Score one for the Jesus music!

Recently I wrote a paper for my Religion & Culture class on Contemporary Christian artists crossing over into mainstream radio. I did a lot of research and found a lot of fascinating information. For focus sake, I divided Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) into two categories:

1) Blatantly religious (meaning it openly talks about God, Heaven, faith, etc.)

2) Ambiguously religious (meaning it can be on secular radio because it can be open to interpretation)

I focused my paper on the second category and talked about the growing popularity and acceptance of this type of music. Usually, proclaimed Christians that are not signed with Christian music labels sing these songs. For example, Mat Kearney, Creed, Lifehouse, The Fray, Switchfoot, etc. Anyways, these artists/songs/albums have been hitting the top of the Billboard charts over the last decade, while playing on Christian radio too. How awesome is that?

But, what is even MORE awesome is this: Did you know that 6 of the top 11 finalists on American Idol this season are self-proclaimed Christians? Yep! Danny Gokey, Michael Sarver (oil-rig guy), Kris Allen, Scott MacIntyre, Matt Giraud, and Lil Rounds all have said they are believers. Danny, Michael, and Kris all lead their local churches’ worship teams and Scott is a member of a gospel-quartet. Before coming on the show, Matt was previously in the Christian music industry and he has already released Christian albums. AND Danny, Matt, and Kris are in the top five now! Previous contestants such as Chris Daughtry, Ruben Studdard, and Carrie Underwood are also believers and have had cross-over songs – well, Ruben crossed-over completely into the gospel industry.

So what’s so great about this? Two things actually – 1) Clean music on secular radio = awesome! And 2) studies continually prove that the number of believers in America is on the decline and younger generations have the least. Well, who listens to pop radio and watches American Idol? Younger generations! Many of this generation's role models are believers and the music they sing glorifies God! (Sweet! High five!)

Score one for the Jesus music!

In a time where so-called “tolerance” rules over the nation, but Christians are mocked and dismissed for their “close-minded” views (did you see Miss America?), this news is awesome!

I could write so much more on this (only because I just wrote a paper on it), but that’s the gist of it. I thought it was pretty interesting so I wanted to share.

Rock on!