Friday, January 15, 2010

My Recent Music Choices

Ever since I can remember I've listened to Christian music. I'd have to say my first favorite singer, that I can remember, was Amy Grant. Pretty soon I was listening to everything from Amy Grant to Thousand Foot Krutch. I prefered the harder music styles, but as I went through highschool, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the music Christian artists were performing. Most of it just seemed so, well, bland. While they tried to sound cool, they ended up sounding lame. Not one artist I found seemed to even think of using sythesizers, and if they did, they couldn't seem to learn how to use one properly.
Now, I listen to secular music. Artists like, Beyonce, Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Ne Yo, and even Lady Gaga frequent my playlists on my computer. All of these artists generally fit into the pop genre.
Today I decided to do a google search to see if I could find any Christian artists who had finally learned to write real pop music. I also decided that since my blog desperately needed an update anyway, that I would post the results of my research on here.

The results:
From several websites that listed artists by genre I compiled a list of 33 names. Then I googled each and every name and listened to the music that they had uploaded onto the internet. Myspace came in very handy. Of all 33 names, I found only 3 came anywhere close to real pop. Their names are:
- Britt Nicole, who actually sounds almost exactly like Kelly Clarkson. I gave her a 4 star.
- Group 1 Crew, who are closer to the hip hop genre. The vocals are quite good, but the instrument choices are still a little on the bare side. I gave them a 2 star.
- Yellow Cavalier, what made them choose the name of a car I don't know, but I'd give their music 3 stars. Their music wasn't quite pop, but it wasn't quite rock either. They are more in the middle. They did use a synthesizer in some of their songs, but just like the rest of the Christian music realm, they were still on the bare side.

So that's the result of my search for good Christian music. This is not to say that I don't enjoy other contemporary artists, I love Mark Schultz. But for my normal, everyday music choice, I'm stuck with secular music. This unfortunately, is the state of 90% of all Christian media today. It's outdated, bare, and badly written.

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