Sound Geek Journal | 02 | It's Okay If They Are Not
A topic dear to my heart, hobbies and recommendations.
Hi Pal,
Welcome to Sound Geek Journal, a newsletter where I let you in on some stuff from my universe.
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One of the tendencies that I have outgrown over the years is the compulsive desire to find a way to make artists fit into the Christian bucket. As someone who grew up on Rock Music in Nigeria, finding Christian Rock was slim picking back in those days.
It took a while — late 2009 specifically — before I began to discover many of the Christian bands that defined my music tastes. Still, I remember before that time, back in High School, I was told that Evanescence was a Christian band. I carried on this mindset well into university and even when it became clear to me that they were not, I refused to accept it and told myself that “Bring Me To Life” (which featured Paul McCoy of 12 Stones, a popular professing Christian band of that era) and “Tourniquet” (a song with Christian lyrical imagery that was about suicide) were Christian songs.
Evanescence was not the only band or artist I did this with, but I only use their example because of the controversy around it even among Christian circles. Media outlets like Blabbermouth.net, The Irish Times and Christian sites like Cross Rhythms covered the saga extensively and I’m not here to rehash all that. Still, this was a reflection of the fact that I was not the only one that had this problem. It almost felt like the Christian music scene was either afraid to let them go or they felt betrayed or deceived by them.
Emotionally, I can understand these reactions. Objectively, it makes no sense. Before I continue down this rabbit hole, I’d like to state that I truly believe that my current stance on this subject is the product of the work of God’s Spirit. I do not write this to vilify anyone sensitive to this but instead to air my thoughts and hopefully, have a conversation.
Coming back to 2022, I find myself on the Christian Music subreddit a lot these days and I see echoes of these same issues still prevalent in Christian music today. I will break down my thoughts into four major sections.
Are Christian-Themed Lyrics Enough?
My answer to this is a resounding NO. There is no denying that lyrics are important. But I feel like many Christians are sniffing and hunting for the slightest mention of the name “Jesus” or “God” just to use as evidence to support their consumption of some music. One recent example of this is a song released on DJ Khaled’s new album GOD DID titled “Use This Gospel (Remix)” which featured Eminem. I would not have heard or known anything about this song if it didn’t create such a buzz within the Christian music space.
I listened to it out of curiosity and I’m not here to talk about my thoughts about the song, I’m here to talk about the conversation surrounding the song in Christian circles. I lost count of the number of “Is Eminem A Christian Rapper Now?” videos/articles of a similar title that popped up on my timeline. Unfortunately, many of these videos and opinion pieces came across like these people were looking for a reason to listen to Eminem or put him in a gospel category.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love for Eminem to be a Christian but if Eminem became a Christian, the people who would know about it first are his close friends and family and it would take more than a track on an album that is still quite secular to bear the fruits of salvation. It’s quite sad that the focus of the conversation on many platforms was not redemption, righteousness or spiritual growth but rather, justification and licence to consume future Eminem content. In typical fashion, this song topped the Billboard Christian charts and I couldn’t help but ask, why do we always do this to ourselves?
The truth is this, any Christian who needed “Use This Gospel (Remix)” as a crutch to listen to Eminem, already listens to Eminem. Whether or not you should be listening to Eminem is a different conversation, but you do not have to force him to be Christian to listen.
Christian-themed lyrics are not enough. I believe that Christian music is born from the same place everything Christ-like is born, the Spirit. This is evidenced by the Christian ambient, post-rock and lofi artists that exist today whose expressions of creativity mostly lack lyrical content. Yet, it is clear — at least to me — that there is a difference because I used to consume a lot of secular artists in these genres and I can tell that the music is not born from the same place.
When A Christian Artist Falls Away
This is not peculiar to Christian artists, it is peculiar to all Christians. It is a sad reality, but it is a reality — see Matthew 24:10, 1 Timothy 4:1. The challenge is that artists are public figures so when this happens with them, it becomes news and content. Tragically, it happens every single day to people across the world who aren’t in the spotlight.
I am not referring to Christians who make music without wanting to be associated with the Christian label or tag here. I am talking about Christians who walk away from the faith completely.
When this happens, does it invalidate or corrupt all the music they had released in the past? Of course not.
If they release new music, can I listen to them? That depends — and I’ll deal with that in the next subheading — but even if you choose to, you are listening to them as secular artists.
More importantly, I think it’s vital to remember that these artists are people. One thing that has saddened my heart over the years is how quickly and readily the church has disowned many artists that I know in this category. If anything, this is the period where they need more of Christ’s love and our prayers because we should always remember that their souls are more important than the art.
