{"id":28402,"date":"2017-06-09T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T10:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=28402"},"modified":"2017-06-12T08:51:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T12:51:46","slug":"is-contemporary-christian-music-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/06\/is-contemporary-christian-music-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Contemporary Christian Music Dead?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Amy_Grant_and_Michael_W_Smith\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Contemporary Christian music used to sell some 50 million albums per year. \u00a0Lately, it\u2019s been more like 17 million. \u00a0An article in The Week<\/em>, excerpted and linked after the jump, documents the genre\u2019s decline and speculates about the reasons.<\/p>\n

One is \u201cAmerica\u2019s waning interest in Christianity as a whole.\u201d \u00a0I\u00a0question that. \u00a0There is probably a waning interest in a kind of Christianity\u2013a tone, a posture, a set of associations\u2013 that CCM represents. \u00a0That might be a good thing, an opening for a different mode of Christianity, one that is richer and more substantive.<\/p>\n

\n

We confessional types have long been critical of \u201cpop Christianity\u201d and the music that conveys it. \u00a0Pop culture, by its nature, is going to be simple, content-lite, and culturally conformist. \u00a0So pop music at the service of Christianity has built in limits. \u00a0And the problem with it is that can create the impression that Christianity is also simple, content-lite, and culturally conformist.<\/p>\n

Am I being too hard on CCM? \u00a0Are there artists who are exceptions to what I have said? \u00a0Is there hope for a rebirth of the genre? \u00a0If so, what might that sound like?
\n<\/p>\n

From Tyler Huckabee,\u00a0<\/span>Who killed the contemporary Christian music industry?<\/a>, The Week:<\/em><\/p>\n

Derek Webb\u2019s old band, Caedmon\u2019s Call, was once the darling of the contemporary Christian music (CCM) industry. Their eponymous debut, released in 1996, sold over 250,000 copies, and their follow-up, 40 Acres<\/em>, sold about 100,000 more. Caedmon\u2019s Call\u2019s live shows frequently sold out, and really broadened CCM\u2019s demographic. You were as likely to see college students as their parents at Caedmon\u2019s Call\u2019s shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some very unexpected success, very early,\u201d Webb explains. \u201cWe backed into a moment of success we could have never anticipated. But a wise man once said to me, \u2018The two things that will ruin an artist are success and failure. And especially in that sequence.'\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Caedmon\u2019s Call is a dusty afterthought of a bygone industry. Chances are you\u2019ve never heard of Caedmon\u2019s Call. But the band\u2019s story is an interesting microcosm, if not a metaphor, of CCM as a whole. In CCM\u2019s heyday, approximately 50 million CCM albums were sold annually. In 2014, that number had plummeted to 17 million. CCM Magazine<\/em> has long since ceased printing issues, and modern Christian songwriters struggle to penetrate the masses, outside of writing worship songs for church gatherings.<\/p>\n

The descent of CCM is a reflection of America\u2019s waning interest in Christianity as a whole. The precipitous dropoff in CCM sales has left Christian labels and artists staring into the void alongside their pastors, scratching their heads, wondering where they went wrong.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Photo of Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith by Ruth Daniel [CC BY 2.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contemporary Christian music used to sell some 50 million albums per year. Lately, it’s been more like 17 million. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,32],"tags":[5509,572],"class_list":["post-28402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-music","tag-christianity-pop-culture","tag-contemporary-christian-music"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Contemporary Christian Music Dead?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Contemporary Christian Music as a commercial genre is plummeting in sales and popularity. 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