Review of Encyclopedia
of Contemporary Christian Music
I looked a long time for a complete
catalog of Christian Music. I have been a fan of the music since my
early teens. It was good to find such a large volume. Honestly I had
never heard of the work. I have found other works not comprehensive
enough. I think CCM music grew too fast for those involved to write a
good work in the earlier years. This volume has some overwhelming
positives and a few negatives.
First and foremost, its huge. It has a
ton of artist entries. If a person sung or had anything to do with
Christian music, you can find it in this book. I am a pretty varied
fan of the genre and I found obscure bands and individuals for every
taste.
I did find the intro to this book very
funny. “Hey I took a years paid sabbatical to listen to music.”
He does give each entry a fairly good
history,discography and basic biographical workup. That can be a huge
task for some bands in the genre, who change members with every tour
or don't exactly publish much information about themselves. His spade
and information gathering is to be congratulated.
A few negatives persist. He is very
opinionated about certain theological issues in the music. The one I
bumped into, was his dislike of songs that mention military themes
and victory. He also goes a long way in breaking down lyrics and
discussing certain bands to the point of sheer board om. I found some
entries more lyrical criticism than just a discussion of a band place
in the world of CCM. The more minor the band was the more these
discussions could be a waste of time. The last issue I have with the
book is one that the writer can not control. With a 2002 publishing
date this thing is dated. So much has happened in CCM since 2002. I
hope somebody takes this franchise, shortens the editorials a little
and makes it even more comprehensive.
Last and minor note. My CD got cracked
either by me or on delivery. I did notice that it may be tough to run
it on a modern machine. I would like to have tried it.
Lately I have been listening to a
internet station at www.ChristianClassicRock.net
They play classic Christian Rock from the 70s, 80s and 90s. This was
the Christian hard rock that I grew up. Listening to the station is
like a walk down memory lane for me. Thankfully growing up in
Houston, we had good Christian rock radio, mainly on Saturday nights
and some very good concerts like Petra, Resurrection Band, Steve
Taylor and others. They play quite a lot of straight metal that’s
pretty loud too. Take a listen, Christian rock has a 40 plus year
heritage and this station seems to play them all. Also the station
has places where you can listen to their other stations with power
praise, hard rock, and Christian rock. As you switch to these other
streams on the net you will get a website that has more about that
stream. You can download their app to your android or i-phone. You
can get the station on the Tune In app. You also have a choice of
using almost any media player or just getting the mp3 stream to
listen to. They really have a good site. This all belongs to a
mother site called www.ChristianRock.net
They are a non profit based in Springfield, Mo.
