(A little disclaimer. I kind of free-associated in this post. And I’m still undecided as to whether that was good or bad. So just know that even though my opinions are never wrong…well…ya. Sometimes they’re wrong. So even though I believe what I said (at this point in time…I’ll probably look back later and be like, ‘What?’), I also recognize that I am not the authority on all things pertaining to life. Which does bum me out a little…but I’ll get over it.)
I don’t know if that makes much sense. No. No, it doesn’t make much sense. But I’ve been trying for a while to reconcile the trends that are happening in music right now. The secular world, of course. If you want to find the new trends in Christian music, just look back at what was popular in the real world five years ago, and there ya go! You’ve got what’s just now happening in Christian music. ;) And as much as that sucks, and it shouldn’t happen, and we all hate to admit it so we pretend not see it and come up with excuses for it…that’s how it is. I mean, there are exceptions…but they are few. Christian music on the majority pretty much sounds like it’s all produced by one guy…and that that one guy really loved Creed. (And notice that I say ‘loved’ not ‘loves’. Past tense. Creed is done, people!)
I think what it comes down to is that the secular music world is made up of a lot of broken people who write music from their hearts. Good or bad…a good portion of it is very heartfelt, emotional, and vulnerable. And it seems that Christian music is also made up of a lot of broken people…but in this Christian music, a lot of times vulnerability is looked down upon. You have to have the answer right now. You can’t be searching, you can’t be hurting, and you most definitely can’t end a song on a sad or hopeless lyric. Yet, at least for me personally, the times in my life when I’ve been most able to reach out to someone and maybe connect them to a piece of the love God has shown to me, is when I have been hurting…or feeling hopeless…or (gasp!) wondering if maybe following God isn’t just a little bit too difficult. And this hurting, this vulnerability, allows me to connect with someone with the same hurts…they just don’t have all the answers. What if we showed ourselves when we were hurt a little more. Maybe we could connect people to God’s love in a slightly more ‘real’ way. Rather than pretending…or, what’s infinitely worse and is a trend that’s been going on for a while now, pretending to be hurt or broken or lost in order to draw people. Dear sweet mercy, please don’t do that either! As Christians, sometimes we seem to think those who haven’t yet believed in God, are somehow stupider than us for not having done it yet. So we pretend, and put on fronts, and try to be ‘authentic’. There is no ‘trying’ in authenticity. It just is. Love God, and love others.
(hehe Creed. Scott Stapp really did love himself, didn’t he. You can never quite make out the other band members. The quality of this picture is spectacular. Could I have found a better one? Yes. Why didn’t I? Laziness.)
There’s a line from a film, where this alien (ya, ya, I know…just stick with me because it’s not really that cheesey…okay, it’s a little bit cheesey…but it’s really good) is talking about human suffering, and our inability to cease harming each other, both physically and emotionally. And he says, ‘Even your Buddha and your Christ had much different views on how to live your lives, but nobody’s paid them much attention; even your Buddhists and your Christians.’ Now, obviously that’s from a different point of view…it’s just lumping in two ‘pacifist’ teachers (according to a non-Biblical view). So I’m not going to speak on the Buddha part. But the Christ part? That almost knocked me over the first time I watched that part of the film. It a very poignant line, that at least for me, might ring true. That in all my trying to be a Christian, I may not have paid much attention to what Jesus Christ actually was saying. And I think a good portion of what he was saying that I constantly miss is, love. Love and be real about it. Romans 12:9 advises us to ‘Let love be without hypocrisy.’ I can’t put it any better than that.
