So everyone knows that records just aren't selling the way they used to. Last year, sales were down in almost every genre—including the Juggernauts of the industry, hip-hop and rap music. However, one type of music is actually on the rise, both in terms of sales and popularity, and it's one you might not expect: Christian devotional music.
Three new Christian labels—Vine, Kosmos and Varietal—are being launched this year, all of which are banking on the high tides this genre has seen recently. If the difference in sales from '05 to '06 is an indicator of a larger trend, then these new labels might be onto something: 39.7 million Christian albums were sold in 2006 and 39.2 million in 2005, making the percentage of total album sales 6.75, up from 6.34 percent in 2005. Yes sir: Gospel and most prominently, Christian rock are on the rise.
If the term ""Christian rock"" strikes you as odd, you're not alone. Not that it's a new phenomenon—it's been around since at least the '70s with people like Larry Norman (and his hysterically titled ""Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?""), but it wasn't until the '90s that Christian rock exploded into the mainstream scene. Remember dc Talk? Or Jars of Clay? Creed? Dollars to donuts, you can probably hum one or two of their songs. So it's not as if Christian rock has snuck up on the industry or the culture and we're just now seeing it for the first time.
And yet there seems to be some fundamental antinomies at the core of Christian rock. Rock 'n' Roll, as most of us know and love it, was a movement and is a culture pretty much rooted in sex, drugs and money. I couldn't even start to count how many rockers have died of drug overdoses, and lust and greed are pretty much synonymous with ""rock."" Let's face it: We're talking about the Unholy Trinity here. So how can a band that situates and aligns itself with the actual Holy Trinity fit into this framework?
Oftentimes they can't. Bands like Six Pence None the Richer, Creed and Evanescence went secular, and bands like Relient K and Newsboys are, on the whole, so subtle about their Christianity that they aren't even considered legitimate members of the contemporary Christian music industry. But there are those select few who hold on tight to their roots (e.g. Third Day, By the Tree), and really do sing praises for the Lord and his Son. And how do they counteract the stigma of rock's blasphemous, idolatry-driven lifestyle? Mostly, it seems, by establishing an entire counterculture (or, if looking back at the '60s counterculture as the birth of mainstream rock, then a counter-counterculture) that exists entirely autonomously and completely outside of the rock genre: They have their own festivals, their own radio stations, etc. And they're doing all right, as evidenced by the new labels mentioned above.
So why the rise in popularity in the last 15 years or so? Was there a large but silent portion of the country listening to their Zeppelin and Floyd and Stones records and thinking: ""Boy, these are good, but you know, they'd be even better if they were honoring my Lord and Savior""? My gut says no. What I think is going on, really, is a much larger split in U.S. entertainment. As some parts of the country hurdled toward more ""open"" and ""permissive"" types of entertainment in terms of language and sexuality (see MTV, F/X, etc.), another part retreated into the opposite camp: a more traditional/restrictive (depending on what side of the debate you're on) sense of morality, appropriateness, etc. And so while rock and hip-hop undressed women on cable TV, praised drugs and booze and made a boatload of cash doing it, the Christian movement became not only a reasonable, but desired alternative for many.
Whether or not this divide will continue is yet to be seen, but, for the time being, I'd call your investment broker and have him funnel a little something into these new labels. I don't foresee MTV running reruns of the 700 Club anytime soon.
