Christian Rock And Roll Essay

Throughout the discourse surrounding the genre of Christian rock, it is often relegated to critical ridicule and audience’s disdain. Perfecting a Creed impression is an old comedic punching-down pastime, and those engaged in genuine listening are excluded from the joke. According to Randall J. Stephens, author of The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ’n’ Roll, Christian rock’s public reception as “dorky” and “uncool” lies in the paradox of being sincerely insincere . The beginning of rock and roll forced a divide between Christianity and popular culture, despite the gospel origins of rock music and the Pentecostal influence present in the works of Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley. Indeed, the

Larry Norman, heralded throughout the historiography as the founding father of Christian rock, used his west coast folk-rock influences to bring a religious message to evangelical audiences during the late sixties, early seventies “Jesus Music” craze, launching his album Only Visting This Planet in 1972 and eventually forming his own Christian music label, Solid Rock . Stryper, the first and most arguably influential American Christian metal band rose alongside secular contemporaries like Motley Cru and Poison with explicitly spiritual lyrics all while donning the regalia of the metal counterculture during the height of the Satanic Panic. MxPx, a hardcore punk band out of Bremerton, Washington defined the genre of Christian punk; an oxymoronic phrase that nonetheless catapulted the group to fame with their three-cord melodies and skate punk influences. Much of the success of these bands can be attributed to the development of Christian music labels such as Tooth and Nail, which were able to market these artists to both secular and Christian stores and radio stations. Still, the role of women in Chrisitan rock and specifically within these countercultural subsections is murky at best and the historiography largely excludes female artists such as Amy Grant in the eighties and nineties as well as pop-punk bands Flyleaf and Icon for Hire. While they are slightly outside the scope of this research, it is important to highlight their contributions and their sheer absence from much of the scholarship surrounding Christian rock, especially when they were using the same assimilation tactics the male-led bands used to appeal to the secular countercultures of their respective