A couple of old Cafe Socety threads:
What Christian music is good?
Christian rock that doesn’t suck donkey balls
Although it’s an open question how many, if any, of the artists mentioned therein (a) are still active, and (b) would ever get played on mommy-friendly comtemporary Christian radio.
I don’t think the defining difference between Christian radio music and pop radio music is the religion of the band members or even whether they sing about Jesus sometimes. In fact, it is the source of this enigmatic but instantly-recognizable difference that the OP is after.
As others have said, it’s way down on the dial at 88.x through 91.x usually, and it’s very upbeat and bland. You can tell pretty quickly.
Even though I’m nonreligious I actually like traditional Christian songs and Christian bluegrass music, but that’s not what the Christian station(s?) around here play.
Burlap to Cashmere
Randy Stonehill
Larry Norman (RIP, Larry)
Speaking as an actual rock fan, I like all of those.
RR
:eek: :eek: :eek:
You put these bands in the same SENTENCE! :eek:
I guess it depends on the definition, but what about “Kansas”? I wouldn’t necessarily categorize them as a “Christian” rock band but they definitely had a religious theme to much of their music. (I believe songwriter Kerry Livgren actually went on to become a preacher after he left the band.) And I wouldn’t call them “musical milquetoast” either, though some would probably disagree.
I apologize for repeating what was said before, but I’d like to distill it down to the basic answer.
When you turn to a Christian rock station, you quickly know it’s a Christian rock station because you’re hearing a song you’ve never heard before.
Think about it-- if you listen to the radio at all, probably 99% of the music you hear on the radio is a song you’ve heard at least once before, either on the radio or MTV or online somewhere. Most mainstream radio stations introduce new music, sure, but they do it sparingly, and once a new song is introduced into the rotation, they’re heavily rotated. Some stations, ike classic rock stations, won’t add new songs for years.
When you turn on a radio station that is playing a song you have never heard before, you automatically pay closer attention to what the song is. The Christian clues quickly follow.
What you DON’T recognize is that you’ve passed dozens of stations playing Rihanna, the Foo Fighters or Led Zeppelin without thinking twice about them, because the moment you hear a snippet of the song, you know they’re NOT Christian rock stations.
Supposedly Flyleaf is Christian, I don’t see it. I’ve played/sang their “I’m So Sick” song quite a few times in the Rock Band game, it rocks.
The low end of FM (88.1-91.9) is reserved for noncommercial and educational broadcasters.
Interestingly, my alarm clock is set to a Christian (Catholic) radio station, Radio Ville-Marie (101.3 FM in Sherbrooke). When I first arrived here, I was going through the dial trying to find a radio station that sounded good for my alarm clock, and this is the first one I found. It took me quite some time before I figured out that it was a religious station: there wasn’t anything that made it instantly recognizable.
It must be said that even though I’ve rarely listened to Radio Ville-Marie (I use them to wake myself up, but then I turn it off), I haven’t heard any overt preaching or anything of the sort. Their programs do have a religious slant; for example, I’ve heard the hosts debating spiritual questions and interviewing missionaries, but earlier today they were talking about the price of gas and discussing our dependence on automobiles. And the music they broadcast doesn’t seem different from what I’d hear on other commercial radio stations. All in all, it seems a pretty decent, thinking radio station, with a Catholic (or religious at least) slant.
Of course, I’m not in the US, so “Christian radio stations” may not mean the same thing here as it does where the OP lives.
“Audio signature” would be a good way to describe it. A lot of Christian stations; e.g. old-school religious stations and new “Fish” and “Safe for the entire family” broadcasters are scattered throughout the dial; it’s mostly the low-power stations that crowd the left end of the dial. It seems like there’s something about the compression or modulation that’s different in Christian radio versus a secular FM rock or talk station.
I thought of that, but generally, I don’t keep up with contemporary pop music like I did in my teens, and a good portion of the songs on a “Kiss” or other top-40 station would sound unfamiliar to my ears. Meanwhile, about a year ago, I heard that “Feel the rain on your skin” song everywhere; in commercials, background music at supermarkets, and so on, but the first time I encountered it was on the Christian radio station that always used to play at an Arby’s where I’d pick up lunch now and then.
