{"id":5345,"date":"2011-02-09T17:39:38","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T17:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=5345"},"modified":"2019-08-01T14:42:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T14:42:19","slug":"bad-worship-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/bad-worship-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Redman says he’s never heard a truly bad worship song. This writer would disagree."},"content":{"rendered":"
Last summer I was one of the 30,000 odd people who attended a Soul Survivor event. As usual when it came to choosing seminars, the worship leading ones were the first on my list, and this year there was the added bonus that Matt Redman was speaking. He is one of my heros, being probably the best worship leader this country has produced as well as being from my home town of Chorleywood.<\/div>\n
\n
I was struck particularly by one thing he said on the subject of songwriting:<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cA lot of people have sent me worship songs over the years, and honestly I\u2019ve never heard a truly bad one\u201d<\/div>\n
I found this a little surprising, and not because I am inundated with songs from aspiring young worship leaders (they would be wasting their time \u2013 I have no influence whatsoever). No, it was because, in my capacity as a reviewer for Crossrhythms, I regularly hear what I consider to be very poor CCM music that actually gets published.<\/div>\n
Now you will notice that I said \u201cvery poor\u201d, not terrible, not abysmal, not \u201cfrom the very pen of Beelzebub himself\u201d, just poor. Honestly I wish they were completely awful, because there is truly nothing worse than a mediocre song. You don\u2019t love them, you don\u2019t hate them, they don\u2019t challenge you, they don\u2019t raise any particular emotion. They aren\u2019t too noisy, the guitars are very smooth, you probably more-or-less agree with the lyrics and the man playing them looks like a rather nice chap who you would very much like your daughter to marry. It\u2019s all just terribly, terribly nice\u2026<\/div>\n
Frankly it strikes me as odd that we, who are supposed to have the most important, earth-shattering message the world has ever seen, don\u2019t sound like we mean what we\u2019re singing half as much as most secular artists. Take artists from any era: The Sex Pistols, Oasis, The Rolling Stones, Eminem, Ke$ha, S-Club-flippin\u2019-7\u2026 they all put more feeling behind their words than most of us. Something is badly wrong when a neutral observer hearing Ke$ha\u2019s lyrics encouraging the listener to \u201cbrush their teeth with a bottle of Jack\u201d, would probably conclude that she cares more about justifying serious (and rather unconventional) alcohol abuse than the average Christian cares about the life-changing love of Jesus. No wonder the whole country thinks we\u2019re boring and irrelevant.<\/div>\n
Well I\u2019ve had enough of it. I want songs with edge, with attitude, songs that challenge, songs that express real emotion \u2013 everything from true, uncontainable joy to total dark despair \u2013 because that reflects reality. I don\u2019t want the same old cliches about tongues confessing and lambs being slain. I don\u2019t want guitars with some lame, gutless, poor-imitation-of-U2 effect, because \u201cheaven forbid we should upset old Mrs Davies in the third pew from the back with our popular beat music\u201d. But most of all I don\u2019t want songs that imply that being a Christian is just a rather smashing thing that one sings about, using bizarre quasi-biblical language, on a Sunday morning with one\u2019s wife and three kids (all named after old testament figures, each more obscure than the last). Matt Redman actually summed it up in his (now positively ancient) song \u201cFill us up and send us out\u201d. Because that sense of mission and purpose is what worship music, and frankly the whole of church as a concept should be about: filling and restoring us as worshippers, for us to then get right out of our comfort zones and actually do something that matters.<\/div>\n
So what is to be done? Well all of this is not to say that rubbish secular music does not get released, it absolutely does. And it is not to say that there isn\u2019t a lot of great worship music out there, in fact I\u2019ve listed a few of my favourite artists below. Honestly though, I listen to some Christian albums and wonder how on earth they got published: one can\u2019t help thinking that if they took something of the same standard to a secular label then they wouldn\u2019t be given the time of day. The trouble is, or at least I get the impression, that there is a bit of an attitude among Christians of \u201cwe shouldn\u2019t criticise people\u2019s work because that\u2019s a bit mean\u201d. Needless to say I disagree, but I won\u2019t go into that here, mainly because Nick Page actually does a much better job than me in his excellent book \u201cAnd Now Let\u2019s Move Into a Time of Nonsense\u201c. This is what actually what got me thinking about the whole subject and it\u2019s well worth a read.<\/div>\n
Suffice to say that I think everyone involved in the songwriting process needs to a) be more discerning and b) take a LOT more risks. I want to see songs that challenge and provoke, songs that polarise the church between those who love them and those who can\u2019t stand them. I want to see songs which could hold their own on a secular radio station and that could be appreciated as pieces of art by someone who didn\u2019t necessarily agree with the lyrical content. The old argument that the world doesn\u2019t like our music \u201cbecause we\u2019re Christians\u201d may have some merit, but we have to consider the possibility that maybe it just isn\u2019t good enough. Only when we accept these things, stop playing it safe and stop trying to please everyone will we release our full creative potential.<\/div>\n
Now I hate to disappoint anyone, but I am not going to name and shame artists whose music makes me want to vomit. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s my place to slag off other people who are much more experienced and wiser than me \u2013 although they or anyone else are more than welcome to comment on here and disagree with me\/call me names\/threaten me with violence. My caveat here is that, up to a point, I am deliberately trying to be controversial and provocative, and I would love to stimulate debate on this subject.<\/div>\n
Prove me wrong.<\/div>\n

