the purpose driven music paradigm - Escape Babylon's Demons

“Much of traditional Christian pop is intended to give teenagers positive lyrics and role models
packaged to look like current musical stars“.
( “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen“. (1 John 5:21))
The running joke in the business is that the mainstream Christian music industry judges records by
counting GPMs, or Gods per minute. In contrast, on smaller, independen t labels like Tooth Nail and
Squint, the bands are simply making the music they like; there is no attempt to convert nonbeliever s
or to be parent-friendly. The influence of the music is reverberating beyond the Christian alternative -
music circuit. For example the members of Zao, a band on Tooth Nail, are considered innovators by
hard-core bands of any faith. And Me Without You, a newer band, has replaced the now-defunct At
the Drive-In as the one of the best post-hard-core bands of the moment. "In the past Christian music
has been very trite," said Stephen Christian, the singer in Anberlin. "One of the reasons we're
breaking out of this mold is that there are labels like Tooth Nail and Squint who are putting out
music with creative artists, not a copying sensibility. The idea is that no longer are we going to
mimic; we are going to lead." One reason these bands are gaining popularity is that, in addition to
playing the standard rock hole-in-the-wall, they are working on a touring circuit that exists just for
them. "If you're only playing punk rock clubs, you're limiting yourself," Christian said. "But we can
walk into any city and have at least 15 places to choose from" - a youth group, a church, a local rock
club, a coffeehouse. Several fans did help Anberlin load its equipment into a van after the
Revelation Room performance. The band then drove two hours to the Dreamworld Music Comp lex in
Arlington, just outside Dallas. Though Dreamworld is also Christian -owned, it books all types of
bands. One night a hard-core rock band like Cannibal Corpse singing profane, explicit lyrics may be
playing; another night a clean-cut Christian pop star like Phil Joel of the Newsboys will be onstage.
"I'm a Christian business owner, but this is a business, not a ministry,"
(“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will
hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24))
said John Tunnell, a co-owner. "I think bands that have a primarily Christian draw can have a hard
time being booked at other clubs, not because they're Christian but because their audience isn 't
going to drink - at least, not that much." Club bookings, however, are the least concern of most
Christian bands. Their bigger worry is alienating both the Christian music industry and mainstream
music fans as they try to cross over. The contemporary Christian music world generally rejects a
band with lyrics that are interpreted as negative or offensive. Now that Further Seems F orever, for
example, has become one of the latest bands to break out of the Christian scene, the group has
stopped performing at Christian-only clubs (though it sometimes still plays at the festivals). "We were
playing a lot of these places because they want to see music, and they agree with a lot of the things
that we agree with," said Chad Neptune, who plays bass in Further Seems Forever. "The problem
came into play when people at some of these places are very judgmental, and they have certain
expectations of every member of the band and certain premeditated ideas of what you should be
about." At the same time, as bands from the Christian club touring circuit strive for general market
success, many are worried that other music fans will be wary of them, seeing them as stereotypical
proselytizers. Jon Foreman, the singer in Switchfoot, said that though the band had been open about
it beliefs, he worried that "someone will judge our music based on a preconceived notion." But
Devine, at Columbia Records, said Switchfoot's Christian background was not a large concern when
signing the group. "With some of these bands, it's actually hard to tell the difference," he said. "Did
people buy POD and Evanescence because they come from the Christian scene, or because they
were exposed to great songs on the radio? I suspect with the numbers those bands are selling, it's
more the latter." Which is not to say that in crossing over these bands are likely to leave Jesus
behind.
"I walked around the GMAs," said Christian, of Anberlin, referring to the Gospel Music