Why Christian Radio is the Absolute Worst.
I wrote this article for a now defunct website several years ago. I have updated it for today, though some of the links are long gone. I hope you find this informative and challenging, especially if you’re part of the Christian church.
Once upon a time I was driving through Phoenix and I did something I never do. I turned on the radio. Lucky for me, I instantly found a station playing one of the greatest songs of my teen years: ‘All for You’ by Sister Hazel. I cranked the radio up, and sang along just like I did when I first picked up a guitar in 1998. Why did I love that song so much? Why do any of us love songs like that? Because they’re fun. They make you feel something. They’re great to sing-along with. They move us emotionally. They move us physically.
After the song ended, Bruno Mars ‘Now My Baby’s Dancing’ came on, and though I reached to change the station, the song sucked me in. I honestly never listen to the radio. The song was simple…vocals and a piano. Told the story of love lost. I listened. I felt something, and it hurt. Music does that to me. I bet it does that to you, too.
Then I switched stations and I immediately identified what kind of station it was because it had a certain sound. It was K-LOVE, the Christian station. Now, because I never listen to the radio, I couldn’t tell you any of the names of the songs. As a Christian, I have heard of almost every artists they program, but I had never heard hardly any song I was hearing was I was driving into Mesa. With my iPhone and Siri handy, I was quickly discovering what many of these artists actually sound like and what kind of music they were making.
And in doing so, I finally got a little more familiar with Becky.
I’ve known Becky since college, even though I didn’t know her by name. Back then I was listening to a lot of Christian rock bands like Pax217, TFK (when they were rapcore), and Pillar, amongst several others. They were never played on the mainstream Christian radio stations, but they were played on a new breed of radio called ‘Christian Hit Radio’ (short lived, now defunct). Unfortunately, we didn’t have a CHR station nearby, only your normal CCM station.
One night I called in to CCM on a crusade to make them aware that I was listening. I asked the DJ if she would play something for us younger, college-aged guys who needed something a little heavier. She said she would love to. Ten minutes later I hear ‘Here’s one for the college guys, Dave.’ And she played ‘Homesick’ by MercyMe.
What. The…
Becky came through the speakers and slammed me in the face.
So who is Becky?
As an article on Crosswalk says,
“You probably know her. She’s recently turned 40, but is not quick to admit it. She’s a Christian and a devoted wife and mother. She drives a mini-van. Half-melted crayons roll around on the floor as she stops at a light en route to her daughter’s Tuesday night soccer practice. She laughs sometimes, chagrined that she is the very “Soccer Mom” they talk about come election time. Becky lives in the suburbs, likes to read, enjoys the women’s retreats at church, is struggling to remember algebra so she can help her son with his homework, and is a regular volunteer at the food pantry.”
You can read all about Becky here. And here. Or here. Or in this book. And especially in this book. Basically, she’s the demographic and target of Christian music. (We’ll discuss the validity of Christian music soon). *NOTICE all of those links no longer work. BECKY GOT ‘EM.
Personally, I’ve got no problem with Becky. But I do have a major problem with those who create content for Becky, and I’m going to outline a very big issue and failure I see in American Christendom.
My goal is to share with you a vision I think some people are receiving around the churches of this wonderful country, and I’d love to tell you about it. Just as the ocean recedes and leaves the sand dry before pushing back and soaking the shore, I think the church has been (and soon will be coming out of) and artistic recession. There is a wave coming.
But first, let’s ask this: can music actually be ‘Christian?’
That’s the first thing we need to ask ourselves. What defines a Christian? I would define a Christian as:
A person who has put their faith in Jesus Christ and follows after Him in a life of discipleship.
Obviously, the radio isn’t a person. Neither are books, movies, or any other forms of consumption media. Somewhere in history, we began attributing the characteristic of ‘Christian’ to things that simply cannot be Christian. And don’t fool yourself into thinking that just because something is created by Christians or is meant for Christians that it gets a free pass. By strictest definition of the word, music (or anything other than a human being created in God’s image) cannot be ‘Christian.’
Ok, I’ll admit… that was pretty legalistic. I’m being extreme to make a point that Rich Mullins so eloquently made often at his concerts: ‘Music is meant to entertain. If you want spiritual nourisment, go to church.’ (At this point and if you have the time, watch this entire Rich Mullins concert and soak up the wisdom he spoke to this crowd in-between the songs. If you don’t have time, watch the first few minutes of part 4 right now. And if you aren’t familiar with the late Rich Mullins, click here.)
