How To Accept Gifts Graciously (An Exorcise in High, Sexsist Sarcasm)

[thirtysilver]

I've got varied musical tastes. I can listen to death metal, Acoustic rock, Pink Floyd, and Elvis in one sitting. I also like some rap. I like music! I like listening to the chord changes and the tonality and the lyrics. Mostly, I like this because I tend to judge the quality of the music in my head.
I don't really like Christian rock. I may if I were Christian, but that's not all of it. I don't understand why a songwriter with some talent would decide, "There is only one thing worth writing about, and I refuse to write about anything else." It seems like a waste to focus all your talent on writing about one thing when life,emotion, and the human condition are so complex. To throw out such compelling concepts as blind rage, revenge, and bitter pain is to eliminate reality from your music.
I do like the Chistian band Jars of Clay. Their music is very good, the guy's voice is fantastic, and they write about more than just religion.

Hissy, it sounds like your husband is a very important guy! Imagine how many lives that mine-sweeper device has saved.
-Ryan

 

[debby]

Originally posted by Thirtysilver

I don't really like Christian rock. I may if I were Christian, but that's not all of it. I don't understand why a songwriter with some talent would decide, "There is only one thing worth writing about, and I refuse to write about anything else." It seems like a waste to focus all your talent on writing about one thing when life,emotion, and the human condition are so complex. To throw out such compelling concepts as blind rage, revenge, and bitter pain is to eliminate reality from your music.
-Ryan

I think it is because blind rage, revenge and bitter pain are not what the Chrisitan concept is all about. I'm not going to get into a debate about Christianity with you or anything, but I think that Christian music is supposed to be "uplifting" for the spirit, not a downer.

 

[thirtysilver]

Christian musicians need a broader definition of what is "uplifting."

Let's take the Lord of the Rings, for example. Think of the hatred of the orcs, the evil of Sauron, the darkness and death of war. In the end, good wins out of nearly insurrmountable evil. A song isn't necessarily a downer just because it has bad stuff like rage in it -it can be victorius, heroic, or it can be bittersweet. I find a good story about heroism or vindication to be very uplifting. I wrote a song recently called "Reign of Grief." The first verse goes:

Where is my righteous vengeance?
When comes my Reign of Grief?
Where is the shadowed stranger with his furious blade unsheathed?

The song is about someone who feels like his torment and pain in life have gone unavenged. He doesn't just want mollification, he want retribution. He wants to believe in justice and fairness; but he understands that, often, bad deeds go unpunished and the good suffer needlessly. This, I believe, is realistic. I know that Christian rock isn't about revenge, but I think that cutting the darkness of human emotion out of your song-writing repertoire limits the range of life and realism your lyrics can convey.
-Ryan

 

[debby]

"Vengeance is mine sayith the Lord"

"If you don't like Chrisitan music, just don't listen to it, sayith Debby"

 

[thirtysilver]

amen to that, debby!
-Ryan