Faith and music

This years Greenbelt had, for me, a strong emphasis on music. I heard 10 or so acts on two stages, and missed catching at least one other. All of the music I heard was excellent, and being right at the front for most of it, I could seriously engage with the performances.

I have realised - again - that I am definately a front-row person. I love being right up there, seeing what is going on, close to the performance. And the volume you get there I love, although I realise that others do not enjoy having their ears blasted like that. But when the bass notes make your clothes vibrate, there is a real sense of being part of the performance.

If I have a criticism, it would be that the musical style was rather "folky", and I would have liked to see the big stage used for rock, at least some of the time. But Seth Lakeman, The Proclaimers, Bellowhead were all quite capable of filling the stage - I have no problems with who we had, just would have liked more or others too. There is a danger that we present Christianity as a folk-liking faith, and miss the fact that the musical range of Christians is as wide as anyone else. It was a great sight to see a metal band on the Canopy stage, and see the reaction of so many people to hearing this - but it is part of the music scene, and some people enjoy this.

However, one performer made an interesting comment, which I thought was right on the mark. Speech Debelle is a rapper, so we had some hip-hop on the main stage. She said that when she was asked, she wasn't sure whether she should come, because she wasn't a Christian. However, she said, the message of some of her songs was relevant - "Live for the Message" for example. I think she had a point, and I am glad she was there.

I have thought for many years that the most challenging and insightful music and lyrics come from artists who do not claim to be Christians. The huge majority of contemporary and worship Christian music seems to be a rehashing of the same ideas, words, emotions. It makes me wonder why we bother producing more and more of it - seriously, why do we have a Christin Music industry, when no-one seems to produce anything different. It is not that I don't appreciate music - I love it, and I play it - but I like to be made to think, not just told how lovely God is.

I have found inspiration from dance music (I still like trance, and there are some great messages in this music often), rock music, rap - pretty much anything I have listened to has somewhere given a new and fresh message. If you want social commentary, spiritual challenge, uplifting or revitalising, I think there is some form of contemporary - and not explicitly Christian - music that does that. And most of it is better than a lot of "Christian" music.