Our Perspective......

Christian Music: More than meets the ear

James Nix

There is a great tragedy in the music industry today; hundreds of talented artists are being overlooked simply because their band is labeled a Christian band.

This has been bothering me for some time now. I have been listening to Christian music for four or five years, and have watched the industry grow tremendously.

Christian bands such as Payable on Death (P.O.D.) have made a major impact on mainstream music. But that's not enough, there are still many awesome bands out there that no one will listen to.

I once judged bands with a Christian label as preaching through their music. I honestly don't listen to music to be preached at, and I assume most other people don't either, no matter what their religion is.

Judging bands because the members are Christians was a major mistake on my part. My first contact with Christian music was DC Talk's single "Jesus Freak." Yes, this song can be considered a "preachy" song, but what I liked about it was the music.

fter hearing this song, I bought the album it was on and -- to my surprise -- most of the other songs dealt with social issues or were just fun songs. DC Talk was my first step into the world of Christian music, and to my amazement, it got much better. I learned about other rock bands like Third Day and Jars of Clay.

The best was yet to come, though. I stumbled onto the Tooth and Nail record label, which emerged in the early '90s. The bands I heard from sampler CDs I bought were amazing, with talent as good as or better than most secular bands. And the best part was the lyrics. There was no "You're going to burn in Hell without God" or anything like that.

The lyrics were a lot like other bands, and the only difference was that there are no obscene ideas or foul language. After I started listening to Tooth and Nail records, I ventured out to other record labels and found some amazing bands.

Five Iron Frenzy (FIF) is one such band. Its music is far from "preachy," but holds true to being absolutly positive. FIF has strong political views and express them in some songs. As band members, they are extremely funny and write rather silly songs.

I had the opportunity to meet FIF frontman Reese Roper during the Cornerstone Music festival over the summer. He is the nicest guy I've ever met, and probably the funniest too.

Five Iron Frenzy is a ska band and probably doesn't appeal to everyone. Let me assure you, though, that whatever the genre of music, there are Christian artists who are just as talented as secular bands. Take heavy metal and hard-core music for example.

The devil's music right? I'm afraid not. I mentioned P.O.D. earlier; they are not ashamed to admit that they are Christians, yet Ozzy Osborne had them play at his annual OzzFest last year. I'm sure Ozzy didn't have a spiritual vision prompting him to have P.O.D. play -- the band played because it's a great band. P.O.D. is not the only Chrisitan hard-core band out there.

Another band raising up in the mianstream is Project 86. About a year ago, the band signed onto Atlantic Records and released their sophomore album Drawing Black Lines. In my opinion, this album is one of the best albums on the market today.

Others bands are gradually creeping up to the secular scene. Living Sacrifice (LS), on Solid State Records, is one of the most talented bands I listen to. I have an MP3 from LS recorded off a radio station in Arkansas.

The song was recorded off the station's nightly "cock fight," where listeners call in to vote on which song they prefer. This particular night the "cock fight" was between Living Sacrifice and the Bloodhound Gang. LS won.

I have to wonder how many of those who called in to vote knew LS is a Christian band. My guess would have to be not many.

One caller even made the comment that Living Sacrifice should be at OzzFest 2001. No matter what kind of music you listen to or what your religious beliefs may be, I urge you to give Chrisitan artists a chance, and I'm sure you'll be surprised.

COMMENTARY

With the race for the office of President of the United States still undecided at press time, it is clear that whatever the outcome, this will be regarded as one of the closest decisions ever.

While some political pundits were calling the tight battle 'remarkable for America' as early as 9 p.m. Tuesday evening, I strongly disagree.

What has transpired in this race is potentially disturbing. Parody has crept into the realm of national politics. In recent years, we have seen parody infect collegiate and professional sports, creating leagues with widespread sloppy games and a lack of dominant teams because talent is so equal across the board.

With 99 percent of precincts across the nation reporting, Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush were in a virtual dead heat with the race hinging on a recount of the votes cast in Florida.

So-called political experts on all the major television and cable networks repeatedly interjected that the fact that the race was deadlocked showed that this parody-of-sorts had renewed America's interest in politics and we were seeing the end of political cynicism in this nation.

Not so fast my friends. When The Sunshine State's newly- coveted 25 electoral college votes are officially in the column of Gore or Bush, we will have a new President of the United States.

But we will have a President who was elected by a tremendously slim margin, not a clear mandate of the people.

Whatever the eventual winner during his four years in power, there will always be a cloud of doubt looming over the White House.

Any time he makes a controversial decision, the media will be there to inform citizens that their chief executive just issued a mandate that will affect the interests of the United States of America, only to remind them that he did so despite being elected by the slimmest of possible margins.

The only clear mandate issued by the people of this nation Tuesday was that neither Al Gore or George W. Bush are good enough.

THE NETWORKS DROP THE BALL--TWICE

Another disturbing aspect that loomed its head in the presidential election coverage Tuesday night and reemerged into the early hours of Wednesday morning was the ability of the media to make premature assumptions.

At 7:58 p.m. Tuesday evening, CNN announced that Al Gore had won the state of Florida, capturing 25 vital electoral votes in the process. Soon thereafter, the other major television and cable networks followed suit, jumping the gun in giving the southern-most state to the Democratic nominee.

Bush's campaign was quick to warn the networks that those early projections may be inaccurate, saying it was far to early to determine a winner in Florida.

On a bizarre and unpredictable election night that saw CNN prematurely announce a winner in Florida, it was refreshing to see that someone had a clue.

Shortly after the comments of the Bush camp, the networks went back to their calculators only to discover they had performed a bit of fuzzy math.

Each network retracted their premature calculations and withdrew Florida-and its 25 electoral votes-from Gore's column. Ignoring its earlier error, CNN again jumped the gun at 2:18 a.m. EST Wednesday morning, this time announcing that George W. Bush had captured the office of President of the United States by narrowly winning Florida.

Moments later CNN was humbled when their own cameras showed Gore campaign manager Bill Daley announcing that the Vice President had retracted his concession phone call to Bush because the race in Florida was simply too close to call, vowing to a national audience, "Our campaign continues."

It is the job of the news media to inform and entertain. The only thing the national news media did Tuesday night was misinform the people, and crush whatever amount of credibility they may have had before Tuesday's election debacle.