Whats wrong with Christian music.

This has kind of always been a burr in my saddle.  But yesterday while waiting on some wav files to import into a session at PureMix I decided to pop in one of my favorite artists in the CD player and put it up on the big Dynaudio M3A mains.  After all, I was just going to be writing some notes and waiting on about 50+ tracks of wavs to import into my Pro Tools session.


I put in Diana Krall's "Look Of Love".  All I can say is "WOW!".  I really took my breath away.  So, I let it just wash over me for a while.  I told my wife it was like pouring caramel in my ears.
:)
(I really like caramel).

After listening for a while, my session was ready in Pro Tools for me, so I jumped back in there, but I still had to match up some regions with the template I created, so, I still wasn't ready to give up listening to Diana.  Then that nagging frustration hit me again...

Why isn't there any Christian music that is THIS good?  And you know what, I KNOW that there is no lack of talent.  So, don't miss the nuance of my point here.  I can't think of any Christian records that have this same level of excellence TECHNICALLY.  This Diana Krall album is perfection from a production standpoint.  Absolutely beautiful strings, guitar, vocals, drums, piano....  oh man.  And what is funny is that I put it up on our little kitchen pig radio iPod dock at home.  Sounds unbelievably good there too.

So, whats the deal?  Are we too pragmatic?  I know that in a lot of ways the Christian "music industry" is more corrupt and MORE about the "bottom line" than the secular music industry is.  I'm afraid there may be more integrity with some secular productions than with any Christian production I can think of.  HUGE money is spent on getting it RIGHT.  Whether its a movie, a recording, a video, a commercial, or a live show...  someone is behind it bank rolling it to be the BEST.

I think I know what the problem is.  The Christian Music Industry has marginalized itslef into a sub-culture.  They are not mainstream.  So, they don't have mainstream money.  So, everything sounds sub-par.  But there is no reason to spend mainstream money anyway, because we've marginalized Christian music for so long that no one is paying attention to it other than Christians anymore anyway.

So sad.  When I want to listen to something that encourages me and inspires me spiritually, there is nothing that I can think of (other than 1 Rich Mullins CD) that also inspires me sonically.

No one cares how long it took Michelangelo to paint the Sistene Chapel. 

Now, there is a lot of Christian "pop" music I listen to daily.  My kids love LeCrae, Skillet, Barlow Girl, etc...  My wife loves Bebo Norman, Hillsong United, Steven Curtis Chapman, etc.  I LOVE STRYPER, Phil Keaggy, City On A Hill, Chris Tomlin and Switchfoot.  But there is no spectacularly good jazz music made specifically by a "Christian artist".  Why is that?  There is some.  Its cheezy.  I don't know why its so cheezy.  There are some marginally great blues artists who are Christian - Ashley Cleveland, Robert Randolph.  But, the "industry" doesn't spend money on anything but what will give them return on investment.  So, believers are kind of pigeon-holed into making extremely compressed, throw-away, pop music.  Its the mentality of the Christian Music Industry that wants an artist that "sounds like" a secular counterpart.  Something that can be marketed as the "Christian version" of John Mayer, or Black Eyed Peas, or, or, or...

So, this has been a bit of a frustrated rant.  I realize its easier to point out the problem than it is to come up with a solution.  So, whats my solution?  I'm gonna listen to Diana Krall and Toto and Donald Fagen and Tom Petty and Alison Krauss when I am checking my mixes on the big mains against something that is EXCELLENTLY done.  But until someone bank rolls a project I'm working on so an artist can afford more than 5-7 hours (per song) worth of record/edit/mix....