So now I’ve introduced you to Becky. Now let’s talk about her relationship with the radio. I am going to present three problems with the CCR (Contemporary Christian Radio) model and show you how I believe it’s contributing to the receding tide of artistry in the church. I’m going to use the largest of all Christian stations…. KLOVE.
1) CCR (Contemporary Christian Radio) exists off of donor support, though there are a few exceptions to this by some smaller CCR stations. That in-and-of-itself isn’t the problem. The problem is what happens when an entire mega-industry relies on it’s regular donors to continue to support them. They rely on Becky.
Becky is the reason why these stations have mottos like ‘Positive, Encouraging, and Safe for the Whole Family.’ She needs to be assured that she will be lifted up, encouraged, and that her kids won’t hear anything not deemed ‘safe’ while they’re in the car. Again, all of these things are great! No problem with them!
But the problem comes in when all of it’s content paints an unreal picture of what Christianity is. The reality is that the Bible isn’t ‘safe for the whole family.’ Our faith is a faith of burden and sacrifice, and doesn’t always lead to feeling encouraged and positive. It’s in our weakness that His strength is shown. Christianity isn’t a feel-good religion. It’s all about dying to self. Being sacrificial. Loving your neighbor, even when your neighbor is crazy.
But Becky doesn’t want to hear that. So the Christian stations don’t program that part of the message.
Almost every other radio station in America is ad-supported. I wonder what CCR would have been like if they would have never been donor-supported.
2) CCR caters to it’s supporters. Those who give set the tone of what is programmed. And Becky is who they program for. I immersed myself into KLOVE yesterday. I listened for a straight hour. Here are some notes I took as I listened.
- All the songs are around 75–85bpm.
- You could easily change the singers and leave the same band.
- The vocals are perfect. Absolutely perfect. They’re also a little louder than ‘secular’ songs.
- There are no unique voices. Those who use to be unique (Kutless, for example) now sound like every other singer.
- Did every one of these bands record in the same studio with the same engineer?
- I heard the same artists twice (Mercy Me) within the hour.
- The DJ (female) kept interjecting with motto (positive, encouraging, and safe for the family).
- The DJ speaks with a very soft and unauthentic tone.
Again, none of this is wrong or bad by default. But here’s where I see the problem. Because CCR is donor supported and thus programs for it’s listeners, the content creators box in the artists to create music for CCR, because that is what drives their profit structure. CCR isn’t for-profit, but you better believe Columbia Records (parent company who owns the label that owns Mercy Me) is for-profit. You better believe that Sony, EMI, and Capital Records (all who own the Christian genre labels) are for-profit. And you better believe that they are making sure they create for Becky.
3) CCR claims it’s evangelical. During their pledge drives, CCR talks a lot about it’s evangelical wing. In fact, on their pledge page KLOVE talks about how many people came to the Lord because of listening to their radio station this past year. (Six-thousand, if you’re interested.) There is a very weird thing going on here, though.
They create content for Becky. Yet they say claim they’re evangelical. Does anyone else see something weird there? Maybe it’s skepticism, or maybe it’s cynicism. But I have a hard time swallowing that Justin heard a Newsboys song and decided to give his life to the Lord. I personally believe that evangelism happens through proclamation of the gospel, and that happens best through relationships.
I could be wrong, and maybe there are 16.5 people every day with a life-altering encounter with Jesus because of KLOVE. But even if there are… KLOVE is not a church. And discipleship will not happen by listening to KLOVE. And certainly accountability won’t happen by listening to KLOVE. (But being encouraged, lifted, and hearing ‘safe’ songs will happen). It’s not in the game of discipleship, which means it’s not truly evangelical.
Now before you fly off the handle because you’re a supporter and believer in CCR, let me wrap this thought up. I don’t think CCR is a bad thing. It is the primary force in sharing ‘Christian’ music with people. But can we all agree on what it is? It’s entertainment. Clean, overly-polished, and incredible safe entertainment.
I have no problem with CCR when it calls itself what it is. But it makes me cringe when I hear it called what it isn’t. So if you are part of the majority of Christians in America that listens to CCR, continue to do so and enjoy it! Be encouraged, be lifted up. Partake in the safety. But please don’t your faith journey stop there!
And please understand the damage CCR has done (and is doing) to artistry in the church. Now, let’s continue.
