After listening to Gungor (as mentioned in the
previous post) Amanda did some browsing around and discovered
their blog. She read their most recent post out loud to me and I just thought it was too thought provoking not to share. It's called "
Why the Christians music category shouldn't exist." I've heard similar thoughts expressed before but seldom have I found them so well articulated and even more seldom have I heard them from the mind of someone who's in the "Christian music category."
"There is no other music that is labeled by the lifestyle choices of the artist or the philosophical or religious content of its lyrics. There is no “atheist” music section. There is no “hopeful agnostic” industry. You don’t walk in looking for the newest Rufus Wainwright cd, only to be pointed to the “gay section in the back.” That would be ridiculous and offensive. Why categorize someone’s music by whether that person is gay or straight, republican or democrat, optimistic or pessimistic, or whether or not he or she believes in intelligent life on other planets? Is it not just as ridiculous to categorize someone’s music by whether they believed that Jesus rose from the dead or not?"
And why does it matter?...
"this categorization hurts the art. Because this category exists, it comes with baggage. Imagine if you were a Republican, and you really believed Republican values, but you found out that if you wanted to make a record that it would be placed in the small Republican Music section in the back of the store. That might effect how you make the music…"
It's really worth reading the
entire post. I just had to share it with you. What they're making must be more than just "Christian music" if they're thinking about their work with this kind of depth.