The Unpopular Contemporary Church Music

[Menschenstimme]

According to one successful sitcom that is now off the air (except for reruns), rather than Elvis, it would be Cher.

[hartleymartin]

On the topic of drum beats, I know that they often have a semi-hypnotic effect on people. I used to work quite regularly at a church-run kid's disco night. My friend was the DJ and sometimes could go for a few minutes just playing a drum-beat with a few techno sounds thrown in and all the kids would dance. Perhaps I notice because of the many years of classical music training, practice and performance, but I know that many popular tunes borrow the same drum beats and chord patterns.

[james]

I honestly think this type of music is self-centered. Some of it is rock and roll, and of all things the drummer of this group across the street actually told me that when he was younger he played the drums in a rock and roll band. He said I now play this same beat in church.

I think the devil has crept into the churches, and has just ruined wonderful music programs. It has been said as well as I certainly know from personal experiences that the devil can stike in a church's music program before he does anything else. I sure glad my church has not decided to have contemporay music along with some of our traditional music. It would be a total disaster.

[Hamman]

I think the devil has crept into the churches, and has just ruined wonderful music programs. It has been said as well as I certainly know from personal experiences that the devil can stike in a church's music program before he does anything else.

Baldwin, I can't agree with you more! Except I prefer to call him by his real name, Satan!

[zylstra555]

I asked this in my post, but have not heard any replies:
For those of you with churches who follow a contemporary style worship
What kind of music setups do you all have?
(We have skilled musicians, and the contemporary is not really loud, there is no jumping, and there are no guitars with distortion or anything of the likes)
What kind of contemporary are all of you hearing? I really feel like ours is more like worship music than rock, I wouldn't even consider them close.

[Menschenstimme]

We have two contemporary Masses at my RC church. One is really more like traditional music (but with more hymns from living composers) but with piano instead of organ. Our so-called young adult Mass has tasteful relatively subdued contemporary music with sythesizer and guitars and sometimes piano. And all of the musicians doing either of these Masses are very reverent and respectful individuals WITHOUT prima-donna egos, etc. We are blessed in this regard.

[ClergetMusic]

[quote user="Etienne"][quote user="Juniper"] . My idea is that there can be a healthy balance, in which both can exist.

Contemporary music is nomore of a sickness than any other music which has come along in the past. As with all music, there is popular junk--which will run its course, and then there's quality--which will stand the test of time. Unfortunately, we have to listen to the junk along with the quality until time bears it out.

I think this is correct: the manner in which the music is conveyed is not as important as the music itself. There has always been the debate of whether the music or the text should be more important (especially in composing circles), and my opinion is that in sacred music, the text is always more important. I don't usually take issue with contemporary music, except when they take issue with my preference of traditional (I'm an organist nonetheless), or just flat out refuse to play traditional hymns on their instruments. That being said, we must make an effort to adapt contemporary hymns to our traditional instruments, whether they be piano, organ, etc. That's the mark of a great musician: if you can adapt any song or work to the instrument you play, then you truly have the ability to play it. When I play with a contemporary group, as I used to do all the time in college, I usually play clarinet or saxophone with them, and I adapt one of the vocal parts to the wind instrument. Of course, there are all sorts of arrangements and the like that are available for traditional hymns as well for the Bb, C, and Eb instruments, as well as guitar. Most of the modern hymnals produce a set of instrumental accompaniment books that are just for this purpose. As I've read on the forum before, I don't mind the contemporary instruments playing for His glory, but I often wonder if we are using them because we have people who play them and they want to serve the Lord, or if we use those instruments because they pander to a generation that has a knee-jerk rejection of what we term "traditional instruments." I had a 7th grader last year tell me she hated organ music, but when I play the same song on the piano, she was absolutely delighted. This year, the same student has told me the opposite. As a music teacher, my belief is that it is all about exposure and knowledge. It is easy to reject something you don't completely understand, or cannot easily identify with. I give short tutorials and "toying" opportunities to the students who request them, and they love pressing the organ keys and pedals, even just once or twice to see how it works. For the students that have a little bit more time, and that I give some individual attention to, i.e. they don't have a class to go to immediately, I usually teach them to play "Mary Had A Little Lamb" or something simple, so they can identify with the instrument. "Organ? Yeah, I can play Mary Had A Little Lamb on it!"

I digress. Sorry for the long reply, but I think that the contemporary music and instruments are not altogether bad or should be forbidden, however we must always remember that everything we do is for Him, and not allow the choices we make to be self-serving, although often times, they are.