Talk:Christian music

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Christian music article.
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This article is part of the "World music" set of articles nominated for Version 0.7. Discuss this nomination, or see the set nominations page for more details.

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[edit] Periods missing from the article

  • 33-800AD
  • 1100-1650AD

The section on the 20th century could be greatly expanded.

Also, more links refering to the Jewish roots of Christianity are required.

Just a few suggestions.

Mr. Jones 11:18, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

The Expert tag was applied to this article so that an expert on these time periods would contribute to the article. I have pointed this out because I did not gather the reason for the tag without questioning the contributor who tagged the article. Royalbroil Talk  Contrib 03:37, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Artists

Perhaps someone could compile a list of Christian artists. TheSun 11:44, 21 November 2005 (EST)

Also, there are links to the Relient K page and other artists, but not mewithoutYou, who has a Wikipedia article. seldomburn 4:24, 15 May, 2007 (CST)

[edit] Creation Music Festival

  • Information is needed about the West and East coast Creation Festival which is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest christian music event!
  • Creation Festival
A-Z Christian Music Directories Available at:

http://www.christiammusic.org/cmp/artist

http://christianmusic.about.com/cs/artistsandbands/a/aaatozartists.htm

[edit] External links

  • Link removed per Wikipedia's spam filter. Dan, the CowMan 08:18, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

This site will offer tons of information on the current Christian music scene. Artists interviews, album reviews, hot news from the CM scene.

I am failing to see a link to a general Christian lyrics website. Would anyone object from adding www.christian-lyrics.net to the list of external links? (Jdingman 23:12, 5 November 2005 (UTC))

Absolam made a minor edit but it appeared that all external links were deleted. I actually frequent the top artist list on those links. If you want to delete external links, delete the spam ones and the others that just don't belong. Don't mass delete all external links and then call your edit a minor one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kaullin (talk • contribs) 13:13, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

The biggest sites in Christian music are probably from the Chik Faith network {www.christian30.com and www.cmnscoop.com), and the Salem network's Christianity Today. 130.220.153.164 (talk) 12:57, 15 March 2008 (UTC)
Are there any statistics you can provided that can prove this claim? These sites don't seem very diverse in thier coverage of the topic. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 15:57, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Christian Music Lyrics

Are we changing the lyrics in today's society? These are times that are becoming truly more defined as we continue to change from a global perspective. Then why would we not understand that the words expressed through music have something more defined to say today than yesterday? Does the song, Amazing Grace stand for what was once said or still is said to be? The Jesus movement seems to be defining the words chosen in songs from yesterday. As we connect with the many artists in Christian Music, what is the truth behind the song? Will it bring that lost one to God? Will it open doors for that one that is seeking Christ and looking for further direction in their walk or yet, is God speaking to them and in turn as Christ spoke thousands of years ago reaching out to others through that one who chose to listen to music written by an Artist.

[[Controversy of music in worship]]

There is a steady debate on if musical instruments are “o.k.” in the worship. Some churches believe that praising God involves using their God given talents and skills to uplift his name. Other churches believe that bringing in musical instruments is an addition to the worship service, and is not acceptable in God’s sight. Even thought there are no scriptures in the Bible that say Thou shall not play instruments in the worship; there are no examples in the New Testament where anyone uses musical instruments to praise God. It is also generally understood that the Bible is not a collection of Thou shall and thou shall nots. There are examples of the Bible where singing (a cappella) is used to worship God. Matthew 26:30 and Mark 26:30 exemplifies that even Jesus only sung in the New Testament. Using the following scriptures as examples, some churches say that singing is the only acceptable music in worship.

1) And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mt. of Olives - Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26. 2) And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God - Acts 16:25. 3) For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name - Romans 15:9. 4) I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also - 1 Corinthians 14:15. 5) Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord - Eph 5:19. 6) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord - Col 3:16. 7) In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee - Heb 2:12. 8) Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms - James 5:13.

This debate will continue on because both sides have great points. Praising God in both of these manners will continue on because of their own understand of the scripture and faith in God.

