listen to now and then. Like Switchfoot and NEEDTOBREATHE. Jaci Velasquez's Latin albums were pretty good and Michelle Tumes's debut album was quite special.
I love them! Every time I hear one of their songs I'm like "Ooo who is this?! I love it!" and then I look and I'm like "oh, duh, Need To Breathe, again." You would think I would just learn to recognize it by now. Lol My favorite Christian band is definitely Casting Crowns, though. They have the most incredible lyrics, and their harmonies are stunning. I love to sing their songs, because the harmonies are in just about the perfect range for what I enjoy singing. I also love Hawk Nelson. Their lyrics aren't always about "Christian stuff," but they are still considered a Christian band. There are lots of great Christian artists out there. Idk why people act like Christian music is automatically bad or worse than secular music. It's not... there are tons of horrible secular artists in the world too.
i'm really into the Mashup YouTube scene... there is really some great stuff... William Maranci and Bill McClintock are the best as far as i'm concerned. totally! i think there's more room GOOD christianity based music. but that's just me... there's certainly lot of music in islam or judaism (so far from what i read in the old testament there has been some songs sung)... religion means celebration, that's where it comes from... anyhow i got carried away. sorry.
I am obsessed with Queen and The Beatles, my father used to play their songs in his car all my childhood so thats why I know almost all their songs! I also prefer listening phonk music and I made my own playlist in Youtube, it contains more than 150 songs. I spend so much time doing that, but now I'm spending even more time listening this Youtube playlist every week. So I could say that I'm kinda addicted to the music now.
My favorite bands are definitely Queen and Pink Floyd. As for Queen, I just love almost all of their albums so far. My entire playlist is crammed with these songs, I literally can't figure out how long a playlist is without a calculator.It's just great music.
I think the trouble with Christian music is a great number of it have artists trying to be the Christian version of secular music. I think a lot of this is due to how Christian record labels are run. There will always be this conflict between the label and the artist because they have different goals in mind. You're right that there are bad secular artists and probably people are harsher on Christian music due to its reputation. Still, there are artists who are Christians and aren't considered bad anyone such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Mahalia Jackson. It's because they made music that originated from the church.
Not really sure what that means, but people are extra harsh about Christian music because people hate Christians and don't want to think about God. I don't think it has anything to do with anyone's "reputation."
I love this post so much !!! I actually like most of the “off topic “ posts . I LIVE for music I listen based on mood . I’m sad and mad right now so I go from Alice In Chains to Pantera but if I’m HAPPY , everything goes don’t know why but the song Suga Boom Boom is my favorite
