[ SECRET POST #4282 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4282 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02.
[Colette]


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03.
[Sara Sidle on CSI]


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04.
[Criminal Minds]


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05.
[Step by Step, Cody/Dana]


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06.
[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]


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07.
[Mad Men]











Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 28 secrets from Secret Submission Post #613.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a lefty Christian who likes CCM. If I ever so much as casually mention any information about CCM around other lefty Christians, without qualifying the statement, I get this Look. Like they're assuming I listen to nothing bu that, all day, and indiscriminately love all of it. Rather than, I like about a third of it and only stop to listen if it's a song I enjoy, just like I do with secular pop. But I think it's unfair that both fans and detractors treat CCM like it's one monolithic genre where if you like one band you have to like all the others (for Christians, this could be a backlash from our childhoods when this stuff was forced on us in a "see? God is cool too!" attitude by clueless adults). It's actually a bunch of sub genres, again, like secular pop. And within that, you can divide them by the motivation of the artist

Corporate CCM (deliberately designed and marketed as a wholesome alternative to secular pop, often cynically trying to mimic the latest secular trends, tends to make the music worse)
Bands who just happen to be on trend and record through a Christian record label
Bands with one or more Christian member
Modernized/Contemporary hymns

But the dividing line isn't actually about quality or the artist's level of piety. The Christian Music Industry decides who counts as legit CCM. And that's really based on two things

1) Artist's "lifestyle". Doesn't matter how devout you insist you are, if you smoke, drink, swear, have pre/extra marital sex or sing about any of those things, aren't straight and/or have openly liberal politics, you won't get airplay. If you're LDS, you're also out, no matter how clean, wholesome and conservative you are. Tick any of these boxes and it won't matter how popular or beautiful your religious song is, it's not getting CCM airplay.

2) Whether or not they at least got their start recording through a Christian label. Artists recording before a certain time get sort of grandfathered in, but you go through the right channels or you don't count. Once you're locked out due to making the wrong choice in record labels, you're never getting back in. Not even if you try to sneak back in through country music.

But there's a whole world of stuff out there which Corporate Christian Music ignores or won't endorse, again, just like secular indie music vs secular top forty.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

EXCELLENT breakdown of it. I actually used to be in the CCM industry in the 90s, so I can say you're spot on about all of this. Hell, I knew Skillet before they went techno.

I think the breakdown of the music industry machine in terms of labels and distribution is probably the best thing that could have happened to a lot of artists, because now they don't have to worry about their Jesus Per Minute quotient or agree to do a worship album in order to get signed. They can produce and distribute their own stuff, market it through social media, and still make an impact.

But what actually bothered me was finding out that shortly after I fell out, rock music actually died, industry-wise, and aside from the artists like Skillet now signed to mainstream labels, there's no concerted push to encourage hard music. Honestly, the mid-90s Tooth N Nail revolution was the best thing to happen to CCM and it's a damned shame that the worship trends of the early 00s killed it so quickly and so thoroughly. I appreciated artists in the industrial and emo movements who were willing to talk about taboo subjects in their music and insinuate that maybe we didn't have all the answers.