Christian Rock And It's Universal Appeal

Now I've never been very religious. In fact, the next time I find myself in a church, it will probably be at my funeral, in which case, I still won't be finding myself there. But I'll still be there, are you happy mom!?

Sorry, um...yes yes music.

Growing up it was very clear religion, church and all that wasn't my thing. But also very clear that music was. My mother even bargained with me on this issue. I would get excited about a record and she could see I'd do anything to get it. So of course she gets the bright idea to force me to buy a "gospel CD" before buying my devil music...er..rock CD.

When my mother says "gospel music" she means Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond, John P. Kee etc. Basically go duplicate her music collection. I knew that everyone that went to church couldn't possibly be into the same kind of music so I did some research and stumbled upon "Contemporary Christian Rock", take that mom! I wanted a Finger Eleven CD, so before I could get it, I purchased a P.O.D CD. I continued this pattern for the rest of my years at home. All of it was rock to me, christian or otherwise, it sounded the same.

So in the end we both got what we wanted. However, a year later I told my mom I was gay so my music taste was the least of her child-burning-in-hell worries.

Even now I LOVE "christian rock", but not for religion, I just love the music and I don't even relate much to the Christian aspects of it. The lyrics are universal. It's similar to when gay artist play the "pronoun game" and they don't use words like "her" or "him" in their music, to make it universally relatable. All the Christian rock bands I listen to now never use the words "Jesus", "God", "holy", "church" or anything that would pull attention away from the whole message of the song and directly towards religion.

In doing this these bands have managed to blend in with pop culture, basically spreading the same message as most bands. All the basic emotions are still in their music; anger, pain, and sadness. There might just be more than one song on their records about hope, love, and inspiration. Instead of giving some long list in print, I'll just go ahead and list some of my contemporary favorites, starting with my favorite: Thousand Foot Krutch!!!

Flyleaf - Fully alive
by Fatherdyrssen

Switchfoot meant to live
by PuNkOuTpRiNcEsS

Thousand Foot Krutch - Falls Apart

Screamo: Let It OUT!!!

Growing up on RnB and Soul/Neo-Soul did have some effect on the way in which I receive music. When I fell in love with Rock music my freshman year I leaned towards the bands which had lead singers I considered to have powerful/soulful voices. This lead me to a lot of Nickelback (seriously don't get why everyone hates them all of a sudden), Chris Cornell, Silverchair, Extreme....long long list. Like most I eventually fell head over heels in love with Linkin Park. Didn't take much to realize that Chester Bennington had his own way of expressing himself through screams of pain and anger. I got it, I understood it. But I still would relate screaming to Metal or Punk. I thought there's no way I could tolerate that through a whole track, record, concert whatever the case may be.

Only recently, in the last 4 years, have I come to appreciate what is commonly referred to as "screamo" music. It started when I basically just got into heavier music that consisted of "screamo" from time to time. I adapted a "taking the good with the bad" attitude about it at first, cause heavy rock doesn't consist solely of screaming and yelling, only on the most angry and painful tracks.

I started to hear this differently over time. I think at first it came of as obnoxious to me. I thought "why ruin a good song with all that?". I find that so funny now cause I LOVE it now! Cause I get it. It is a way to express an emotion. As far as our voices are concerned the height in which we can express an emotion IS by screaming or yelling. I'm sure you've all had enough arguments to know this is true. So since I need every aspect of human life in my music, well I eventually came around to this concept. So I wanted to share some of my favorite bands and songs that turned things around for me.

O btw that's Brody Dalle, lead singer of The Distillers pictured above, I think I just wanted to look at her while I typed.

Flyleaf - I'm so sick
by WaReZ_CarTmaN