Billy,
Jewish song-writers wrote a lot of fantastic Christmas-seasonal music in the 20th century, and none of them believed in Jesus as their personal savior. Even Barbra Streisand did a fantastic Christmas album!
Music you never noticed was ...
by nibbled 31 Replies latest jw friends
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problemaddict
Mumford and sons already wona grammy, and are probably on their way to two. They are pretty huge. Their semi-faithish lyrics aren't that big of a deal. Most people still believe in God active in some way shape or form in the universe. So I don't see an issue.
In addition to that, they are kind of an extention of older folk from the region. I would say it is hard to have folk music without some kind of faith in it.
Now Creed...........there is just no reason for them whatsoever.
May I suggest a little known R and B singer named Cody Chesnut.
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only me
We tend to draw from our own lives when we listen to music lyrics. They speak to us in ways that the lyricist may never have meant.
One of the songs I thought was hauntingly lovely and spiritual is actually about a man yearning for a woman who is a prostitute. Go figure, you know?
Nibbled- you have a PM
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Apognophos
I really liked Billy's thoughts on the subject. And yes, Christmas music is known to be a well that never runs dry for both spiritual singers and sufficiently-cynical non-spiritual ones.
And as only me points out, sometimes we're just projecting when we think we hear something in a song. I used to think that Dave Matthews' "Lie In Our Graves" was about his belief in an afterlife, when in fact it's sort of the opposite. It's a carpe diem message about making the most of our lives while we have them, so we can embrace death when it comes.
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LisaRose
Gopher: The song is trying to get people to think about the culture in schools where bullying is cool. Foster The People was in no way endorsing shooting people.
Lisa Rose: Yes, I read that it was not their intention to glorify shootings, but that is not obvious from the lyrics, at least too me. I like the song, it is nice to listen to, I just wondered what effect it might have on kids who might identify too much with the shooter. I j ust think parents should be aware of what their children are listening to. On the other hand I have read many accounts here of crazy JW parents who banned all rock music, or other things that were completely normal, and I think think that is going too far. When I was a JW, we had a talk on music. The brother went on and on about how evil the song "Mack The Knife " was. True, it was about a hired killer, but come on, it was strictly tounge in cheek. My kids were teens at time and were laughing about it later. They had never even heard the song, it was from the sixties, it was not relevent to them. At the time I was trying to them interested in the religion, that talk didnt help any. Of course now I am glad they never got baptized.
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tec
I have noticed that Nickelback sings a lot about faith. I don't think they're very subtle about those songs, mind you... but... they have a lot of music that does not speak as to faith too. But I remember listening to some of their songs regarding faith, and having that 'hmm' moment too.
Funny, because on one of your links in your op, someone commented that Mumford and Sons was the UK's Nickelback.
Peace,
tammy
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tec
Also books, not just music... from authors you might not expect it from.
Dean Koontz in his Frankenstien series... paints a vivid picture of what life is like with no free will... and especially no free will to a monster (Viktor Frankenstein) No free will = no hope = no point.
There is a new author (new to me anyway), Justin Cronin. He has two books that I have read, The Passage, and the Twelve. Underlying the story, it is quite spiritual... and it also makes a point of hearing the spirit of God, so as to follow His direction. Even makes a direct corelation between Noah's ark, and the girl from the book who is sort of carrying the souls of the people who have been lost to a 'virus' (happens to be vampirism)
As others have said, authors write what is in them... be they songwriters or bookwriters or poets - and sometimes their faith is going to come through as well.
Maybe you're just able to hear that more from others, because you are 'speaking' that same language.
Peace,
tammy
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Leolaia
nibbled...It was an ill-chosen expression, meant to convey personal dismissiveness of the issue and enthusiasm for current indie music. I actually considered editing it after I posted, wondering if it could be taken as personally dismissive, and clearly it was since you were offended, but for whatever reason I let it stand. So it was a mistake on my part....I should have said "I don't care" but I guess that sounded too weak in expressing what I was feeling about the topic. (And no, to answer your question, I'm very shy and polite IRL, online discourse has a way of altering one's perceived tone, and sorry that I came off as blunt)
To elaborate further on what I meant, there have always been mainstream artists who produced religiously Christian, or even evangelistic music. The 90s had Creed, the "Oh-Ohs" (what are we gonna call that dreadful decade just past?) had P.O.D., etc. on major record labels. But they were relatively few; most clearly evangelistic artists were ghettoized onto smaller Christian labels, as the industry took little interest in preachifying. The situation now promotes a proliferation of independent labels with easy internet-based distribution, allowing a far wider range of smaller local music artists to get international attention. So evangelistic artists are less ghettoized as they used to be, serving a niche market (with its own genre of Christian music), but could potentially get noticed on music blogs, on Hype Machine, on Pandora, etc. The niche market still exists. Sometime when I'm in the Central Valley and flipping around the dial trying to find good music and I would hit on a station with a kinda interesting alternative-y indie sounding song I never heard before, and I would be "Cool, this sounds good", but then I would notice "God" this and "Jesus" that, and then I would get turned off and flip the dial to somewhere else. So I think a lot of Christian music will always be a niche thing, because the majority doesn't want to feel preached to. But that doesn't apply to artists who don't wear their faith on their sleeve as much. And then there are many artists who might have a song or two exploring religious themes without "glorifying God" or "preaching about Jesus" being the raison d'etre of the band, and thus should not be pegged as "Christian". Religious language is one tool for talking about deep themes about relationships, social problems, loneliness, etc. And of course lyrics are often vague and can be interpreted a number of ways.
