The recent school newspaper had a headlining article that focused on a local band trying to make it in the big, scary music industry. On the surface, it looks like yet another tired story of the small band’s struggle to get signed and all the while just “be who they are.”
Unfortunately, most of us from freshman year remember these dorm mates of ours as less than savory. Rather than the beaming models of God-seeking musicians they portray on stage and in the common music that fills their album, we remember the rude guys from first floor whose abilities to exclude rivaled any high school clique. That is, of course, unless their newest release would be coming out soon– then, suddenly they were your 5 new best friends.
But I try not to think the worst of people. I’d heard what the other guys said about them, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I was standing the dorm lobby one day when one of the guitarists and the lead-singer came in, the guitarist of course with the tool of his trade in-hand and strumming away some familiar little riff.
“Oh, I’ve heard that before… who is that?” I thought a cheerful little ice-breaker might engage a conversation in which I’d discover that perhaps the rumors of their cool centers was not so true after all.
Awkward pause. The two glance at each other, the “inside joke” smile gently painting itself across their faces.
“Heh…” The guitarist looked back at me, apparently still considering if it was reasonable to waste his breath on a reply. “It’s Jars of Clay.” And with all the snorting and eye-rolling, you’d think I was their father asking them to put the Nintendo down until their chores were all through.
That pretty much sealed it for me. I never had anything against their music; they were good at what they did. But as another friend of mine put it, “what they did” was more or less just milk and toast. There’s plenty of it out there, and not only does it defy any attempt at variation, it seems they actually strive to sound just like everything else that’s out there. They’ll probably do well working the youth group retreat circuit, but I’d be surprised to see it get past that. They do have somewhat of a fan-base, but nothing yet that would justify the self-assigned rock star status that was quickly adopted after the band’s formation.
Update: I didn’t want to add this until I’d checked with a buddy of mine for accuracy. He was sitting in the dorm’s throne room one day (read: taking care of business) when the lead singer walked in and announced to another band member, “Dude I’ve been looking through the fucking Bible all day long, and I can’t find a god damn name for our band.”
Anyway, read the article. I urge you. Because even aside from the personal aspect of not really appreciating this smudge in the Christian entertainment bubble, I also think it’s entirely the wrong approach. A major flaw for the “Christian” music industry is that these artists are seen as somehow unfaltering, and so the artists in turn try to portray this image of perfection that simply cannot be attained. And when they fall, they fall hard, with a display of damage control that is matched only in politics.
I think Christian music is an illusion. People can be Christians, but music is music. It has no soul, it cannot be saved. Only the people behind it can. So be who you are, and make the music that flows from you. But this pre-censoring music at the songwriting level to simply alleviate that responsibility from parents and ship more records… it’s just not what we were called to do. And all it’s done is created a generation of dull, sheltered Christians and given Christians the reputation of being producers and lovers of bad art.
Well said my friend, well said. I especially like the last paragraph.
Wow.
As writer of said article, I guess my first reaction is, thanks for reading.
I guess I’ve just had a much more positive experience with the band. I’m not doubting your opinion of them or anything, but I know that I’ve always had good talks with Jesse and Mark. I can’t say I know Mike, Jon, Seth or even Sam all that well personally.
One of the reasons we went with the article was that I had heard they were included on a nationwide release of a Christian album that had allegedly sold 200,000 copies in its last incarnation.
I’m not a music business major and don’t play one on TV (although I do take Survey with Wacholtz every MWF), but I thought this was a significant break for a young band from a school of our size.
I guess in the end I’ll grant you that the story reads more or less like a press release. But you’re correct in saying I didn’t approach it from a “negative” angle.
However, it’s tough to announce to the campus, “Hey, I’m going to do an article on this band. Does anyone have any dirt on them I should know about.”
It more or less goes without saying that any article on a Belmont band in a Belmont student newspaper will be for publicity. As a matter of fact, I was considering pitching doing that on a more regular basis, seeing as how one of our students could write the next “Yesterday” and I don’t think half of campus would know about it.
In any case, please contact me if you wish to talk further about this or any other Vision article.
I know that you’re one of our most thoughtful and careful readers, and I’ve actually been meaning to ask your input on the paper.
Sorry for the length of the comment, but thanks again for reading. It’s good to know somebody is.