So, in light of letting music be vulnerable, I’d like to highlight the recent folk movement in modern music, as well as the escapism. It’s almost like the trend is taking the realism of the folk tones, melodies, and harmonic structure, and coupling it with the escapism of some of the dark and ambient synth stuff and song structure. I don’t know. That sounds like something some music critic would say in an indie music review guide that has a circulation of about 10 people, but that small of a circulation only assures the critic more that he is correct because the correct view is never popular. ;) I don’t mean to sound like that…it’s just where I’ve kind of landed on the current music trend. It’s like, the whole ‘earthiness/green/outdoors/Led Zeppelin/flower child’ thing, but in a rainstorm of synthesizers and shoegazer guitars. (Dude, I don’t know what’s happening to me today. What the dickens am I writing?) Not all of the music in this new ‘movement’ or ‘wave’ has synth sounds or folk sounds directly. But it has that earthy meets ambient ‘feel’. And a lot of it does seem to be borrowed from the ’70’s…both the Bob Dylan folk side, and the crazy Return to Forever/Pink Floyd wall of sound side.
(Yes, for those of you who figured it out…the film was K-Pax. Kevin Spacey plays an alien because he’s awesome and Keyser Soze rocks, and I may be the only person on universe who likes this film. But I really like it. Music is stellar, too. Techno beats with orchestras. Lovely.)
So here’s some examples. And notice the fact that these songs just seem to be from the heart. No pretences, not trying to be happy even though stuff sucks, and not trying to make things suck so that they can relate. Just playing what seems to be in their hearts. And who knows…maybe their emotions are all just put on so they can sell these songs, and I’m just buying into it. But you gotta admit…they do seem a bit more real than all the Christian artists trying so hard to sing through a filter so they can sound like Scott Stapp or pretending to have a British accent (but only when they sing) to sound like Billy Joe.
First up is the Fleet Foxes. I was so stoked when I found these guys…I felt so indie every time someone would ask what I was listening to lately, and I’d just nonchalantly flip, ‘Oh, the Fleet Foxes.’ Oh ya. Coolness just flowed from me. And then a couple weeks ago they played on Letterman. Blast! Coolness gone. But check out how the melody just sinks into that fifth chord. Beautiful song-writing.
And here is School of Seven Bells. Check out the studio version first. Just beautiful ambiance, followed by perfect melody for the mood. Gorgeous. And then check on the live version, they sound almost better live, and there’s only three of them. (Well, it’d sound better if it wasn’t recorded on a phone.)
Next is Alela Diane. Love how her drummer somehow fits some rock ‘n roll into this deeply folkish tune. It’s very nice.
And lastly is The Listening. And guess what? These guys are a Christian band! So, score! I first heard them a few years ago when my band opened for them…I’d love for that to just stay sounding cool, but my honesty is getting the best of me…there weren’t more than 200 people at the show…and uh…when we played…first…there weren’t more than…uh…35 people…some of which who were our…uh…families. (Stupid honesty.) But these guys (I believe) went through some hard times in their lives, and decided to start writing some darker stuff with some more vulnerability. And it’s pretty powerful (at least to me ;) ). I saw them play a whole set at one show without stopping…each song just flowed into the next…and they never spoke. Then they ended the set with the lights off, and an instrumental version of ‘Doxology.’ It was huge.
So anyway…I seem to have just started talking in this post without much of an ability to stop. My apologies. Some of you are going, ‘Then what makes this different than any other post?’ Sssshhh!!! There might be some new people here, and this might be the first post they ever read, and I want to keep them here as long as possible before they inevitably start to realize that most of the things I take 578 words to say could be said in just 12. And, even worse, before they realize how importantly I take everything I say to be. Because, of course, if you put it in a blog on the internet, it’s automatically true. So all that stuff I said about Christian music being, unfortunately, a lot of times fake, un-heartfelt, and five years in the past still ripping off ‘Higher’? Oh ya. All true. It’s written down. And my unfounded opinions are never wrong. ;)
But in all seriousness, let’s just love God, love others, and if we happen to be feeling broken or hopeless, just be it. Don’t hide it, don’t flaunt it. It’ll connect us with the world of suffering around us; and when God eventually heals us, it’ll speak louder to that world than any song, or church, or boutique-delay-ambient-synth-swell-of-sonic-joy ever could.
Splendid.
Karl.
Guitar for Worship 