THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CHRISTIAN MUSIC - By Gregory Hyde

"So is this Christian music?"
A little background: I’ve been a full-time, professional musician for the past 10 years based out of Chicago. I write, record, and release my own music, and play all sorts of live events ranging from corporate parties to worship services to touring rock shows.

I get some variation of the “Do you play Christian music?” question regularly. In all fairness, I brought some of it on myself since my debut album was “Hello God This is Gregory Hyde”. I was just going for something that rang like “Meet The Beatles”, but I’ve been asked this of my songs and albums long before I put humanity's most recognized and accepted deity in the title of my record.

In fact, the question keeps coming with no sign of tapering off. There’s not much time to expound on my thoughts in the usual moments when I’m asked; exhausted and sweaty after a show and needing to swiftly tear down my equipment before the venue staff starts launching it off the stage themselves. So please allow me to express my thoughts on the subject here...

I'm a Christian. I believe Jesus is who He said He was in the Bible, and I try my best to follow Christ's teachings, though I fail constantly. I am also a rock musician. Personally, I don't think these things are mutually exclusive. Somehow popular thought in church circles has become “You can either be a Christian musician or a secular musician, but you can’t be a Christian who plays secular music.” I disagree. I’m not the only one with this point of view, of course. Successful musicians like Jon Foreman of Switchfoot have expressed the same thing articulately.

I play my own music and covers of other artists at my house, in bars, at parties, at concerts, and I also lead worship at church, my home,and etc. I truly feel it's what God has called me to do, even though many of my songs have no direct lyrical reference to spiritual matters. But as for “Christian Music” - I disagree that it exists.

What people refer to as “Christian Music” is better defined as “The Christian Music Industry.” As the name implies, it's a business, created by human beings for the purpose of commerce of art separated into a faith-based market niche. The motivations behind it are as numerous as the people involved, ranging from saintly to sadistic.

I own a large collection of albums released from Christian record labels, and thoroughly LOVE many of them. Supplying the world with uplifting music is an honorable thing to do with your life and career, so please don't take the following to be a criticism of individuals or the genre as a whole. Rather, I just want to express my concerns against blanket judgments of art and music based on this term.

Are there songs that glorify or praise God? Alternatively, are there songs that blaspheme or mock God? The knee-jerk response is usually a resounding yes. But if songs are intangible artistic creations, how is that possible? Songs are without a will of their own, right? People on the other hand…

As such, I’m convinced that Christian music, as it’s commonly called, doesn’t exist.

It’s Only Christian Music IF…
I’m not just making this statement to be shocking. I contend that there is some solid logical footing here. So please open your hymn books to page 666 and join me for some hypothetical scenarios I used to come to my conclusions:

A) Marilyn Manson writes a song claiming he is Jesus Christ, which he recorded while hanging upside down on a black crucifix, drenched in pigs blood, in a Jewish cemetery. Later, Michael W. Smith (a popular Christian artist) does a cover of it. Is it Christian music now?

B) Good ol' Marilyn, just for the sake of irony, does a classical rendition of "Amazing Grace" on his new album with the London Symphony Orchestra. It's so illustrious, so beautiful, that it moves the Pope to tears (before he finds out who recorded it). Does this recording glorify or blaspheme God? Is it Christian music?

C) Michael W. Smith writes a song about his favorite flavor of ice cream and sings it in church. Christian music or just a song? Is God ready to unleash His wrath or just happy that Mikey enjoys Triple Butterscotch Ripple so much?

D) A well-intentioned Christian musician writes and records a song that becomes a major hit on Christian radio, though in reality the concept or lyric is the antithesis of something taught in Scripture. Is it anti-Christian music?

E) Ozzy Osbourne dedicates his life to Christ and begins a recording career with a Christian music label. Is "Bark at the Moon" now a Christian album?

F) Michael W. Smith denounces Christ, joins a Yak-molesting cult, and starts releasing albums which worship Tralfarganom, Creator of All Things Slightly Off-White. Is Mike's back catalog of songs no longer worshipful to God? Want to take bets on whether or not Family Christian Book Stores would yank his albums off the shelves?

Scenario D (which happens way more often than most people think) also brings to light another issue: If you want to preach to a congregation or start a church, it's standard practice that you attend a seminary, be mentored by another minister, or obtain an ordination of some kind. Yet anybody with a microphone and a claim to have heard the call can jump on stage and spout their own brand of cultish religion without much, if any, contradiction. As a result, many people of faith are so militant about only exposing themselves to "Christian music" that they overlook the fact that it sometimes directly contradicts their beliefs more than some of what they consider to be "secular" music.

Also interesting is the lack of denominational attention to detail. Personally, I am all for breaking down the barriers between denominations and unifying in our common ideals as Christ-followers. But I was baffled when I attended a “Christian” concert and noticed a Southern Baptist youth group was there, bobbing their heads along to their favorite Christian band, which happened to be a Holy Spirit-filled, tongue-talking (therefore hell-bound by their interpretation) band from Georgia. That detail is conveniently omitted from most group's songs and even public lives. Why? You lose album sales. Is that what would motivate Jesus?

Would it bother you if Jars of Clay were Methodists? What if you discovered Third Day or The Newsboys leaned more toward the homosexual-endorsing side of the Episcopalian Church than the Assemblies of God denomination? What if they voted for a different political party than you do? Would you still consider them to be "Christian" music?

Minty Fresh Souls
Lest I need say more … Testamints. Go to a Christian Bookstore and you'll likely see these in the checkout line. Christian breath mints. They have Bible verses included and even sport little crosses on them. Does that make Certs secular mints? Which breath-freshener would Christ choose?

If you're not seeing how ridiculous this is, then where do you draw the line with "Jesus Junk"? If songs are either Christian or secular, what about instrumentals? Jingles? A tune you make up and hum in your car on the way to work? Are there Christian guitars? If a novel is Christian or secular, what about children's books? Anecdotes? Memos? Notes on the fridge? Can you have Christian or secular pens? Cars? Clothes? Hairspray? Can a Christian carpenter make Christian kitchen cabinets? Or is it all just labeling and marketing?

Why are songs the exception that most people make? It’s something worth thinking about. My hope is that Christians, myself included, can grow to always appreciate art and music in respect to the substance instead of the label.

So do I make Christian music? Nope. I just make music, which is all anyone who makes music can do. It’s my life that I try to honor Christ with, and it’s my hope that what I do with this life inspires others to do the same. Rock on.


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