Is All Secular Music Bad?
My answer to this is also a resounding NO. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of evil out there and I cannot overemphasize the important role that music can play in the way our lives are shaped — it is not called the food of the soul for nothing. But it’s not all secular music that is bad or sinful.
I live by two guidelines. The first is that I do my best to listen to the Holy Spirit. Rather than giving myself a list of dos and don’ts, I just ask Him. There are some things He will never lead me to listen to, but you’d also be surprised by the seemingly harmless things He has kept me away from. The second is that I am conscious of feeding myself with more God-centric content all around. There are artists that I don’t mind, who aren’t Christian and have nice instrumental albums or sing about life experiences; but ultimately, I’d rather consistently have something related to God in my personal space instead of things that may be considered neutral.
There Are Many Amazing Christian Musicians
I can’t stress this enough and my exploration of the Christian music scene so far has been a revelation. There are so many incredibly gifted artists blessing the lives of people and giving God glory with their music. We do not need to try to adopt secular artists or to microscopically hunt for the faintest glimmer of religious inclination.
If only we can open our hearts and our eyes, we would see that across the world the Lord is working wonders and raising people who are beautifully expressing His glory for all to see. It’s happening not just with music that can be described as congregational worship but in every genre. God is the original creator and no matter how much the devil perverts, He (God) is still in the business of using His own to create for Himself.
Lately: I’ve Been Reading
Fiction
Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F Kuang - Historical Fantasy, Dark Fantasy
A couple of months ago, I hit my reading target for novels and I thought I was done for the year. Fortunately, some authors that I like had other plans, so here we are. R.F Kuang’s The Poppy War Trilogy is one of my favourite fantasy trilogies ever and it’s certainly my favourite historical fantasy series. I was intrigued by the title of this book and was also encouraged to read it because it’s a standalone novel, seeing as I do not have it in me to commit to another series before the year ends.
Babel is a fascinating story about Robin Swift, a Cantonese boy brought to 1828 London to enroll in Oxford University's Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel. So far, it’s been an incredible journey and for anyone who loves alternate history or interesting and unique power systems; this is one of the best I’ve read in a while.
Non-Fiction
I Talk Back To The Devil by A.W. Tozer - Christian Living
The first chapter of this book has one of the most impactful writings I’ve read in a while. Truthfully, anyone who has read or heard Tozer knows that the man had a way of encouraging and challenging his audience, even with a few words.
I Talk Back To The Devil is a collection of sermons compiled into a book. It explores various themes that challenge us as believers to live the lives that we have been called to live, reminding us of the victory of Christ on the cross and also of the schemes and lies of the devil that try to stop us from living in the fullness of this victory. I can’t recommend it enough.
Lately: I’ve Been Listening
This section is dedicated to podcasts.
The Cold-Case Christianity Podcast by J. Warner Wallace
J. Warner Wallace is a cold-case homicide detective who applies some of the skills of his profession as a means of defending the Christian worldview and the evidence of God’s existence. The podcast explores apologetics and although he is a professor of apologetics at Biola University, his approach is not academic but conversational and grounded.
Science, Scripture, & Salvation by The Institute For Creation Research, Inc.
It’s been four years since this podcast released an episode and it’s still one of my favourite podcasts ever. This podcast is dedicated to using exploring science and seeing how scientific facts support the claims of the Bible, particularly the events of the book of Genesis.
Music Stuff
I talk about ambient, post-rock and lofi music here a lot. I haven’t given much attention to instrumental albums that do not fit into these boxes that have been released this year. Here are a few:
WYLD - From The Vine (Electronica, Chillwave, Downtempo)
Gardenlike - Gardenlike | Instrumentals (Dreampop, Synthpop, Indietronica)
Young Oceans - Like History [Instrumentals] (Art Pop, Worship)
Fount + Flame - Prayerfully (Acoustic)
David Brymer - Piano Diaries 4 (Piano)
That’s it, everyone.
See you soon!
Social Preview Photo by Pure Julia on Unsplash
Let me know your thoughts below.
Reminds me of the time everyone was scrambling to make R. Kelly a Christian artiste because of the songs 'Storm is Over' and 'He saved me.' I am more mindful of content nowadays and considering how many childhood favorites (books, movies, stories) are being repurposed for the weird agenda we have going around nowadays, it has reinforced my belief that if Christians want to enjoy content, we will have to make it ourselves.
PS. I definitely want to give the science podcast a listen
Tourniquet was about suicide??? Ah!!!!