The thing is, there are so many bands around now that I follow. In the old pre-Napster days, I might have actively followed at any given time a dozen favorite groups and then listened to (via radio) maybe two hundred other acts. Now with the indie internet-distribution model, I actively follow several hundred acts and listen to thousands of other artists, many of whom are new to me at first listen. I listen to Boy and His Kite and City and Colour; I also listen to M83, Cat Power, CSS, Grimes, Allen Stone, The Neighborhood, fun., Foals, Atlas Genius, Santigold, Tegan and Sara, Chad VanGaalen, Dum Dum Girls, Ra Ra Riot, Menomena, Le Tigre, Eyelid Movies, Beach House, Phantogram, Glowbug, Maps and Atlases, Minus the Bear, the Heavy, Atmosphere, Sea Pony, Brown Recluse, Alabama Shakes, The War on Drugs, The Cloud Nothings, Death in the Afternoon, Bright Eyes, Cut Copy, Mayer Hawthorne, Memory Tapes, Oh Land, Real Estate, Theophilus London, Yuna, White Denim, Glass Vaults, Warm Weather, tUnE-yArDs, Portugal the Man, Giraffage, Gotye, SeaWolf, Feist, Imaginary Cities, Gold Fields, Crystal Castles, Of Monsters and Men, RATATAT, Astronautalis, Chairlift, Miike Snow, My Morning Jacket, TV on the Radio, The Shins, LCD Soundsystem, Jeff the Brotherhood, Friendly Fires, Broken Bells, Dan Black, DIIV, David Dallas, WATERS, Howler, The Black Keys, St. Vincent, Grouplove, Neon Indian/Vega, Geographer, Keepaway, Yeasayer, Zola Jesus, Kasabian, Handsome Furs, Sleigh Bells, The Hours, Death Cab for Cutie, Fleet Foxes, Walk the Moon, Big Pink, Those Darlins, the XX, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Deer Tick, New Ivory, The Wombats, Robert Delong, McKenzie Eddy, Explosions in the Sky, Kosha Dillz, Best Coast, The Horrors, Fucked Up, Chain Gang of 1974, Birdy, SBTRKT, St. Lucia, Kimbra, Motive, Childish Gambino, Morning Parade, Niki and the Dove, Memoryhouse, Metronomy, Regina Spektor, Wild Flag, The Whigs, The Drums, Voodoo Farm, Fanfarlo, Lights On, London Souls, The Morning Benders, Black Mountain, Delta Spirit, Fitz and the Tantrums, Two Door Cinema Club, The Expendables, The Go! Team, Tim William, Lykke Li, Freelace Whales, No Age, CREEP, Junip, Joy Formidable, Deerhoof, Warpaint, Home Video, Cults, Arcade Fire, Of Montreal, The National, Girls, Weekend, Blueprint, Shad, Mogwai, Heavy Heathens, The Chemical Brothers, The Kissaway Trail, Amusement Parks on Fire, The Young Veins, Surfer Blood, Street Sweeper Social Club, The Dirty Heads, Wavves, Chief, Blonde Redhead, Glasser, Beach Fossils, Bombay Bicycle Club, Cassettes Won't Listen, Matt and Kim, Bat for Lashes, Royksopp, Grizzly Bear, White Denim, and that's just what I pulled off my current playlist. There is just so much out there for any person to be exposed to, I never noticed any particular tendency toward Christian themes, but then again I don't always pay close attention to the lyrics. I just kind of wonder if there might be a selection bias at play here....you perhaps might not have noticed anything if you had looked into different artists....I don't really see much that is really new, other than that there is a much wider selection of artists to choose from. I could be wrong though. In 1998, "My Own Prison" was a big hit, and that was about as Christian as a popular alternative song could get. And it was in fact one of my favorite songs from that year, though I could care less about its religious themes.
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Pterist
When gainfully employed in a secure job many years ago, U2 ( I'm biased local boys for me) where a big hit with Mormon teenagers that were recruited for summer work. They were happy, U2 was not banned by their church, at least with their Joshua Tree album ! They also went to see them In concert at the dolphin's stadium. Happy happy !
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9.40am
Ink Void noticed JW's were religious, but we thought they might be a blend of older religions mixed with a version of newcomer religion Christianity. So we gave them a song. Kind of the other way round to the OP, but hope you like it anyhow: