Wednesday, January 02, 2019

I can only be confused

On New Year's Eve, my church showed a recent movie about Mercy Me's Bart Millard, I can only imagine, in which his journey from being an abused child to CCM stardom is profiled--if perhaps fictionalized a bit.  One thing which really stuck out for me is the movie's notion that there is a group of "godfathers" in Nashville more or less policing the industry, weeding out groups which are technically proficient but not "genuine." 


As someone who has heard a fair amount of CCM that can only be charitably described as "mumblin' and moanin' with a metronome", this surprised me to a great degree.  We have this Politburo of quality control, and the result is "Jesus is my boyfriend" dreck?   The suggestion is as if Deming's work resulted in not Toyota, but Yugo.


So I started thinking about musical greats outside of CCM and what they do.  Put gently, pretty much all of classical music and opera is, per the movie's objection to Millard's early work, "singing someone else's song", and nobody seems to have been bothered.  In the same way,  Van Halen's album Diver Down is mostly covers as well, and a large number of songs you'll hear on the radio are written by someone else.


That brings me back to the question of exactly what those "godfathers", which in the movie include Michael W. Smith among their number, are doing with a prescription of "singing your own songs".   Now perhaps my esteem for Mr. Smith is affected by his nauseating song "Breathe", but it strikes me that perhaps the problem with CCM is that, indeed, they are singing their own songs.


How so?  Well, consider what you learn when you watch great performers and sing their songs.  It's about tempo, volume, tone, how you position your body, facial expressions, and the whole nine yards.  In other words, musicality and performance.


So if indeed the CCM brass are encouraging this, it's no surprise that they're not producing a worthy product.  They're telling bands to short circuit the process of learning the trade.

7 comments:

Hearth said...

If you both write and sing, sing what you write.

If you just sing - sing. And put your heart into it.

Anyone who heard Johnny Cash *steal* "hurt" from NIN can understand this principle.

And can we have someone get back to writing lyrics? Please? PLEASE? so tired of 7/11. I don't care if it's the singer or a pro writer, just so we have some lyrics.

elspeth said...

So if indeed the CCM brass are encouraging this, it's no surprise that they're not producing a worthy product. They're telling bands to short circuit the process of learning the trade.

They're simply giving the people what they want, Bike. We are awash in a culture and by extension a church that is all about the feelz. How do you feeeel when you hear this song? This message? This...??? Songs bereft of sound theology make me want to scream but that's almost all we have now.

In this kind of environment the artistry of music takes a back seat to the sensibilities of a people (*waves hand*) who don't have a frame of reference from which to appreciate real, true musical talent. At least not outside of recognize an amazing voice when they hear it.

Once John Williams dies, it'll be even worse, LOL.

Bike Bubba said...

True--it's designed perfectly for the small portion of people who really like CCM, just like Oldsmobiles were designed perfectly for people who were....predisposed to buy Oldsmobiles.

I think 'ol Ransom Eli might tell us a different approach might be smart. :^)

elspeth said...

True--it's designed perfectly for the small portion of people who really like CCM

See Bike, I'd argue that the number of people who keep CCM going isn't a small number. It's not a plurality of the population, but it is a significant percentage of the average Christian population.

Bike Bubba said...

I'd argue that the number of people who keep CCM going isn't a small number

Oh, no, all my brothers and sisters in Christ got their ears shot off in the war!

Seriously, I don't doubt you, but at the same time, it occurs to me that doing things this badly isn't the best way to win people to Christ. And that is going to do an "Oldsmobile" to the genre, and really to the churches that use it.

Hearth said...

We're all just grateful it's better than Christian music in the 80s.

Bike Bubba said...

"Carman" and "Sandi Patti" come to mind. Two folks that did more than others to make sure I kept listening to Van Halen and the Scorpions....

....that noted, it strikes me that a fair amount of the older stuff, being more or less Psalm-singing with modern instruments, was not that bad. I think I'm getting back into the 1960s and early 1970s, though.