I came to a great realization a decade ago around 2010. It happened when I picked up the latest Hillsong Live worship album ‘A Beautiful Exchange.’ I got the ‘deluxe’ version because it was the same price as the regular one for some reason. There was a song on this record that I absolutely loved called ‘Forever Reign.’ The words are so great and powerful, and it has what I love most about worship albums… a bunch of people singing and making music together. I love Hillsong because it’s real and authentic. Same with Bethel and Jesus Culture.
But there was something on there that I wasn’t expecting. There was a track called ‘Forever Reign (Radio Edit).’ I was a little taken back by this track even before I heard it. Why did a worship song need a radio edit? Immediately I thought ‘it’s probably too long.’ But in reality, it was only a minute or so shorter.
Then I heard the track and realized what it was. It was the Becky edit. It was super clean, with loud and perfect vocals, and it was stripped of it’s cool artistry. It was as if someone had taken the moose tracks ice cream out of my bowl and handed me a bowl of vanilla. Now…vanilla isn’t bad. But it’s not moose tracks. Moose tracks was what authors usually intended to create. And the record label makes a vanilla version for the radio.
Becky Infiltrates Worship
It was around this time that CCR began to catch on to something. Christians may never agree on their favorite Christian bands, but they’ll all agree on their favorite worship songs. Have you looked at the top CCLI songs lately? It’s probably safe (for the whole family) to say that whatever church you’ve attended has worshipped with one of these songs in the past 90 days.
I love almost several of those songs. And churches sing these lyrics to our God every week. It’s an awesome thing. I also love how churches across all generational and denominational backgrounds are singing a lot of the same songs. Pretty cool. But what many people don’t realize is how much Becky has infiltrated the local churches worship music. I’d like to tell you a few personal stories.
There are those with a good-paying job to make sure Becky remains the target of new worship music. I can tell you this because I know them personally.
If you think that the new popular worship songs happened by accident, you’d be fooling yourself. The worship songs that make it to the masses in the church are hand selected. Let me share how the process works for all three categories.
Major artists like Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and other solo worship leaders are seasoned, and fine-tuned in writing for Becky. Go back fifteen to twenty years though, and hear what they were creating then. Go back to the mid-lat nineties even. You’ll notice some big differences, but here’s what you’ll notice the most: the melodies of the songs today have gotten really, really easy. They’ve become as plain as possible, with little syncopation and narrow ranges.
Major churches like Hillsong and Bethel are a bit different. They mostly write songs for their churches and as resources for their ministry. I think they are probably the most authentic in their music, and often times most artistic. Not always. But often. Radio doesn’t seem to be their drive, but as stated earlier, ‘radio edits’ are happening more and more often.
Independant artists can go through services like SongDiscovery. Here a panel of regular worship leaders vote on the 20 or so chosen songs by one man or woman or perhaps a few people (I use to know the one guy who did this personally but he moved on a few years ago and I’m not sure how it works now). Major artists are also in this mix, but everything is unlabeled so you can focus on the song. Because I use to be on this panel, I get to hear these songs every month. Most of them are overly simple, and at the time sounded like U2 meets Mumford and Sons. Nothing wrong with it, just how it was during that season.
Let’s Get Personal
I’ve sat down with publishers before. In fact, I’ve been in front of major publishers five times: 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2013, and 2017.
In 2008, I was told my song was awesome, but that it needed one direction. I learned the difference between writing vertical and horizontal (to God / You God). Great learning experience.
In 2011, it was a panel of 2 publishers and a professional songwriter. I was taken back because one publisher said my verse was too difficult to understand. Here’s the lyric from my song “You Love Me.”
Standing on the mountain
Looking towards the valley
It’s so easy to feel so safe
But when I’m in the valley
Looking towards the mountain
It seems so far away
The metaphor was too much for the church, according to a publisher.
In 2012, I sat with two members of my band and had two of my songs critiqued by a very well known publisher in CCM. The song ‘Bring Glory to Your Name’ was the first one. I wrote that song to go somewhere. Verse 1 is a metaphor inspired by Matthew 10. If God cares for the smallest flower, he cares for us. Verse 2 brings that message home to mankind.
Her response to this was shocking. She said that the church doesn’t have the attention span for a song to ‘go somewhere’ metaphorically. She said that I should move verse 2 to verse 1 and write a new second verse that was in the same place. Read that again. That is what a major publisher believes about the church.
