“Shout to … the north and the south … sing to … the east and the west …”
Yup. Another commercial for a compilation of Christian pop music by Time-Life. In the reruns of Saurday Night Live that appear after the normal SNL airing, there is usually one commercial for the fundie music compilation at every commercial break. I’m seeing the commercial aired quite a bit elsewhere as well.
“I’m coming back to the heart … of … worship …”
So, why the heavy promotion? Are there enough people buying this to make up for the cost of airing these commercials, which must be in the millions by now?
First of all, why do you refer to it as “fundie music”, unless you think that all Christians are fundies?
Secondly, this is nothing. You ought to watch the Fox News Channel some time. First, they were showing adds, non stop for a new Christie Lane album, then, just when it seemed they were going to finally stop, they’re showing new adds for a new album (I think it’s a holiday album). Now that’s annoying.
And as for the Time-Life adds, they only bug you because you don’t like Christian music. If it was an add for something that you either like, or don’t have an opinion about either way, then you probably wouldn’t even notice the add, or you might even be happy that it keeps being shown.
Is that the one with the kind of cheesy songs like, “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” and “Shine, Jesus Shine”…and there’s a bunch of mullet heads swaying in the audience?
Cuz those are funny.
-I prefer traditional church hymns. Preferably something by Schubert or Bach.
I haven’t seen this particular commercial, elmwood, but I did see a strange Christian concert on Pax TV the other day. And, yeah, I’d call it “fundie music”…it wasn’t traditional hymns, it wasn’t gospel, the music had, IMO, no redeeming qualities whatsoever, (though it did mention the words “God” and “Jesus” a lot) but there were hundreds–maybe thousands of people in this stadium and/or stadium-sized church singing along with this strange, glazed look on their faces.
It was scary. Very Scary. Scary enough to make me wonder what the heck is going on in this country.
I don’t intend this to be yet another debate on the merits of Christian pop music, so I’ll make the answer short and sweet.
Almost everybody I know or who have met who are into Christian pop are non-denominational, Baptist or Nazarene fundamentalists. I haven’t met any Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics, Christian UUs, and the like that I could call fundamentalists; likewise, I’ve met none that are into Christian pop.
Now, at the risk of turning this thread into a GD, back to our regular topic.
I think that you misunderstood me. What I was asking is, why do you refer to it as fundamentalist music? Is it simply the fact that it was Christian pop, as opposed to the more traditional hymns? I’ve heard the commercials, and none of the lyrics or song titles that I heard made me think “Fundamentalist”.
Now, if they were promoting songs like “Please God, cleans the earth of all gays” or “I just bombed an abortion clinic yesterday” (no, these songs don’t really exist, I just made them up) then yes, I’d say it’s fundamentalist music. But I didn’t see any signs of fundamentalism myself, and I’m a Catholic who hates fundamentalism, so I’m curious why you choose to term it is fundi music, that’s all.
Oh! The glazed look is the worst. It truly does frighten me. I once went to a wedding where they had a church service first (If I had known they were going to hav ean entire service I probably wouldn’t have gone…) and they sang the most awful songs with this freaky smile on their face and glazed eyes and I wanted to run away as quickly as possible.
I’ve seen a few of these commercials from different companies. Perhaps they’re more common in the South. It seems like every one of them has a song by the group “Delerious?.” Are they the kings of Christian pop or something?
I, too, laugh like a madman at the people in the audience. Especially amusing are the ones with their eyes closed and their hands reaching upwards, carrying upon their faces that look that seems to say, “I can almost reach Jesus! Just a little higher now…”
I’m glad it’s not just me–though I know some poster’ll be along shortly to wag their finger and say "For shame! How dare you make fun of people, there always is one. But they look like such goobers, especially the ones who look like they’re about to cream their jeans (are fundies allowed to do that?) over Jesus.
I have no use for the product being offered, but for some odd reason, I find the commercials both visually and aurally appealing. I even find the song snippets running through my mind throughout the day even though I’m content as an agnostic.
Perhaps I harbor dark desires to corrupt the swaying women in the audience. After all, they look all semi-ecstatic and stuff.
On the promotional side of the topic, “1-800” ads work differently than those from Coke, Burger King, etc. Sellers of “1-800” products don’t buy time, they only provide spots to the channel. The channel then runs them at their own discretion, receiving a certain amount of $ for each call generated by the spot. Responses are tracked by using various call numbers throughout the day. If ad time for a show is dirt cheap, the “1-800” system will actually generate more income for the channel.
I’ve never worked in sales, this is the bit I remember from talking to a guy who was way too into his job and found it endlessly fascinating.
No Catholics that are into Christian pop? Apparently you’ve never heard the all the cloying, folk-pop music played at Catholic guitar masses. Sure as bell bottoms and macrame, it’s a '70s legacy.
And the more rocking tunes might not be properly classified as only “fundie music,” since a number of fundies, like Jack Chick, think all rock music, including Christian rock, is Satanic.
I just saw the ad about 30 mins. ago. I channel-surf late at night and catch this one a lot lately. I don’t consider it “fundie” music myself but if all the people you know of that listen to this type of music are fundies then I can see how you’d make the connection.
What irritates me is the obvious misdirection that the editing is doing. They show a shot from behind one of the bands showing a large crowd of people, then cut to closeups of young girls wearing too much makeup nearly in tears and holding up their hands with other “concert-goers” and moving their mouths to the songs dubbed in. From the lights bouncing off the backdrops behind them it obvious they are on a set with no more than a few dozen people. They show nothing but young people in these closeup shots. I don’t know what their tactic is other than to target teenagers with these CD’s.
I’m assuming the heavy promotion is due to the fact that it’s not just 1 or a set of 3 CD’s being sold, but a CD every month, much like Columbia House does. If they can crack into the crowd that buys pieces of the True Cross and innumerable Jesus memorabilia then they might have a lucrative thing going. In that kind of crowd, no one wants to be the one that doesn’t have the entire set of CD’s.
I may have to agree with whoever said that it might be a phenomenon of the South. Raised as a Catholic in the heart of Brooklyn, I cringe at the thought of anything other than organ/piano during mass…don’t get me started on the drum kit next to the pulpit that is too often a fixture in Southern Churches.
My husband apparently used to play guitar in his Catholic church in Wisconsin. However, he certainly is no fan of Christian pop today (and I don’t think he was then, either).
As a skeptic, I am concerned about the rising tide of religious fundamentalism. Yes, I am concerned that beliefs that were seemingly on the fringe in my youth are now becoming mainstream enough to fill these stadium churches and sell Time-Life compilations. What happened? What changed? What’s going on? We’ve seen the harm that Islamic fundamentalism can do, and these glazed-eyed Christian fundies seem ripe for the machinations of some evil genius or another.
Oh no, they’re not just a phenomenon in the South. Back in the late 60s-early70s when the Catholic church decided to “modernize”, getting rid of the organ music and traditional hymns was one of the first things done, right along with modernizing nuns’ habits.
I was attending the local parochial school at the time. The Archdiocese allotted a flat sum of money to each parish for “upgrading”. The first thing to go in my church was the beautiful old organ up in the choir loft, complete with pipes. They then closed the loft and put a smaller organ off the side from the altar. Then they changed the Mass schdule – only 1 Mass would be “traditional”. The others would be “folk”, complete with guitars and the off-key warblings of the school chorus.
This happened in Boston, capital of the Irish Catholic universe, no less
