Michael Sweet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also: Michael Sweet (programmer)
| Michael Harrison Sweet | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael Harrison Sweet |
| Born | July 4, 1963 |
| Origin | U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Christian metal Hard rock Glam metal Heavy metal |
| Occupation(s) | singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer |
| Instrument(s) | vocals, guitar, piano |
| Years active | 1984-present |
| Associated acts | Stryper, Boston |
| Website | www.michaelsweet.com |
Michael Harrison Sweet (born 4 July 1963) is a Christian rock singer from the United States. Sweet is best known as co-founder, writer and frontman of the Christian metal band Stryper. His brother, Robert Sweet is the drummer of the band.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Youth
He began his musical career at age 5 playing guitar and at age 12 he began to sing. Sweet also learned to play the drums, piano and bass guitar.
[edit] Stryper
In the early 80s, Sweet and his brother started a band called Roxx Regime and started playing in small venues. This band would later become Stryper. The band challenged the stereotype of heavy metal being satanic and took Christian rock fully into mainstream.
With the band, Sweet recorded five successful studio albums that reached gold and platinum status and won him many awards, plus worldwide fame. However, in the early 90s, rock music was facing serious shifts in itself and the band fell into a steep decline.
[edit] Solo
After 11 years as frontman of Stryper, Sweet decided to leave the band in 1992 in order to pursue a solo career. He first released a demo album titled Unstryped which featured several songs that were allegedly intended to be songs for the band. Sweet later featured some of this in his first full-length album.
His self-titled debut album was released in 1994 and sold over 250,000 copies. He followed it with a slightly softer album titled Real in 1996 which garnered him a nomination for a Dove Award. However, he left the Benson label with which he had released those two albums.
A single from this self-titled album, "Ain't No Safe Way" was released. The song is about abstaining from sex outside marriage, and the video was rejected by MTV. Much controversy arose from this, and rock critic J. D. Considine said on the short-lived VH-1 program "4 on the Floor" that "He could have been singing, 'Hi, I'm the devil, let's go have sex' and MTV would not have played it because it's a terrible song, it's a terrible video, and it isn't the kind of music MTV is playing right now." Some think that low quality of much of what has passed for "entertainment" on MTV over the years show that this denial does not hold water.
During this time, Sweet and his wife moved to Massachusetts, where Sweet worked as a park ranger in his father-in-law's campground called Maple Park
In 1998, he released an independent demo album titled Truth which received critical acclaim. He was signed to Restless Records and re-released the album in 2000 with a new song-list and new artwork (see Truth).
On August 19, 2007, Sweet acted as Boston's lead singer in Come Together: A tribute to Brad Delp at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, MA. He will be joining Boston during the bands Summer 2008 tour.
[edit] Stryper Reunited
In 1999, Sweet reunited with former Stryper friends, Oz Fox and Tim Gaines during a concert in Puerto Rico. The concert featured Fox and Gaines' band at the moment, Sindizzy, while Sweet was invited as a solo artist. The three of them got together for a brief set of four songs that showed that they still had the same intensity as before. The next year, the first Stryper Expo was held in New Jersey and the whole line-up was reunited again.
The band has continued to work together releasing a new album titled Reborn in 2005. However, Michael has continued with his solo career as well. In August 1, 2006, he released a solo album titled Him which features traditional hymns re-written and arranged by Sweet, and in 2008 he released another album titled Touched.
[edit] Solo Discography
- Unstryped (EP 1992)
- Michael Sweet (July 26, 1994)
- Real (October, 1995)
- Truth (demo 1998)
- Truth (official release 2000)
- Him (2006)
- Touched (2007)
[edit] Guest Appearances
- Mu5tard - Electra Glide
- Longday - An Explanation For My Behavior
- Mars Hill - Sink or Swim (2003)
- Michael W. Smith
- Guardian
- DC Talk
- Mass
[edit] Projects Produced
- Mu5tard - Electra Glide
- Longday - An Explanation For My Behavior
- Mars Hill - Sink or Swim (2003)
- Savannah - Forever's Come and Gone"
[edit] References
- Christensen, Brett (March/April 1997). "STRYPER: Can't Stop The Rock?". HM Magazine (64). ISSN 1066-6923.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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