In June of 2013, I sat down with a publisher from a well known CCM company. I was pitching one a new song called ‘The Fourfold Hallelujah.’ She absolutely loved the song, which was cool. The song also works in lyrics from an old hymn, which she said I did very well considering that it was not always well done. The meeting was going great.
Then she suggested I change the flow of the chorus from: ‘We’re singing out hallelujah / We’re singing out to the lamb’ to ‘We sing hallelujah / We sing to the lamb.’ and so on. I asked her why she would suggest that, and her response was exactly what I expected. ‘The church has a hard time singing fast lyrics.’
Then in 2017, a major Christian artist connected with me to record one of my songs. It was finally a break. Only the song I wrote 100% of disappeared when I was brought into a co-writing session with him to make a ‘radio edit’ of it. The new song barely resembled the original, and he and I split the royalty 50/50%, and while I still get a check every quarter for that song, the entire process was really surreal and weird. All of the artistic lyrics were gone. Check this:
“When I call upon your name, I will wait, I will wait
For your promises are true and you’re powerful to save
Like a race that’s run up hill
When the rise is all I feel
I will wait for You”
BECAME
“Lord I need you right now, so I pray, so I pray
Cause you’ve always been there and you are mighty to save
Cause right now I’m a little tired
But my heart’s set on fire
When I trust in You”
My original intent was that waiting on the Lord sometimes feels like running up a hill and feeling the burn in your legs, the exhaustion in your body. But it was too much for the church. It was too hard for Becky to understand that.
The Church Has Been Put into a Box
Friends, the music industry has placed the church into a box. They believe that the church is incapable of exuberayting any artistry. They believe the church is incapable of singing syncopation, big ranges, and anything faster than an quarter note at 85bpm.
How does this give God the best of a content creator? How does this give God the best as a worshipper? Did God not create artistry? Did God not want worship to be a sacrifice of praise?
Just as the radio industry force content creators to create for Becky, the worship industry believes Becky is the only attendee on Sunday. Maybe they’re right. Statistics are actually on their side, with male attendance on a steady decline. But I wonder how much of the churches situation is a catch-22. The presence of Becky is driving the content, and the content is keeping Becky as their main demographic.
The church must be set free as it once was. Look at the music of the Renaissance. Look at the music of the hymn writers. ‘Redeemed’ is way more complex than most worship songs today. Even look at the music of Keith Green, Rich Mullins, and several other writers from the 70’s-90’s. They sure didn’t write in the box. Even Delirious!, Sonic Flood, and other worship artists of the 90’s wrote complex songs. Try that jump in ‘Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?’ That song would never make it through the publishers today… too hard to sing, too much of a metaphor to understand.
It hasn’t always been like this, and it won’t always be like this. I believe the current business has peaked, and we’re on the down-slope. Remember, I believe a wave is coming.
Don’t believe me? I did some research regarding ‘Forever Reign’ mentioned in the first part of this post. Between last.fm, YouTube, and sites I could find tracking internet plays of the two versions of this song (live VS. radio edit), I found that the live version had 60x more plays. That is HUGE. That shows us that the church (ie, Christians) prefer the artistic live version over the Becky radio version!
There was one who beat the system a few years ago when the industry was peaking. We’ll case-study that song and see how it beat the system.
In 2005, an independent artists released a record with a really powerful song on it. Three years later, that song was discovered and broke into the mainstream like a cannonball. The song was covered by David Crowder, Jesus Culture, Todd Agnew, Hillsong, Kari Jobe, and several others as well.
It has absolutely nothing the industry looks for.
- It’s ‘hard to sing’ syllabically.
- It has complex metaphors.
- It has large vocal jumps.
Everything about this song says that CCR and even mainstream worship would reject it. Yet ‘How He Loves’ by John Mark McMillan is one of the most popular songs in churches around the world even still today in 2020. How did this happen?
We’ve seen how the music industry has boxed in the church. I even told you personal stories of publishers stating that the church can’t understand metaphors, can’t sing complex rhythms and syncopation, and can’t modulate their voice 4 notes above middle C. (Ok, no one said that, but you get the point). How did ‘How He Loves’ break through all of the industry that fights the very things it is?
Because the church itself is hungry for deep lyrics, powerful metaphors, and beautiful artistry.
For years, I ate a bunch of junk. I thought of food in two groups: salty and sweet. If I had too much sweet, then I went salty. If I had too much salty, I went sweet. I was out of shape, overweight, felt bad about myself, and was concerned that I would someday have medical problems due to my eating habits. But two years ago, I decided to make changes. I changed the way I eat. I changed the way I move. Now I’m in better shape, at a healthy weight, and eat much better.
