My apologizes to my artist friends. Ok? I'm not talking about YOU! I'm talking about someone else. (ahem)
Why are so many album covers by Christian artists, always a guy, standing on the top of a mountain with his arms outstretched to the sky?
Or, the other cover - the same guy (!!), standing overlooking an ocean, with his arms outstretched? You know what I mean? It's the same scene you see on the church screen with worship lyrics over it.
I guess the view from majestic mountains and seas with no limits remind us of the awesomeness of God. But - it's the same photos re-captured over and over. It's so unoriginal. Right now I can think of four artists with that same cover.
Now let's talk about lyrics. Why are so many Christian songs, (I'm not talking about rock songs, but the nice, contemporary songs), a rip-off of scripture? Yes, scripture is wonderful and singing scripture out loud is edifying, but as a commercial artist isn't it plagiarism to copy the Bible and claim them as "your lyrics". They aren't.
One of my favourite Christian songs is "Meant To Live" by Switchfoot because it's Jon Foreman's commentary, not a transcribed Psalm. There's lots of songs that a commentary, but there too many other newly released songs with unoriginal lyrics.
You artists are creative, abstract people. Please write more Christian songs that reflect your thoughts, your love, your observations, instead of stealing what David wrote and we've already sung a hundred times before.
When Christians write songs like that they're called secular or spiritual, then scorned by the Christian Right as being "sellouts" or "chickening out". When they pull crap straight from scripture they're seen as being "bold" and "true to the Word". Just look at that tripe that hit number 1 last month... "Sev-en tiiimes Sev-en-ty tiiimes," I changed the station every time it came on, but people were requesting it left right and center.
ReplyDeleteSomeone once said that an artist's job isn't to tell the truth; it's to captivate your attention for as long as they want it. If they stumble on the truth along the way, that's a bonus.
This is what the people want, this is what they're given. Find more creative contemporary and play it. Dump the crap off of your playlists and people will get used to a new normal. This is all your fault, you know ;).