I used to be a big fan of the Christian music genre. Lately, not so much. It's not because anything about the genre itself has changed, to my knowledge. It's because I've developed a music pet peeve that is pretty rampant in Christian music: songs that outlast their content.
Let's say an artist writes a lovely, artistic song with enough well-written lyrics and good instrumental solos to provide the listener with about 3 minutes of new material. It is NOT okay to put 3 minutes of said song on the CD, along with 2 minutes of blatant filler material and call it a 5 minute song.
They add filler in a multitude of ways, including having the guitarist finger pick the melody of the song repeatedly with no accompaniment, having the lead singer re-sing random fragments of the song, inside jokes amongst the band, and even plain silence in some cases. However, the most annoying of these filler items has to be when the guitarist plays a single chord while the singer screams "I Love Jesus!", or something of the like over and over again. It makes me want to write the band a letter:
Dear (insert Christian band name),
It is pretty safe to say that everyone listening to your CHRISTIAN ROCK album is doing so because they LOVE JESUS (unless their friend is forcing them to, but that's neither here nor there...). You've also most likely been singing about how much you love Jesus for three minutes now. It's kind of moot to tack "I love Jesus!" on at the end even once, let alone over and over again to the tune of a single guitar chord. Please stop.
Thank you,
Brittney
If any Christian artists are reading this, please take note.
Even so, I concede that filler material does have it's place. It is completely appropriate for a concert setting, as it allows the band time to take a drink, cough, change the settings on their amplifiers, or whatever else they need to do to prepare for the next song, and it keeps the mood of concert goers up. Where it doesn't belong is on the radio in my car, while I'm sitting alone, wanting to listen to music. Instead, I'm stuck listening to whatever self-indulgent fluff you decided to tack onto the end of your song to make it longer. It doesn't make me admire your devotion or want to buy your albums, it's just annoying. So please, by all means, record filler tracks if you want to, but when the time comes to release the album, leave them on the cutting room floor where they belong!
You know, I probably could have written this exact post if I had happened to think of it first. :-P I totally agree with it.
ReplyDeleteThe worst song I can think of as an example of that repetitive thing your letter of protest addresses is 'Days Of Elijah' by Twila Paris. I still can't stand that song. (Look it up at your own risk.) By the way, you should totally send that letter to a few artists (*cough* Phillips, Craig and Dean *cough*).
I also hate that every Christian artist out there now puts out albums containing twelve tracks almost exactly the same, they just change the name and a few of the lyrics a little bit (the female artists are particularly bad for this).
You know, I should probably just save the long comment and publish this as a rant on my own blog... :-)
Anyway, good post.
I know, right?!? Sometimes you can't even tell what you're listening to until they start singing! XD
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm glad you liked it...and I also look foreward to reading your rant on repetitive songs if you ever choose to publish it.
I know! It drives me crazy! It's not even a good bit that they always repeat -- it's the same three piano or guitar notes over and over and over and over. Where are the oddball instruments? One of my favourite songs right now is this decently intense rock song (by PFR -- same guys who did 'Pour Me Out') with a banjo intro. A BANJO. (That or a ukulele, I'm not sure.) Either way, it's so epic. (I might feature it in Music Day soon.)
ReplyDeleteI will definitely have to work on that though... I just hope the rant doesn't end up as repetitive as the music I'm griping about because I do tend to do that...