Response to "Faith +1"

This is my response to Josh's post, which can be viewed here: http://buddychristsjesuspiece.blogspot.com/

Great post, Josh! Although my knowledge of Christian bands is not as limited, I can only think of...maybe four legitimate Christian bands/artists? That's just an estimate but I can assure you, it's not that many. With that said, I think you've raised a very important issue in your post: the obscurity of Christian bands, whether intentional or unintentional.

This idea of Christian music being more inconspicuous than any other genre in the music scene can be further elaborated by Brian Schill's article. He categorizes Christian music into three categories: separational, transformational, and integrational, where separational bands are the most anticultural of the three. Schill states that separational Christian musicians are "the original and largest group" and therefore, a majority of Christian bands seclude themselves from secular society and the mainstream. It is possible that this is the main reason as to why a lot of people are unaware of so many Christian bands.

The same goes for transformational and integrational Christian bands. Professor Harris talked about the band Switchfoot, who can be considered an integrational band. Even though they are considered a Christian band, they incoporate enough secular musical elements to make people forget or dismiss the idea altogether. Their lyrics are moral and Christian oriented but it's vague enough to be understood by anyone of a wholly secular background. They don't include biblical references or specific names of Christian figures in their lyrics and their sound is thoroughly generic - a lot of people can easily label them as another rock band, not a Christian band.

I actually didn't know Switchfoot was a Christian band until a year ago and I've known them for a couple of years now. I also didn't know that Underoath, Relient K, and Lifehouse are also crossover Christian bands  until...now? Just goes to show how obscure the Christian music genre can be.

Anyway, that's just my little take on Christian music. Again, great post Josh!

P.S. That South Park episode was pretty hilarious. I will never know how Cartman comes up with this stuff.