CCM-hunting on Youtube

When I were a younger lad I used to listen to the music samplers from a Christian music magazine my mother bought. There was some good stuff, although much of it either wasn't my thing or wasn't too good - there was also a lot of mediocre music in the CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) scene back then. It wasn't too much worse than the secular music scene, but it could have been a lot better. CCM sound engineers seldom attempted to give their sound any edge, any quality that would risk grabbing the listener by the 'nads and making them sit up straight - Christian music bosses tended to want something safer without the sharp edges, particularly on singles marked for airplay. Graham Kendrick wrote many worship songs that sounded great played in church, but toxically cheesy the way he recorded them. (A lot of Leonard Cohen music in the 80's sounded slightly cheesy, as well. Maybe it was something in the water.)

If you ask how a musical subculture where a "safe", uninteresting sound was not only common but seen as desirable could possibly survive in a market environment... well, it was Christian, and thus had something of a captive market from people who wanted to listen to specifically Christian music, rather than the worldly stuff. The reasons for this were mixed. On one level, this meant, well, it's Christian and has no sharp edges and thus unlikely to corrupt anyone with its external worldly influences by being from some impure pagan source. On another level, though, however shallow and bad, Christian stuff has noticably less emptiness of soul. In Germany I'd sometimes listen to the "Aufgewacht" Christian music program on Radio Gong, and when the hour ended, the switch to secular music could be positively unpleasant in comparison. The worldly stuff had a lot more despair, and I don't just mean the songs were downbeat and depressing - more that the soul of the music was derelict and all rotting timbers and decayed supports within. The Christian stuff, even when bad, was cheerful - light and fresh air and open sky.

Anyway. One song I remembered from a 1-minute sample, liked, and only just remembered and looked up was Whiteheart's Inside - it's as good as I remember, and the video is unexpectedly good too. Mad Hatter Satan and three helpfully-labelled Mystical Virtues:



I also discovered Burlap to Cashmere from the same source, and my mother got one of their CDs for me for Christmas or my birthday (I forget.) Musically these guys are extremely talented and impressive and listenable, especially when they start showing off on guitar or similar instruments (the Greek bazouki, apparently); but their best song is possibly the laid-back, non-showy "Eileen's Song":



Burlap to Cashmere apparently have an album coming out; one of the band released a solo album, containing the rather strange song The Ruin of the Beast.

I also managed to dig up some stuff by Detritus, a pioneering Christian thrash metal group I somehow wound up with a tape of in the 90's. They released two albums and that's it; finding information on them is a hassle, and the one I owned is now $70 on amazon.ca. Here's a good song I remember, "D.I.G.M.", and here's their most famous tune, a trash-metal sea shanty entitled "Sailor's Farewell", which is also good, although not as awesome as it sounded to my teenaged ears.

Here's Kevin Max's "Existence" - good song, so-so video (those awful angel wings do not suit you, mate). He's a former member of DC Talk, a rather good band whose greatest hit was Jesus Freak. (The other members were Toby Mac - here's his "Extreame [sic] days", with a fun if silly and slightly self-indulgent video - and Michael Tait: here's his Lose my Life. Tait's now joining The Newsboys, a rather good Australian CCM - see their song Something Beautiful. As he's got a good voice but I find his music a bit cheesy, I think this is probably a good development.)