Who's the Leader of This Band?

The two men could not look or be more different. Steve Taylor is the iconoclastic, long-haired, alternative rock musician whose repertoire includes tunes with curious names such as "I Want to Be a Clone," "This Disco (Used to Be a Cute Cathedral)," and the often misunderstood "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good." In contrast, Michael Card, bald and anything but flamboyant, writes music featuring acoustic guitars and rich string arrangements, with album titles such as Known by the Scars, Scandalon, joy in the Journey, and Sleep Sound in Jesus. They are not a duo one would expect to agree about much. Yet each has felt like an outsider in the Christian music industry and has concerns over the course Christian music has taken.

What are your impressions of the current state of the Christian music industry?

Card: The contemporary Christian music scene used to be a song-driven industry. People would come to concerts and they would say, "Why, I heard all those songs, but I didn't know it was you that sang them." Songs tended to have a longer life in those days, and these songs were more in the possession of the church. We sang Keith Green songs and John Talbot songs in church, for example.

Now, the industry is celebrity-driven. The song is almost irrelevant. The focus is on the person, and songs have become disposable. They're on the charts and play on the radio for maybe two or three weeks, but then they disappear. And now, for the most part, these songs never become a part of the church's worship. In fact, a whole other industry has grown up, like the "Praise and Worship" tapes from Integrity Music, because a need was dire. And so in many ways, contemporary Christian music is becoming irrelevant. If it's irrelevant to the church, it's irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.

When I look at Christian music as an industry, I'm always discouraged by it. The direction and value system are getting worse faster than any of us can imagine. There's no community in Christian music, but instead there's competition, commercialism, and individualism.

That's the bad news. The good news is, thankfully, there are still many people in Christian music who love the Lord and are driven by a call.

Taylor: The Christian music industry exists as it does because, initially, the pop world did not want us to exist. This industry did not spring out of grand design, it sprang out of necessity. There was not another option. One of the reasons I am in this industry is because many years ago the pop companies would not tolerate a distinctly Christian viewpoint. Ironically, those same companies have now come around to buy up all the Christian record labels. But that's happened because there's money to be made in Christian music. Which goes to show, ultimately, that money drives all these things.

Card: Another reason Christian music is in trouble today is because, in die early days, the church didn't want us either. As a result, we started with little root in the church, and now we're bearing the fruit of that separation. Ironically, everyone wants us now. The church wants us to come and do big extravaganzas, and the secular music companies want us because of the money to be made.

Radio has also had an impact on the decline of the value system. Before, to find the Christian station, you'd scan the dial, find the worst music, and that would be the Christian station. So the industry said, "We're going to make our records just as good. Our production, our DJs, they're going to be just as professional." And it happened. Now, when you scan the dial, you can't find the Christian radio station. The lyrics of a good number of the songs don't betray anything specifically Christian—they may have some moral message, but not a lot of the big songs are identifiably Christian.

Taylor: At the same time, if I were heading up a record company, I'd be asking myself, "Wasn't the point to get the music out to as many people as possible? Didn't we want to get distribution to the point where someone could walk into a record store and buy Christian music?" We have met those goals. So maybe there is both good and bad in all this.

Card: Yes, but did anyone ask the question early on, "What happens to the message when we start getting the music to as many people as possible?" There is an essential part of the gospel that's not ever going to sell. The gospel is good news, but it is also bad news: "You are a sinner, and you are hopeless." How is a multimillion-dollar record company going to take that? That's a part of the message, too, and if that's taken out—and it frequently is in Christian music—it ceases to be the gospel.

Both of you have taken hiatuses from the Christian music scene. Steve, what was the reason for your absence, and why have you returned?

Taylor: When I first started doing music, I signed with a Christian label. People started reacting to my more controversial songs, and a few years into it, the criticism started to wear on me. I became frustrated and retired from Christian music.

Then I had a very enlightening experience. Several Christian friends and I formed an alternative rock band, Chagall Guevara, and signed with a pop label, MCA. We flew out to L.A. to meet people at MCA and were so hungry before the meeting that we ordered a pizza. One of the MCA people heard what we'd done and said, "Well, I hope it wasn't a Domino's pizza." She thought there was some Christian influence in the company and added, "People there blow up abortion clinics, and they pay people to blow up abortion clinics."

I replied, "I know about this topic, and nobody at Domino's is paying people to blow up abortion clinics."

She didn't buy this, and so we argued until our next meeting. After the meeting was over, another MCA person asked, "Hold on, what if you're doing an interview with Spin magazine and they ask you, 'What do you think about abortion?' what are you going to tell them?"

