Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: procsy@cbnewsd.att.com (Jeff Sargent) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Some thoughts on "Christian Music" (was Re: Petra Praise) Message-ID: Date: 9 Feb 90 07:18:34 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article oneill@csli.stanford.edu (Patrick O'Neill) writes: > 1. What do you (everyone/anyone) think about the nature of music > itself? Many assume that the music of each era is "spiritually" > or morally neutral; others believe just the opposite--- that > music does communicate or influence in some spiritual sense (without > taking lyrics into account). What evidence do you have for your > position? I'd say that different music of each era communicates different meanings. Recently the "classic rock" station in Chicago was playing a series of classic albums. Alas that I did not tune in earlier so I could catch all of Kansas's album "Point of Know Return" [sic]. Of course, many of Kansas's lyrics are packed with religious overtones; but much of side 2 of that album is purely instrumental music, and it is heavenly, in a very full and touching sense of that word. The next album was a Rolling Stones album. What an anticlimax! Even the first few bars were so obviously empty and lifeless that I had to switch to another station immediately. Not that some of the Stones' work lacks ingenuity; but it also lacks edification. Frankly, a lot of "Christian" music today strikes me as so self-conscious and self-righteous that it is equally unedifying. And, looking behind the scenes, I know a man who could, if he chose, go professional (he's a superb guitarist and a most interesting composer and lyricist, the only person I know of who's gotten a rock song out of the Transfiguration); but when he looked into the possibility, he found that the Christian music business is just as competitive as the secular music business, or indeed any business -- hardly Christian in its practices at all. So he decided not to go pro, and it's a loss for all of us. -- -- Jeff Sargent att!ihlpb!jeffjs (UUCP), jeffjs@ihlpb.att.com (Internet) AT&T Bell Laboratories, IH 5A-433, Naperville, IL (708) 979-5284 PRAY NAKED