Secular Rock Music Analysis

Secular rock music has influenced contemporary Christian music by in essence decentralizing God from being the main motive of the music. The journal entry Watering Down Christianity? states that “With the mainstream success of [contemporary] Christian bands such as Jars of Clay, Sixpence None The Richer, and P.O.D., people are questioning Christian bands that may de-Christianize their lyrics to sell albums to a larger crossover audience” (Livengood and Book 121). Many contemporary Christian bands stray away from the message they should be focused on in order to reach out to a more diverse crowd. It is understandable for contemporary Christian artists to be so heavily influenced by secular rock music if their intention truly is to reach out to people who are not considered Christian and show them a better life. However, the decentralization away from God might actually be harming the image of God by, like the journal entry says, watering down Christianity.

The influence of secular rock music on contemporary Christian music has awakened a generation of listeners who enjoy being in the “gray” area. There’s a generation out there that does not want the label of “Jesus freak.”

Contemporary Christian music that is heavily rooted in secular Rock music gives this generation the opportunity to still be considered socially acceptable with peers who are not Christian, while still maintaining some sort of religious status. In a journal entry written by Eric Gormly, he states:
CCM plays an important role in the cultural life of evangelical Christians for several reasons. It provides a means of evangelizing to a younger or broader audience in a musical form that carries a greater and more generally accessible appeal. It provides a musical medium for religious expression that allows its adherents to feel they are participating in the broader, secular culture although maintaining the integrity of their religious faith. It fulfills a historic attraction by evangelical Christians to the media of popular culture and enables participation in a potentially lucrative industry. (262)
Through this point of view, it is shown that secular rock music is not only influencing Christian music, but is also being cried out for by a group of evangelical Christians that want some sort of medium between their religion, and secular society.
Secular rock music has made such an enormous impact on Christian music that an entire genre of music was constructed by it.

Although I do not enjoy contemporary Christian music and do not consider it Christian at all seeing as the music does not worship God in its entirety, I do recognize its attractiveness to some believers of Christianity. This type of music is attractive to some believers of Jesus Christ because of the roots of secular rock music. Contemporary Christian music is a middle ground for some people who are not necessarily willing to give up all secular music cold turkey. All in all, secular music has enormously transformed Christian music as a whole and made contemporary Christian music a bridge from the secular community to the community of evangelical

Christians.