(Warning: you may be offended by the time you finish.)

A few days ago my wife and I were listening to the radio in Kaua’i. There weren’t that many good stations available, so for this drive we happened to settle on the country music station. I didn’t know the song playing at all, and yet there was something completely familiar about it. The tone of the singer’s voice, the movement of the melody, the song format; even the intense bridge that led to the soft chorus which gave way to the intense chorus with harmony and full (synthesized) instrumentation…

Does this sound familiar to you? If not, just turn on Christian radio, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Since I no longer listen to the radio for music, this “coincidence” may be old to you, but it’s completely new to me. I mean, it makes logistical sense; both CCM and country music share Nashville as a home base, so it figures that there might be some similarity in the studio musicians and musical styles. But instrumentation? Song format? Vocal tambor?

Initially, it seems as if this might not be the worst thing. I love the way country music tells stories, so the idea of CCM having it as a doppleganger gives me a sliver of hope. But my hope quickly turns into a deeper despair as I realize that storytelling is exactly the thing that CCM has decided to abandon. For the most part, the CCM I hear on the radio isn’t concerned at all with telling a story, but with packing in as many rhymes and therapeutic phrases about Jesus as possible. Is not the entirety of faith in Jesus based on the truest story ever to have been written and told and lived?

And let’s talk about that one musical form for a second. Might it have occurred to “the industry” that by using one very narrow musical form to define an entire genre, you might be complicit in communicating an essentially mono-cultural and mono-ethnic gospel? I know, this is not the intention. But that’s what my faith mentors call sin of omission: when you choose to not do something.

(Oh, and In case you’re asking, the answer is yes: Gospel music also needs to be held accountable for its own set of issues.  They are different than those above, but equally as heavy and dangerous. Perhaps that’s my next post.)

And so what are we left with?
Hollow psuedo-art, lacking story and presenting a narrow image of God.

This is why I am so nervous as a songwriter. I don’t take my call lightly. I consider it to be a deep privilege and a deep burden to attempt to create art that adequately reflects the complex and beautiful story of God and story of creation. I know full well my ability to fall short, to become lazy, to get fat on compliments and ego, to sell out for the sake of being discernable and categorizable. I struggle with it all the time. Sometimes, the fear paralyzes me and I can’t write at all.

But as I consider the great joy that also comes in partnering with God to create things that he uses to communicate to humanity his commitment and generosity, I cannot help but to ask for more courage and to keep going. I want to be found faithful to my God and the vocation I believe he has given me. I want to be true to the life that He has given me to live. And as I stare at all the ways I might fail, I am more captivated by all the ways that I can be a part of doing some really cool things.

And, once again, it all comes back to this:

He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
And put their trust in YHWH.
(psalm40.3)