That could be one cue. I noticed a lot of male vocalists that sounded … well, somewhat emo but not quite, on Fish-like stations. I’m also curious about the Christian talk stations, though. I don’t think it’s because it’s “talk, but not with an NPR sound”, because there’s a growing number of talk stations on FM.
I think Barlow Girl rocks. They’re three sisters - the guitarist is the oldest and the drummer is the youngest. I got to see them live a couple years ago, and they’re honestly really good. The drummer cracked me up when she got on the mic to deliver a little sermon. Her look and her delivery just screamed “blonde airhead”, but listening to her words she was freakin’ brilliant (I believe she was studying marine biology before the band thing got going).
As far as Christian radio, I think it suffers the same problem as “light rock” stations. Our local light rock station bills itself as “Apple FM - Your At-Work Station!”, which translates as “music you can play in the store without offending your over-50 customers”. Christian stations depend on listener donations more than other commercial stations, and your most-likely donor is the “little old Christian lady”. So the stuff that gets played on the air ends up being the stuff that is “contemporary”, yet tame enough that it won’t drive away those little old Christian ladies. So what you hear missing is any “edge” to the music. This is one reason so many Christian bands these days are deliberately avoiding the “Christian” record labels and focusing more on the secular market (kind of following U2’s example) because the Christian labels tend to force artists to tone down and compromise their artistic ideals in order to get airplay on Christian radio.
Also, with no offense intended, the subject matter is inherently limiting.
Want to write a song that references the power you receive from your belief in the divine? Fine, no problem, you’re part of the club.
Go off the reservation and write songs about driving your car fast, partying late, and enjoying life but don’t mention “Him,” and suddenly you’re not so Christian rock any longer.
I’ve seen interviews with Christian rockers (former and current) who complain about this. It’s not enough to sing sometimes about the Lord-- it’s kind of expected to be your regular focus. Of course, if it’s your regular focus, then you quickly pigeonhole yourself into a creative ghetto. It stops being about music, and starts being about religious Mad-Libs. “Wait for it. . . wait for it. . . there! The singer mentioned Jesus!”
I would have thought Tourniquet also had some appeal, even if i t is just for Ted Kirkpatrick’s drumming.
That’s how you can tell if it’s a Christian radio station - they are always asking you to send money.
Stryper.
Exactly. I’m friends with a couple of the guys in a Christian band called SHIM (the drummer and the lead singer/songwriter/guitarist are my pastor’s sons). They’re currently unsigned, but they’ve got a couple CDs out. They don’t play the church circuit; they play the same Seattle bars and clubs as any other Seattle hard rock band. Their lyrics aren’t typical Christian rock material, either. Instead they just write about and critique life and the world and their own place in it, from their own Christian perspective, without being preachy or trite. You don’t often find lyrics like this on a Christian album:
(from “Confessions of the Sweeper”):
So gather ‘round people let me speak some truth
A little confession from me to you
I’m sweepin’ all this shit with my big broom
But I’m the biggest piece of it in this little room
(from “Country Music”):
If you wanna taste the fruit, don’t bruise it
If the logic doesn’t work, don’t use it
If you wanna feel the beat don’t lose it
Nothin’ sweet lets you peruse it
I ain’t scared of country music!
I’ve ranted before that the #1 promotion slogan of the local Christian radio station is “Safe for the whole family!” (Really? “Safe” is how you pick your music? Instrumental classical and jazz aren’t “Safe”? How about some nice whitenoise to soothe the soccer team?)
I think this quality of “safety” is what trips your mental sensors before you actually hear the music. They may never say “Jay-sus” but your ear can instantly detect the mentally childproofed environment that you’ve entered. The commentary and commercials are conspicuously sterilized of any subject matter that might be negative or controversial. The announcing style is not flat and neutral… it’s subtly upbeat, but not enough to actually get anyone excited. There seems to be fewer commercials, thus there is a slightly higher ratio of announcing to commercials.
It may also be seem obvious to say, but (at least in my case), but I can immediately recognize any station that is unfamiliar to me by the content. Even with the absence of any specific clues, any station that is unfamiliar to me is 80% likely a Christian station.