Why I Don't Listen To Much 'Christian Music'
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Why I Don't Listen To Much 'Christian Music'

And why that doesn't make me a heathen

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Why I Don't Listen To Much 'Christian Music'
DeviantArt

Music is a force and a presence which I care passionately about. I believe it is the highest art form we have available to us and that we have a duty to listen to and produce the most beautiful types of music we can. Therefore I am very careful about the content and source of the music I listen to. As a Christian, it’s important for me to evaluate what music is pleasing to God, whether it contains His name or not. There are a few reasons I don’t listen to modern Christian music, but there are even more reasons why I listen to other music instead.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been pretty thoroughly educated on the vastly different types of music in the world. I grew up in a house with several other passionate music lovers who greatly influenced my music tastes. By the age of six, my brothers’ musical tastes, which included everything from rap to reggae to indie and punk rock (Radiohead is still my favorite band today) began to rub off on me. My dad taught me to love singers like Johnny Cash and Michael Card but also kept himself thoroughly invested in whatever his kids were listening to. My sweet mother mostly stuck to her own music tastes: artists such as Alison Krauss, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Wailin’ Jenny’s.

With all these different influences, I was practically forced into appreciating and recognizing good music, regardless of its genre. I have my family to thank for exposing me to so much different music and teaching me to recognize that each genre has beauty. However, I also have them to thank for teaching me a valuable lesson: there exists truly good, meaningful music that is worthy of being listened to but that is not necessarily considered “Christian music.” There was never pressure in my house to only listen to music explicitly mentioning God, and we were never forced to abandon bands or genres simply just because they discussed things that might not entirely align with Christian practice.

I assure you, this lack of pressure didn’t come from a place of apathy or ignorance. My parents knew that not all the music in our atmosphere was wholesome or good and that we would have to navigate through the waters of the secular world to find what was truly Good in music. They taught me to take what the culture has to offer you at face value, making sure you try to understand what an artist is trying to say through his/her music before criticizing it.

What’s most important about the way my parents taught me to find good music is the way they instilled in me the capability to truly adore and be in awe of good music. It was never as though my parents presented this mission of finding good music as “find culture’s less crappy parts,” but rather as “listen to this awesome guitar solo!” or “isn’t it cool how the artist was able to express this scenario in such poetic words?

With this mentality, I often butted heads with people who disagreed with my view of music. I ran into a lot of people who thought any music that wasn’t Christian music was merely a guilty pleasure and responded with, “Well, I’m not perfect!” when asked why they listened to it if they thought it was so bad. I ran into people who said things like, “Well yes, we can listen to other music sometimes, but why get mixed up with the culture’s taste of music when you could listen to this wholesome Christian rock?”

This idea that ‘secular’ music is never anything but a guilty pleasure is ridiculous. A song is not directly defying God just because it doesn’t explicitly mention His name. Music was meant to be skillful, good and talented and to participate in a community of art. Music that achieves its goal of being beautiful, skillful and its pursuit of truth pleases God simply because of its goodness. The very fact it was written and performed that beautifully and truthfully is a testament to God’s power.

However, even if we can appreciate skillful music, we must still be aware of that music's effect upon our souls. There obviously exists a lot of awful secular music that sounds good and catchy but that sends false and despicable messages to our ears. A song being catchy and rhythmically pleasing possesses one sort of excellence, but if it conveys messages that condemn good things or condone evil things, it’s not worthy of our time.

I think we often draw the line too short at what is wholesome or evil, saying that any song which discusses anything bad or unpleasant should therefore not be tolerated by Christians. I think it is crucial that we analyze music for the message it’s trying to convey before saying it isn’t worthy of our time. For example, if we were to say, “I won’t listen to any songs that talk about marijuana or partying,” then we would entirely miss out on the song “Here” by Alessia Cara - a song in which she talks about how she hates that she often finds herself at parties with lots of smoking and drinking because she would rather just have quality time with her closest friends.

Or, in one’s same attempt to abandon all music that talks about dark and disturbing views of sex and relationships in the name of keeping good morals, one would never hear the song “Habits” by Tove Lo in which she expresses how much she hates that sleeping around is the only way she feels she can escape from the pain of heartbreak. If you don’t believe me, watch the music video; it’s haunting. The truth in these songs is real and present, even if they discuss unpleasant or unhealthy lifestyles.

In order to truly analyze music, we can’t offhandedly condemn anything that discusses things we might not wish to encounter in our own lives. If you are in the business of appreciating real, good art you must recognize artists might discuss truths that are vulgar and painful but are true nonetheless. These are both songs which I myself actually repeatedly condemned until realizing that they had more content than I was giving them credit for.

The crux of my argument rests here, not on the count that all “Christian music” is bad, but on the idea that there is so much other good music out there that must be listened to. To deny ourselves the good and beautiful music of our world, secular though it may be, is ignorant and close-minded. That said, it must also be clear that, although not all Christian music is bad, there is a vast amount of music considered “Christian” that is just plain awful. For a song to talk about Christ’s majesty but be simultaneously ugly and cheesy is also a disgrace to the name of God. If we believe God cares about beauty and goodness, why would we ever offer Him up anything less than the best, most beautiful gifts we have?

Again, like I said, just as not all secular music is bad, not all Christian music is bad. There is a decent amount of Christian music, mainly hymns, with really good skill and intention. But I cannot deny that hundreds of people have pursued music with the intent of singing directly about God’s greatness and sacrificed skill and craftsmanship in the process, leaving a shabby piece of art to represent the Christian title. When music is done well and in the pursuit of truth and excellence, it does more justice to the name of Christ than one that is done poorly but mentions His name.

Furthermore, I have often wondered why Christians feel so much more compelled to condemn secular music more than any other art form or source of entertainment. The same people who say that all secular music is bad would never walk into an art gallery and condemn paintings that didn’t portray Christ Himself, of which there are plenty. A painting of a beautiful valley full of trees in Autumn isn’t any less honoring to Christ than one that explicitly depicts Christ performing miracles. So why do we condemn music that depicts beautiful and good images of God’s earth? Simply by existing and possessing beauty, a quality which it shares with God, good music glorifies God and is a wonderful part of the earth He created.

Surely, the words of a song talking about something other than God Himself might have a stronger presence in our mind than simply seeing a grassy meadow. My point still remains, however, that there are good and excellent things in this life which we are meant to adore. To offer up sentiments about a wonderful thing and to do it beautifully in the form of a song is just about one of the best things a human can do.

Music is a blessed and sacred gift from God which we are meant to enjoy and appreciate. But it’s also a powerful force which we need to care for and make sure is done in the name of God by being the best it can be. Let us offer up art that is done in pursuit of beauty and goodness to the One who is all beauty and goodness.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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