worship music.

[Fab Foodie]

Not particularly worship music but I think they class themselves as Christian rock, one of my favourite groups is Skillet. They prove you can do heavy rock with the profanities. Their music doesn't preach but there is an underlying message of faith if you listen to the lyrics, not that I'm religious in any way.

Skillet? I heard they were musical small-fry who were panned by the critics....

 

[Sterlo]

Skillet? I heard they were musical small-fry who were panned by the critics....

Get your coat, the door's that way.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Thanks for the link. I'll be watching those

A good book on "modern" music is "The Rest is Noise". Broadened my horizons into proper modern music ("pling plong" music one might say) which I'd previously rather dismissed

Thanks for the recommendation.
One of my favourite ever reads is 'The Noise of Time' by Julian Barnes, about Shostakovich during the Stalinist era. This is so much more than a story about a composer and his works, the first chapter is totally gripping and could have come straight out of a spy novel of the same era. A book even those with little or no interest in the man and his music could appreciate. I opened the first page and didn't stop until I'd read the whole thing.

I think a lot of 'Modern' classical/orchestral music falls into the same type of criticism that one gets of jazz, particularly (again) more modern forms. Anything that challenges our conceptions of art (and often science) are often ridiculed or brushed-aside as being of little value or 'high-brow/esoteric' or simply not 'understandable' and are simply dismissed. C'est la vie, but within the genre there is true beauty that the dismissers never get the chance to experience. Not all is atonal plinkity-plonk! Morton Feldman, Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, and back-on-topic of the sacred - Arvo Part's works are magnificent and accessible as are Tavener's and am sure many others!

It's a big topic worthy of it's own thread - if only had more time to indulge!

 

[matticus]

{boomer] Never quite understood what that means. Presumably an american insult of some kind.

This is a massive thread diversion, but

Spoiler: I found it informative, so I wanted to share

 

[BrumJim]

Opinions will differ but a quick google....

When did gospel music first start?
Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century. Hymns and sacred songs were often performed in a call and response fashion, heavily influenced by ancestral African music. Most of the churches relied on hand-clapping and foot-stomping as rhythmic accompaniment.
........................................................

The first published use of the term "Gospel song" probably appeared in 1874 when Philip Bliss released a songbook entitled Gospel Songs. A Choice Collection of Hymns and Tunes. It was used to describe a new style of church music, songs that were easy to grasp and more easily singable than the traditional church hymns, which came out of the mass revival movement starting with Dwight L. Moody, whose musician was Ira D. Sankey, as well as the Holiness-Pentecostal movement.[3] Prior to the meeting of Moody and Sankey in 1870, there was an American rural/frontier history of revival and camp meeting songs, but the gospel hymn was of a different character, and it served the needs of mass revivals in the great cities.

..............................

In the pantheon of sacred singing I'd put' Gospel' as most people would recognise it into the modern era....

Is anyone else here slightly scared by the comments above when they put Graham Kendrick into the "old fashioned worship music" category?

Just off to listen to some Rend Collective

 

[Sixmile]

Although I 'lead' worship in my home church - most of my music I listen to although Christian by nature - wouldn't be typical 'worship' as in you could sing it in a congregation. That's unfortunately where a lot of people think Christian music ends.

I inadvertently picked up a CD by a Christian metal band the other day, who are called Symphony in Peril. Not had a chance to listen to it yet, but reading the lyrics they're not overly "Praise be" so might be worth a listen.

P.O.D. are pretty good too.

I've loved POD since I first heard the Fundamental Elements of Southtown in a bookshop over 20 years ago. Their live show still ranks as one of the best I've ever been to. Fun fact - I appeared on the same line up as them back when I was gigging more.

That wee Christian bookshop led me to other artists that I've loved and listened to for years:

MxPx - although no longer professing Christians - their glasgow show 15 years-ish ago was thee best punk gig I've ever been to
Relient K - more diverse in their punk than mxpx. My kids love their christmas album
Needtobreathe - have caught them live on a few occasions in Ireland. Really great live band
Switchfoot - Jon Foreman is certainly one of the most constantly strong song writers there is
Bleach - never quite hit the 'big time' but 5 or 6 good albums
Delirious - grew up listening to them from their worship days to mainstream and back - cracking live too
Spoken - Echoes of the Spirit Still Dwell is the album to listen to
Demon Hunter - good and heavy
Underoath - early stuff is best - seen them live in Dublin
Norma Jean - if you like it heavier
Shai Linne - one of the best lyricists of modern rap
Beautiful Eulogy - more quality rap
Anberlin - for the emo's
Johnny Q Public - Extra Ordinary album is old now but has aged well
Larry Norman - well, they don't call him the grandfather of Christian rock for nothing
Steph Macloed - Scottish singer/songwriter who came from a background of addiction & homelessness. He really made me up my finger picking game!
Andrew Petersen - fantastic guitarist and even better story teller. He's written a book series too.
Children 18:3 - tooth and nail rock artist
Rivers & Robots - more reflective and meditative worship

 

[Fab Foodie]

Is anyone else here slightly scared by the comments above when they put Graham Kendrick into the "old fashioned worship music" category?

Just off to listen to some Rend Collective

Who did that? Not I.