Why in the world am I still awake at 12:30am? Too much coffee?

I'm burning a CD from MP3s I downloaded at GrassRootsMusic. I've got a fairly eccentric taste in music right now. Basically, as long as it's not twangy country or rap, I'm just looking for something that sounds "different." And for me, "different" is best defined as "not sounding like everything else."

Most "Christian music" sounds like everything else. If something hits the mainstream, there's a Christian musician/band there to copy the style and make the attempt to sacred-ize it to a Christian audience. If something goes big in the Christian circles, even worse - everything for the next three months will sound the same. It's marketing, and I understand that. But we serve a creative God - can't we delight in stuff that's different and not as easy to tag?

I've got nothing against our local FM Christian radio station. Well, next to nothing. Okay, I really can't stand it most of the time. When they are playing something "good" (I know, it's my tastes, and they're not in it to cater to me alone), they usually interrupt a good flow with some non-commercial commercial about how they're the only station worth listening to because the other stations have things you wouldn't want to listen to - this station has "clean air." But it's not very creative air, since I can hear the same songs repeated every two hours, and all the tunes in between sound the same. What's up with that? It's like a political campaign - the only way to make myself look good is to demonize the competition. I hate that about us as Christians...

Anyway, they've got some good songs @ grassroots, lots of indie-influenced, guitar-driven pieces. I've downloaded quite a few of the free MP3s, and I'll use the CD in the morning on my drive to church. A song that can (a) get me into the mood to worship while (b) challenging me with its lyrics and (c) stretching me with its melodies and harmonies - that's what I listen for when I'm out to buy music these days. Yesterday, I bought FALLEN by Evanescence, and tonight I'm burning a worship CD, and I see no dichotomy here. The secular becomes sacred, and the sacred should become more sacred, in the hands of a living/loving/sculpting/relationship-desiring God.
- posted by Rick @ 00:36