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Another Anti-CCM Rant

© Paul Landkamer

OK, it was back in April when I started this article, so the writing which inspired it came from a by-now older newsletter.

While reading the opening page of Christianity Today's music newsletter, the words, "My Rant Against CCM" as the title for an article jumped right into my face. The Against CCM part instantly grated on my pro-Christian music sensibilities. Since this attack occurred in Christianity Today, I had to see if it was well-grounded, or just another rock-basher. Surprisingly, the attack was justified.

...Christians set up a parallel universe to the "real-world"... CCM concerts and radio stations regularly advertise themselves as "safe" places, by which they mean only "nice" is spoken here, we will not offend you... ...the one thing CCM assiduously avoids is telling the full truth about life, the human condition, our fallen-ness. ...When you aim for "safe", you arrive at a counterfeit gospel... ...there are actually people who have the gall to make a lot of money off this scam... Busy working, unable to spend adequate time with their kids, parents want a safe place for their young ones, and CCM, with its wholesome artists, simulated rock concerts and bubbly, chirpy syrupy local DJs playing anesthetizingly harmless music is just the place...

What a slam! But the guy is right. Of course, he's looking, for the most part, at what I've been calling SCCM --that sticky-sweet stereotype of adult contemporary (AC) music. I won't go into my opinion on the "AC" label here. I've done that in past articles.

Dick Staub, the author of that "Rant", calls it "cocooning" when Christians try to isolate themselves. You can't win people to Jesus when you don't encounter the lost. And you really can't communicate with the lost until you get to know them. Jesus is the Most-Excellent Example of this. Staub mentions this, as well as Jesus' command to His disciples to "go into the world."

When parents try to put their kids into the "safe" AC/CCM world, they often fail to realize AC is targeted at young women, teen girls and pre-teen boys. In other words, most CCM is targeted at Mom and at kids young enough to still like what Mom likes, simply because that's what Mom likes. It doesn't take long for kids, boys in particular, to get bored with "girly-music." They soon associate that sweetsy sound with all CCM, like I did.

Dick Staub's claim that CCM paints a picture of a counterfeit world is summed up nicely by Hokus Pick's tongue-in-cheek "I'm So Happy": I'm so happy, feeling snappy; My life is rosy, I'm feeling comfy-cozy. Some of my favorite artists pull no punches with it comes to fallen-ness. Larry Norman (who Staub mentions favorably), Steve Taylor and Ashley Cleveland are among those artists, but they aren't played on most stations. They sing of a very real world.

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