dB-Paradox Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 As a Christian, I listened to Christian pop/rock/metal/hardcore/yada yada yada...Now that I've left the faith, I still listen to the music because I really like it. I do still think there is a lot of talent there. Anyone else still listen to Christian music? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRDWarrior Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Nope, much better stuff in "secular" music IMO. Course I listen to a pretty wide variety of styles, but still haven't found any where the christian/religious groups compare talent wise. Some were okay, but not as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shyone Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 As a Christian, I listened to Christian pop/rock/metal/hardcore/yada yada yada...Now that I've left the faith, I still listen to the music because I really like it. I do still think there is a lot of talent there. Anyone else still listen to Christian music? I hear the advertisements on TV and I'm almost tempted. Some of the songs are really catchy, and some that make it to popular radio are great to listen to. I get a little peaved when I realize I've been had, though, and the message is about God or Jesus. Have you heard the song about the little boy that is trying to buy a pair of shoes for his mother because she is going to meet Jesus tonight? The message for me is that the man helped the boy buy his mother a pair of shoes. We help each other through troubled times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skepticaldude541 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I can't agree with the message of the music anymore, so I'd never listen to it. Of all the things I've enjoyed about deconverting, musical freedom is the best. If fundies don't like my rock n' roll they can go rape themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dB-Paradox Posted October 20, 2009 Author Share Posted October 20, 2009 I now hear the messages as simple love songs. They don't have to be about God. Or if they clearly are, they can be ignored. And yes, often secular artists sound much better than Christian ones, but I can't help but wonder if production has anything to do with it. I like bands like Tourniquet, Mortification, Living Sacrifice, and Celin Dion...just checking to see if you're reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpheliaGinger Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I couldn't listen to it because I get nauseated at the whole "God is love" bits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Some of the bands were actually pretty good. Zao (considered gods in the secular metalcore scene), Stavesacre, Starflyer 59 (combined late 80s shoegazer with retro Beach Boys stuff, before retro was cool), and many others. Most of it was shit, of course. If I ever hear another Supertones song I'll puke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qec Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Enh, Fomgombault or Cleer Creek anyone? Hehehe. Thought not. Stabat Mater, various forms of the Credo, Salve Regina? lol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ephymeris Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Yeah, it depends on what it is and how nauseating the message is. I still have a few Five Iron Frenzy songs on my ipod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahgrace Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I still listen to Starflyer 59, Sufjan Stevens, and Over the Rhine a fair bit. Superb songwriting. Ah, Five Iron Frenzy... you know, I think Reese Roper was definitely one of the more levelheaded guys out there on the scene. That whole band were pretty stand-up people. I met them at Cornerstone Festival... we put up a sign at our campsite asking Five Iron to stop and say hi to us, and they did. When I went back the following year, Reese and Dennis remembered who I was and we had a great chat. Good guys. Ah, nostalgia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Non-Redneck Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I can't listen to the lyrics. They remind me too much of Christian hypocrites and the lies of Christianity. Some of the music without words I still like (Supertones), but due to the words will not listen to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuroikaze Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 My favorite Christian band back in the day was Waterdeep. Had a really interesting folk/blues mix and were skilled musicians. I can't really stomach the lyrics anymore though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ephymeris Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I still listen to Starflyer 59, Sufjan Stevens, and Over the Rhine a fair bit. Superb songwriting. Ah, Five Iron Frenzy... you know, I think Reese Roper was definitely one of the more levelheaded guys out there on the scene. That whole band were pretty stand-up people. I met them at Cornerstone Festival... we put up a sign at our campsite asking Five Iron to stop and say hi to us, and they did. When I went back the following year, Reese and Dennis remembered who I was and we had a great chat. Good guys. Ah, nostalgia. Reese was a pretty nice guy. We met him and the rest of the band at cornerstone too As lame as it sounds, it was my experiences at cornerstone that inspired me to "get serious" about my faith. Ah, youth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Christian contemporary music made me want to puke. It is worse than elevator music. Never cared for Christian rock--it sucked. Christian rap was crap. So I guess my answer is no, I did not listen to it then and I don't listen to it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaraOlive Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I still listen to Starflyer 59, Sufjan Stevens, and Over the Rhine a fair bit. Superb songwriting. I had no idea that Sufjan Stevens was Christian. I've only heard a few of his songs and didn't pick up on any explicitly religious lyrics. In that vein, if I didn't know that an artist was Christian because their music was not all about god, I wouldn't stop listening to them out some kind of misguided principle. It seems close-minded to me to stop listening to a non-religious song just because I happened to find out that the artist had religious beliefs. OTOH, in general, I think that most explicitly Christian artists are less talented than their secular counterparts, and I have a strong distaste for "praise" type lyrics. I have heard a crappy sounding song on the radio before and thought "hey that sounds like a Christian artist" and a few times I've been right. I think that the last one like that was a band called Mercy Me and I didn't even have to hear the lyrics to recognize the really cheesy sound as being Christian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I used to listen almost exclusively to christian music, but now I rarely listen to any christian music (other than the occasional Skillet or Red song that comes on the mainstream rock station). For the most part, I would say that the mainstream bands are more talented than the christian bands, but there are notable exceptions (Whitecross' Rex Carroll is an amazing guitarist, Tourniquet's Ted Kirkpatrick is an amazing drummer, and Out Of The Grey's Christine Dente has a uniquely beautiful voice, for a few examples). I don't have a problem with christian rock instrumentals, but when it comes to songs with lyrics, I can't stomach very much. I occasionally (though rarely) listen to Tourniquet or Iona, but they're not typical christian bands. I could probably still listen to Out Of The Grey and Guardian some, or the occasional not-so-preachy songs of others, but I really don't have the desire to listen to christian music anymore. In fact, I've sold a fair amount of my christian CDs on eBay, some of which fetched a good price due to being out of print and hard to find. I got a whopping $50 for a CD of Katy Hudson (now known in the mainstream market as Katy Perry), as well as several others that sold in the $20-$40 range. I have some more that I'm thinking about listing that should bring a decent amount. As a self-confessed musicoholic, I have been overwhelmed over the past few years with trying to catch up on mainstream music I missed out on over the years as well as keeping up with some of the new stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeLily Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Great thread. I deconverted in the early 90's so my taste is dated, but I used to love me some Keith Green. I still play Michael W. Smith's original "Christmas" album at yuletide. And Sandi Patti has a *gorgeous* voice. "Another Time, Another Place" still makes me cry because when my grandparents passed 16 years ago, I played it over and over. There's no doubt there's a lot of talent in Christian music. But I'm also busy making up for lost time on "secular" artists I missed during those years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahgrace Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I still listen to Starflyer 59, Sufjan Stevens, and Over the Rhine a fair bit. Superb songwriting. I had no idea that Sufjan Stevens was Christian. I've only heard a few of his songs and didn't pick up on any explicitly religious lyrics. Yep, he sure is a Christian, and his faith does poke its nose up in his songwriting from time to time, but never offensively (in my opinion). I think this is because he is a truly gifted songwriter who tells great stories... they may be informed by his faith but the story is not OVERWHELMED by his faith. Not to mention that he's a WICKEDLY talented musician. But yeah... very honest, very touching. Even when he writes about God it moves me because he frames it so universally... I am an atheist but I find it easy to relate his perspective on God to my perspective on the universe as I see it. I hope that made sense. I saw Sufjan at Cornerstone, too; he was playing with Danielson Famile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Yeah, it depends on what it is and how nauseating the message is. I still have a few Five Iron Frenzy songs on my ipod. They had this side project called Saint Saturn that was actually pretty good. Does anybody remember Prayer Chain? They were on the "alt rock" bandwagon in the early mid 90s but they were actually quite good. I forgot to mention Tourniquet. They were gods of speed metal, they should have been as famous as Exodus or Testament. Mortification's album "Bloodworld" was also really good. Living Sacrifice's early death metal albums (before they went all "nu metal") were absolutely phenomenal; I remember I let this pseudo-satanist guy who played guitar in a local death/black metal bnd borrow the tape and he thought it was one of the greatest things he'd ever heard (I didnt' tell him it was Christian). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Katy Hudson (now known in the mainstream market as Katy Perry), Wait, Katy Perry? The "I kissed a girl and I liked it" chick!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I saw Sufjan at Cornerstone, too; he was playing with Danielson Famile. Danielson Famile! I really like them, just because it's so bizarre and kitschy. It's like a half-demented Partridge Family doing some kind of evangelical circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Katy Hudson (now known in the mainstream market as Katy Perry), Wait, Katy Perry? The "I kissed a girl and I liked it" chick!? Yes, her real last name is Hudson (which she later dropped to avoid confusion with actress Kate Hudson) and she had a Christian CD out back in 2001. I had bought it for $7-8 and listened to it a few times, but then I started going through my deconversion. After several years, I had the CD out in yard sales for $2 and it didn't sell, but then I happened across an eBay listing that indicated that this was Katy Perry, and after checking it out I found that it's true, so I listed it on eBay and it sold for $50! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 You mean she fell away and became a "bad girl"? What the hell happened!? I bet the Christians flipped the fuck out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qec Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Nectar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddity Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I used to listen to Christian rock and only Christian rock in my early adolescence. Now I'm getting into stuff more suited to my own tastes - mostly experimental sorta music (think Pogo or Rasputina), and rediscovering a lot of 90's songs that I used to listen to as a kid. I still have a little Superchic[k] on my iPod, but I got rid of most of the stuff with overtly Christian messages. Superchic[k] got me through some rough times with their lyrics. I wish Reliant K didn't sneak some sickening line about gawd in every song, though. I liked them. The other day, my mom dug up the Veggie Rock CD we have kicking around. I still find that pretty funny, even though Veggie Tales is obnoxious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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