I said, "I'll probably tell them what I believe. Don't you think that's a good idea?" The unspoken answer was no. I had been looking for freedom in the alternative pop sector, but all I found was a different set of rules, a whole political agenda to follow.

Now, having returned to the Christian music industry, I realize that what's critically important about Christian music is its distinctiveness. If it loses the Cross, if it loses Christ, if it becomes just "positive pop," then I'd rather be cut off from it. I just can't imagine anything more insipid.

Michael, what did you learn during your recent time away from the Christian music industry?

Card: As a result of the six months or so that I was out, I became amazed at my new perspective, one I have never gotten in 15 years within the industry. For one thing, I've been surprised by how small the industry really is. It thinks it's big. But Christian music is so small. Music in general is just such a small part of the vast ministries that exist in the body of Christ, yet it receives an inordinate amount of attention in American Christianity. It's not that way anyplace else in the world. And because the people involved in it seem to think it's so big, so overarchingly significant, they tend to develop an exaggerated view of their own importance. I know I did.

Taylor: We often blame the record companies, but the artist actually drives a lot of what we see. I've been busy for the past couple of weeks and have noticed how easy it is to start thinking that the people around me exist to serve me, and they've got no other life. We can develop this huge sense of self-importance.

Card: You're right. The artist must begin to take more responsibility for the faults of the industry. I have been guilty of saying the industry has a bad value system and have not stopped to say, "I need to be accountable as an individual artist." The industry can become a faceless, nameless scapegoat we pin all the blame on.

Taylor: Yes, and at the same time we can't forget that the gatekeepers at the labels are the ones who make the hard decisions; they have a responsibility to make the tough calls. Recently, I was listening to a panel discussion of record-company executives at a pop-music industry meeting, and as they spoke, the one thing I wanted to ask them was, "Is there anything you wouldn't do for money?"

I want to have the assurance that those in charge of the record companies are going to take responsibility, too. If they have a record plant that is polluting the rivers and causing children downstream to get cancer, or if they're polluting people's minds with the music they choose to release, I hope some of these leaders will say, 'Tin in charge, and I'm just not going to put this record out." What bothers me about the pop labels right now is that I don't believe there is anything they wouldn't do for money. And I don't want to see that mentality guiding the Christian music industry.

Card: There's a big accountability gap in the industry as a result of a lack of connectedness to the church. Who is a Christian artist going to be accountable to? The executives at the record company? The radio station? No. We have to be committed to a community of people who will hold us accountable in every area of our lives—on the road, in our songs, in our marriages. The good news is that many artists, including myself, have woken up to this fact.

Sidebar:

Bob Hartman, founding member of Petra:
We were told by a certain secular company that they could do a lot with us if were "less gospel and more inspirational," as they put it. What that translates to is, "Take the Jesus out. We can deal with God. We can deal with good times and good feelings and family. But take the Jesus out." That's what scares me, and that's what makes me sick. No stinkin' way! Jesus stays in, because that is everything. If I can't talk about Jesus, if I can't express what Christ has done for me, there's no sense doing this. There is no reason.

Kathy Troccoli, singer:
The world is always watching. I have encountered people who know just a tiny bit about Christian music, and their attitude is, "Well, they're all money-makers down there in Nashville." And I think, is that true? No. But it is a reminder.

CeCe Winans, singer:
Christian music, whether it's black gospel or CCM, should have one name. The fact that barriers still exist in Christian music breaks my heart, because I know it is a trick of the enemy. Until we see the division as it is—Satan's work—the problem is not going to be resolved. We, of all people, should know that color doesn't make a difference; we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. The gap has closed some, but it needs to close totally. We have to work at it. I grew up in a black church, so it takes some effort for me to learn about the white church. But we will find that we have more in common than we realize. What would happen if every bookstore owner, every radio personality, every concert producer, every artist, and every pastor made an effort to bridge these differences? What would happen if there were more concert tours that brought us together across racial lines? It would show the world what God is all about—that love is possible, no matter how different we may be.

Bill Hearn, president, Sparrow Communications Group, EMI
Five years ago you would have been hard-pressed to find a Christian album, cassette, or compact disk in Wal-Mart, K-mart, Target, or anywhere. And I know it sounds trite, but that's what it's all about to me. As long as the music is still quality and carries a message of integrity that is consistent with Scripture, then I want to put it everywhere I can—even internationally. A lot of this relates to our EMI ownership. They have provided us with a system that I am more than happy to use.

James Long, former editor of Campus Life magazine, is a columnist for CCM magazine.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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