Nowadays I no longer think in terms of salty and sweet. I think about fiber, protein, complex carbs, etc. I can tell if I’m lacking in something my body needs to feel healthy. And nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.
The music industry has been feeding the church a bunch of salty and sweet snacks. Sweet songs are ‘positive, encouraging, and safe for the whole family.’ Salty songs tug at the heart strings, and make us feel emotional. But our spirits crave music that is nutritious. We crave worship at feeds us and frees us. It’s natural!
How did ‘How He Loves’ make it? It fed the church! We were hungry and sank our teeth into the lyrics that said ‘heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss’ (although Becky was uncomfortable with that line and David Crowder changed it to ‘unforeseen kiss’). We want the God that ‘loves like a hurricane and I am the tree, bending beneath the waves of His wind and mercy.’ Reread that line. Such a picture. Such a metaphor. And such a powerful song.
John Mark McMillan beat the system because he wrote a song from a spiritual place (read the song story here), shared the truth of Scripture, painting beautiful word pictures, and fed the church. Now weekly, thousands sing to our Savior and over our communities by declaring ‘He loves us, oh, how He loves us!’ I think this song proves that the church is hungry for something more than Becky has offered.
Just like the Psalms are written from great places of joy, sorrow, regret, darkness, thankfulness, passion, etc…. worship songs written from these places will always beat the system.
So let’s start wrapping this up.
Without going into a bunch of nerdy history that you can read here, I believe the Renaissance can best be described as an awakening to culturalism and humanity. There was a great awakening that people were capable of creating content, something that was greatly oppressed for centuries before. The Renaissance sparked advancements in art, science, creativity, and an overall awareness on what it means to be a human. After all, we’re all created in God’s image and have a part of God’s imagination in us, and His imagination is vast. Have you seen the fish living deep in the ocean?
And I’d imagine your imagination is deep and vast too. What did you like to pretend when you were a child? My brother Daniel use to pretend he was a police officer, and he had two partners: Mike and Jack. Together the three of them solved several crimes and fought the bad guys for years, and even today he continues solving crimes and fighting bad guys as an Officer of the VBPD. Growing up at the beach, I imagined being a marine biologist. That didn’t work out.
Our ability to imagine and create connects us to Christ the Creator. To make something out of nothing is really a spiritual thing. The sculptor who takes a single piece of stone and makes an image has accomplished something amazing. As does the painter who looks contemplative at a piece of canvas cloth stapled over a wooden frame and hours later has a creation of colors. As does the poet who weaves his words in rhythm and meter, or the songwriter/lyricist who is nothing more than a poet with melodic passions. And so on and so on across the academy of the creatives.
The Church Needs a Renaissance
I hope at this point that if you’re still reading, I have laid out the framework of how the CCR and CCM industry have placed the church (and consequently the churches worship) into a box. It’s a prison, and most Christian’s don’t even know they’re in it. They’ve become contempt with subpar artistry, thrown together for the sake of selling a product to the church.
Michelangelo didn’t create his famous David statue because he thought he could sell it to the church. While he was commissioned by the church to create, his art inspired people religiously, politically, and socially. His motives weren’t capitalistic, but creative. It took imagination, planning, skill, talent, hard work, and a lot of time to get this finished product. Because of this, the statue is timeless. Good art is timeless. Read that again.
The church needs good art. We’ve got to stop being ok with the junk stuff. It’s not good for us. It doesn’t edify the Creator, or give honor to the imagination He has given us. It also doesn’t honor Paul’s teaching in Colossians 3:23–24:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Good art takes time. It takes an outpouring of oneself. It takes devotion, hard work, and even pain at times. Just look at how much God has suffered due to His creation! Read the Prophets and see how much God’s heart was continually broken by the very people He called His own.
The church needs a renaissance. We need to come out of the Dark Ages of creativity and laziness, and not be motivated by Becky, which is ultimately a motivation of financial gain. Here’s my prayer:
- That the imagination of the church will run wild!
- That creative people create for the Lord with all their hearts, and bless the church through it.
- That the CCR, CCM, and Worship ‘industry’ include us with Becky, because we’re listening too.
- And last, that we remember that true discipleship, evangelism, and the overall Christian life happens with the Word of God, His Church, and relationships. Everything else is entertainment.
I hope this series has been challenging, convicting, and eye opening for you.
