Regarding worship music, that’s correct. It’s not being played for the enjoyment of the audience, but rather to bring them into connection with God, and (as you noted) to praise the Lord. Focus should not be on the musicians, but rather on the Divine. (Of course, poor musicianship distracts, so the players and singers need to be at least competent to keep the focus on worship.)
CCM has much wider berth to embrace virtuosity and flashiness to draw attention. It’s not generally played in a worship setting, but on the radio, in the car, on your device, etc., just like any other contemporary music. So it’s there partly for the enjoyment of the audience. But, of course, also for the edification of the audience. The balance between those goals can be a source of contention. Some fans are only in it for the message, and disdain anything which doesn’t hew perfectly to orthodox Christianity. (Of course, Christians have been disagreeing about exactly what that is from the very beginning.) The primacy of the message in CCM, and the somewhat narrow confines of what that message can be, puts a significant limit on where CCM can go thematically. That predictability can yield a certain blandness.
In the past few decades, we’ve seen a new phenomenon, the Praise Chorus. As one pastor said, “You think ‘Christian Rock’ is vapid? You ain’t heard nuthin’ yet…”
I’ve heard it called 7-11 Music: the same seven words repeated eleven times*.
The whole point is to take the focus off the musicians, off your physical surroundings, even off the music and (lack of) lyrics… and off yourself. It really is a kind of meditation (with a little self-hypnosis and mass-hysteria-but-in-a-harmless-way thrown in).
I’ve felt that swaying to music with a chorus repeating, so my mind’s focused on God, or even shut off for a few minutes. It’s a great feeling… but I’ve had that same feeling at Dead/U2/Armatrading/Cockburn/Dylan concerts. But those had the benefit of also being good music.
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*I almost linked to some, but after researching it (and hence listening to a bunch)… I just can’t do that to you.
Sad, but true. It’s part of the reason why the raised area at the front of the sanctuary is referred to as the “platform”, never “stage”, because the word “stage” apparently implies “performance”. Fortunately, the pastor and worship leader I played bass with for 21 years didn’t go for that nonsense. Unfortunately, that kind of attitude contributed to my deciding to leave that worship team a year after the longtime pastor and his wife (the worship leader) retired. We got a hip, young new pastor, and somebody else from the congregation stepped up to take over worship leader duties. This guy was the associate pastor under the old pastor, and he was the usual guy to fill in leading worship when the old pastor and WL took a vacation or were otherwise out of town.
Unfortunately, despite being only three years older than me, his idea of good music couldn’t have been more different. As in, he really liked The Carpenters. I never liked it in the past when he filled in, because he always selected a bunch of quiet, plodding songs, but I could deal with it because it was just one Sunday every now and then. Once he took over, after a solid year of that, I resigned. Just couldn’t do it any more. His youngest son played the drums with us, and he had acquired the same “how to play in church” mentality, and he hit the drums so lightly that, despite my sitting right next to the drums I could barely hear them.
It was also no fun being the bass player behind a guy who had no understanding of what the bass does. One time, years earlier, when he was filling in, he kept telling me during rehearsal that I was “too loud”. So I kept turning down, and turning down, and turning down, until, by the time the actual service started I had reduced my volume to zero and mimed my way through the entire set. After which, he told me I sounded great
Thank you for your comments as it completely hits the note (no pun intended) I was trying to hit with my OP.
That said, I do believe there is a place showcasing God given talent in the church.
Skip the following if you don’t want to read my mini devotional.
Being in Hawaii, we sometimes have hula dancers sometimes unaccompanied by vocals, the spiritual message being conveyed with the hand movements. And when a long time member/church staff announced she was moving, she and her daughter did an extraordinary show. I don’t know what it’s called, but it where they did aerial acrobatics with a long ‘curtain’ hanging from the ceiling. At first I thought it was inappropriate, but realized that HE had given them the knowledge and ability and they were glorifying HIM by sharing what he graced them with!
Yeah, good thing Bach and Handel never bought into the “bland is best” theory of religious music.
As to inappropriately getting into the music, I’m reminded of those pictures going around the internet of guitar players, but their guitars are replaced with huge slugs, making all their faces look like they’re disgusted instead of just really into the music.
Just the title immediately made me remember Toni Childs and a live performance she did on Hey Hey It’s Saturday (variety show in Australia). Mid-90s, so live performances were still a thing.
She started off on her mark on the stage under the nice choreographed lights and all and then really got into it and started moving - by the end, she had all three cameras nearly backed into the audience, stagehands hopping to keep cables out of the way, house lights up so the cameras could see her - it was actually great as a viewer. The crew was having conniptions, though.