[edit] More to Come

I have to say (from the POV of a practising liturgical musician = see [www.stfrancischoir.com] ) that this article needs some serious attention to improve its historicity and authority. It is currently too restricted to protestant/contemporary music to be really regarded as comprehensive or authoratative. I will keep working on it. Please help. Noel 09:15, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree. This article reads more like a write-up about CCM than about Christian music in general. Needs major re-working; mebbe even a thorough and complete re-write. I don't have the time for this right now. If anyone has the time, resources (online and books) please do delve in. Also, you may wanna take a look here to jumpstart the search. I've my eye on the page. (Working on the Christian music portal, so...) Cheerio! aJCfreak yAk 22:02, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
I hate to jump on the bandwagon here, but this article is poorly written and formatted. I honestly think it needs a full rewrite. It is full of POV and inaccurate information. We definately need a few SMEs to work this out. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 15:12, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

There are three articles Christian music, Contemporary Christian music and Contemporary Christian worship which all overlap. (And that's leaving aside Hymn, Hymn tune, etc.). I would suggest that all these need to be considered together, to decide what each is and is not.

Here's an initial attempt at a proposal:

1. Christian music should concentrate on giving an overview of the breadth of Christian music across the world and across the ages, but should seek to AVOID going into any depth in any of them. (Its section on CCM, for instance, should be pruned back.) Imagine it as a sort of "table of contents" with a little bit of description and brief narrative. The principal editors would have an appreciation of the breadth covered Ken and Kendrick, Matt Redman and Olivier Messiaen, Orthodox chant and Taize prayer response, etc.

2. Contemporary Christian music should be about just that: the thing commonly understood as "CCM" which is about recording artists producing material primarily for home listening. It should take care to AVOID straying too far into similar music styles in corporate worship (which is not the playing of such pre-recorded material for listening).

Feline Hymnic (talk) 23:01, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

3. Contemporary Christian worship should concentrate on modern liturgies (e.g. Iona, Taize, "emerging church", etc.) and should probably AVOID straying into detailed music discussions.

4. To sit along side the traditional-oriented Hymn family we might need a separate 'Worship song' to discuss pop/rock styles. Both these would have a focus on how they are used in corporate worship. (There already is a 'Worship song', but currently redirects into 'Contemporary Christian worship'; I suggest that these be separated out.)

How about that for a start?

[edit] Proposed WikiProjects merger?

I've noticed that there are several independent WikiProjects related to Christian music all with very small memberships (or at least only a few active participants). I would like to propose to the WikiProject the possible merger of these projects into one WikiProject (probably entitled Christian music WikiProject with task forces for each genre (Contemporary Christian music, Southern Gospel, urban contemporary gospel, etc.). The other option is to make Christian music as a whole a task force under the Christianity Wikiproject. Please share your thoughts on this issue on the discussion page on the Christian music portal. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 19:49, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] January 8, 2008 Revisions and edits

I took a stab at revising the article to give it a more neutral tone and to bring it more in line with the other Wikipedia music genre articles. I found it too difficult to manage the history section without dealing with the POV issues so I deleted it. The thought is that the specific Christian music genre and subgenre pages can handle the issue of history. I was not sure on the genre and subgenre groupings so let me explain my rational so no feelings are hurt...most of the items I listed as genre are actually how music is marketed in mainstream (except those I didn't know...I left those in to be moved at a later time). The subgenres are more of niche markets and types. Those that were left were place in the live performance section (basically because all genres may appear in these forms). If nothing else I hope these edits will help spark attention for this important article. BTW for those who want to join the discussion the new Christian music WikiProject is now active. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 15:48, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] External links: advertising?

The external links section of the current version at present is an invitation for every commercial venture to advertise themselves, which is clear contravention of Wikipedia principles. Indeed the "News and Information" and "Music reviews" subsections are already just that. Can we agree that all links should be informational, not advertising? I propose removing those subsections altogether in the next few days. (In its present guise, that would leave the (good) DMOZ project as the only entry.) Seem OK? Feline Hymnic (talk) 22:41, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

I attempted a while back and there were some concerns (see discussion above). The compromise has been to agressively patrol new additions for linkspam. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 22:58, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Adding External Link - Source One Television

May I sugget adding a link to Source One Television (www.SourceOneTV.com). Source One TV is a Christian music news program. Thank you.

--Pmatadeen (talk) 00:09, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Oppose - The link is not content-relevant. Per WP:NOT#LINK and WP:NOT#ADVERTISING I oppose. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 13:21, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hot Worship

An anon user added a link to www.hotworship.com. The claim is that this site is a directory of worship sites, live online worship, blogs, podcasts, etc. I'm not sure it meets the test for external links. Would love other opinions before it is readded. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 13:04, 10 April 2008 (UTC)