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In the process of developing a university course on Christianity and popular culture, I discovered that I like a great deal of music created and performed by Christians. Top on my list are people and bands such as U2, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West, Lenny Kravitz, Dolly Parton, Thrice and Lauryn Hill, to name a few.

As you can see, my tastes are not limited by genre: I have, as they say, catholic tastes. So, when asked to listen to a random selection of recent releases from contemporary Christian musicians, I fairly jumped at the chance. Perhaps, I thought, more gems would come to my attention. Alas, this is not the case.

From the selection of 12 recent CDs, I learned about what has come to be known as “Contemporary Christian Music” (CCM) which has its own magazines and awards. First, despite the claims of switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman that “Christianity is a faith, not a genre,” CCM is in fact a genre of Christian music. Indeed, there is numbing similarity between many of the songs in the pile of disks sent my way.

But to be more accurate, the genre of CCM can also be divided into three distinctive sub-genres:

• worship music (written, as the name suggests, for worship);
• praise music (songs that may still be used in worship, yet are more complicated);
• what I will call variable genre music (that is, music by Christians who employ different genres, like punk or rap, to get across their message).

What unites all of the music under the heading of contemporary Christian music is the desire to convey a message about Jesus — to use song as an instrument of proclamation.

So far, so good. For the purpose of this article, I decided to set aside the worship music because this form of church music is very effective for some people, and I don’t want to make too much trouble. Instead, I decided to focus on praise and variable genre music, choosing a few CDs from each set.

On the praise music side, I place Michael Cook, Mark Schultz and Chris Tomlin. On the variable genre side, there is Krystal Meyers, Manafest, Jars of Clay and Falling Up.

First, the praise music. The three gentlemen who sing their praises to God have lovely voices and are indeed accompanied by competent musicians. Production values are high on their records, as are the esthetics of the packaging. The trouble is with their songs, or, more specifically, with the banality of both the music and lyrics. Take for example the work of Tomlin, arguably the best of this lot. His song “Let God Arise” is a bustling paean to God. The chorus, which erupts enthusiastically, cries “Let God arise/Let God arise/Our God reigns now and forever/He reigns now and forever.” Frankly, I didn’t need the lyric sheet to know how that chorus would work out. Throughout the albums, the cheerful music changes little, as the themes remain essentially the same. “Glorious” sounds just like three other songs on the album, and the sentiments are essentially identical: “Glorious/Over us/You shall reign/Glorious.” Zzzzz.

My expectations dashed by praise music, I turned hopefully to the genres of popular Christian music. To explain, there is a Christian version of every possible music genre today, thus, if you like Avril Lavigne, you will like Krystal Meyers. Eminem fan? Listen to Manafest. In most cases, these genre artists are able to mimic the shape of the more popular performers, but one must then ask: “why listen to the Christian derivative?”

Indeed, this question haunted my listening. Quite frankly, there is nothing new or original about any of these Christian albums. Sure, they speak of God, but so do much better musicians. I suspect that the viability of these albums (assuming that there is some) is based on a guarded niche of Christian people who wish to protect themselves (or their children) from the dangers of the mainstream. I believe that fear of wrong messages is no excuse for these uninspiring albums.

Not wishing to end on such a sour note, I would like to recommend a performer who is openly Christian, wildly creative and well worth listening to: Sufjan Stevens. This young man from Michigan is, perhaps, best known for his hit song “Chicago” (a great song). Less well known is his faith-tinged album Seven Swans.

From beginning to end, this album displays the kind of musical and lyrical creativity so sorely lacking in the albums wherein God is the first name on every list of thank-yous. Stevens proves, once again, that the devil does not have the best tunes.

(Harris teaches in the Christianity and Culture program at the University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto.)

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