Last summer I was one of the 30,000 odd people who attended a Soul Survivor event. As usual when it came to choosing seminars, the worship leading ones were the first on my list, and this year there was the added bonus that Matt Redman was speaking. He is one of my heros, being probably the best worship leader this country has produced as well as being from my home town of Chorleywood.<\/p>\n

I was struck particularly by one thing he said on the subject of songwriting:<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have sent me worship songs over the years, and honestly I\u2019ve never heard a truly bad one\u201d<\/p>\n

I found this a little surprising, and not because I am inundated with songs from aspiring young worship leaders (they would be wasting their time \u2013 I have no influence whatsoever). No, it was because, in my capacity as a reviewer for Crossrhythms, I regularly hear what I consider to be very poor CCM music that actually gets published.<\/p>\n

Now you will notice that I said \u201cvery poor\u201d, not terrible, not abysmal, not \u201cfrom the very pen of Beelzebub himself\u201d, just poor. Honestly I wish they were completely awful, because there is truly nothing worse than a mediocre song. You don\u2019t love them, you don\u2019t hate them, they don\u2019t challenge you, they don\u2019t raise any particular emotion. They aren\u2019t too noisy, the guitars are very smooth, you probably more-or-less agree with the lyrics and the man playing them looks like a rather nice chap who you would very much like your daughter to marry. It\u2019s all just terribly, terribly nice\u2026<\/p>\n

Frankly it strikes me as odd that we, who are supposed to have the most important, earth-shattering message the world has ever seen, don\u2019t sound like we mean what we\u2019re singing half as much as most secular artists. Take artists from any era: The Sex Pistols, Oasis, The Rolling Stones, Eminem, Ke$ha, S-Club-flippin\u2019-7\u2026 they all put more feeling behind their words than most of us. Something is badly wrong when a neutral observer hearing Ke$ha\u2019s lyrics encouraging the listener to \u201cbrush their teeth with a bottle of Jack\u201d, would probably conclude that she cares more about justifying serious (and rather unconventional) alcohol abuse than the average Christian cares about the life-changing love of Jesus. No wonder the whole country thinks we\u2019re boring and irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Well I\u2019ve had enough of it. I want songs with edge, with attitude, songs that challenge, songs that express real emotion \u2013 everything from true, uncontainable joy to total dark despair \u2013 because that reflects reality. I don\u2019t want the same old cliches about tongues confessing and lambs being slain. I don\u2019t want guitars with some lame, gutless, poor-imitation-of-U2 effect, because \u201cheaven forbid we should upset old Mrs Davies in the third pew from the back with our popular beat music\u201d. But most of all I don\u2019t want songs that imply that being a Christian is just a rather smashing thing that one sings about, using bizarre quasi-biblical language, on a Sunday morning with one\u2019s wife and three kids (all named after old testament figures, each more obscure than the last). Matt Redman actually summed it up in his (now positively ancient) song \u201cFill us up and send us out\u201d. Because that sense of mission and purpose is what worship music, and frankly the whole of church as a concept should be about: filling and restoring us as worshippers, for us to then get right out of our comfort zones and actually do something that matters.<\/p>\n

So what is to be done? Well all of this is not to say that rubbish secular music does not get released, it absolutely does. And it is not to say that there isn\u2019t a lot of great worship music out there, in fact I\u2019ve listed a few of my favourite artists below. Honestly though, I listen to some Christian albums and wonder how on earth they got published: one can\u2019t help thinking that if they took something of the same standard to a secular label then they wouldn\u2019t be given the time of day. The trouble is, or at least I get the impression, that there is a bit of an attitude among Christians of \u201cwe shouldn\u2019t criticise people\u2019s work because that\u2019s a bit mean\u201d. Needless to say I disagree, but I won\u2019t go into that here, mainly because Nick Page actually does a much better job than me in his excellent book \u201cAnd Now Let\u2019s Move Into a Time of Nonsense\u201c. This is what actually what got me thinking about the whole subject and it\u2019s well worth a read.<\/p>\n

Suffice to say that I think everyone involved in the songwriting process needs to a) be more discerning and b) take a LOT more risks. I want to see songs that challenge and provoke, songs that polarise the church between those who love them and those who can\u2019t stand them. I want to see songs which could hold their own on a secular radio station and that could be appreciated as pieces of art by someone who didn\u2019t necessarily agree with the lyrical content. The old argument that the world doesn\u2019t like our music \u201cbecause we\u2019re Christians\u201d may have some merit, but we have to consider the possibility that maybe it just isn\u2019t good enough. Only when we accept these things, stop playing it safe and stop trying to please everyone will we release our full creative potential.<\/p>\n

Now I hate to disappoint anyone, but I am not going to name and shame artists whose music makes me want to vomit. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s my place to slag off other people who are much more experienced and wiser than me \u2013 although they or anyone else are more than welcome to comment on here and disagree with me\/call me names\/threaten me with violence. My caveat here is that, up to a point, I am deliberately trying to be controversial and provocative, and I would love to stimulate debate on this subject.<\/p>\n

Prove me wrong.<\/p>\n

Other posts you might like:<\/strong><\/p>\n

How to write a really mediocre worship song<\/a><\/p>\n

Just because you are tired of a song<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last summer I was one of the 30,000 odd people who attended a Soul Survivor event. As usual when it came to choosing seminars, the worship leading ones were the first on my list, and this year there was the added bonus that Matt Redman was speaking. He is one of my heros, being probably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":15817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[701,6],"tags":[1434,1509,948,1502,961],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMatt Redman thinks he's never heard a truly bad worship song. This writer disagrees.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Matt Redman says that a lot of people have sent him worship songs over the years, and honestly I\u2019ve never heard a truly bad one. 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