From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Subject: Re: Top 40 CCM albums of 1992
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 14:55:31 GMT

In article <107410243@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM> rhm@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Bob Miller) writes:
>In rec.music.christian, ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman) writes:
>
>> In article <1993Jan5.153253.840@uoft02.utoledo.edu> jsteiner@anwsun.phya.utoledo.edu (jason 'Think!' steiner) writes:
>> >fish@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Eric West) writes:
>> >> 
>> >> According to Billboard Magazine's year-end list, here are 1992's 
>> >> most popular CCM albums...
>> >
>> >wow. talk about out of the mainstream. i've never even -heard- any of
>> >these.
>> 
>> Me either...
>
>Well, I'm quite flatly amazed...or should I read a smiley here???

Nope, no smiley from me.

>I perceived both of you to be very familiar with the gamut of CCM, including
>the mainstream (even if you didn't like it). Buried in this list *are* some
>darn good artists and some darn good songs. Or does the lead vocal have to 
>sound like a cat caught in a KitchenAid to be "meaningful"?;-)

Like Bob Dylan on a bad night?  I don't know.  My guess is that you're
probably right, and that I'm missing out on some good artists and some
good songs.  Although I haven't heard any of the songs on the list
(to my knowledge), I *have* heard most of the artists represented at
one time or another.  It's hard to escape the omnipresence of Her
Amyness and Sir Mikey, and even someone who studiously avoids the 
Top 40 can't avoid them all the time.  They show up in the darndest
places.  And I even own a Petra album or two.  

It's really just a matter of personal taste.  For me, Top 40 music
(secular or CCM) has little or no appeal.  So I don't listen to it.
That means that I *do* miss out on the occasional good Top 40 song.
But it's not worth wading through the numbing succession of 
saccharine ballads and re-worked dance rhythms to find that rare gem.
If I'm going to listen to the radio (and most of the time I'd rather 
not), I'd rather spend my time listening to stations where the 
quality/dreck ratio is a little higher.

>I often *make* myself listen to the local cheeso CCM station so that I can
>at least have a clue about the state of the CCM world as a whole. And every
>now and then I actually *buy* an album based on what I hear.

Well, that's an admirable approach.  I *do*, occasionally, turn on the 
local CCM station to listen to music.  After about five minutes of 
this I tend to remember why I never turn on the CCM station.  There's
a certain *sound* there - a mixture of Barry Manilow, the Holiday Inn 
lounge band trying to play disco, and Henry Mancini string section 
bombast - that just curdles my blood.  I'll never get used to it.  
Honestly, it's better for my spiritual life and general mental outlook 
if I don't listen.

>What does this 37-year-old ex-hippie buy? Well, on that list I bought both
>Rich Mullins (say, he looks like an ex-hippie) and Susan Ashton albums. Even
>confess to liking them. And don't expect me to listen to a word you say 
>about the woeful state of CCM until you've listened to one of each!!! Get
>busy!!! Remember, in the old hippie CCM days, most everyone was listening to
>Malcolm and Alwyn and Honeytree!!!

Sure, there's always been people in CCM without much musical talent.
(Just as a sidelight, I've talked to Honeytree a few times and found
her to be a very nice, down-to-earth person.  She just can't sing.)   
I may gripe about CCM, but it's a *lot* better than it used to be,
and it's certainly far superior to those Jesus Freak days.  I
completely wrote off CCM for a lot of years because it seemed to be
a bad imitation of secular music.  Throughout most of the eighties
people like Mark Heard and Daniel Amos/DA/Terry Taylor were the 
only folks who held my interest fairly consistently.  But there
*has* been a dramatic improvement, and I hear a number of bands and
performers now whose material can hold up with the best that the 
secular music world has to offer.  I just don't hear it on the Top 40.

>And I don't post anything  + or - about "alternative" CCM because, quite
>frankly, I've never listened to Skinny Puppy (though I've read reviews).
>
>But I wonder how many times one can listen to 
>
>  KARRRRRRANGabubalabubalawubawubawhEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...BAM!

>without getting totally bored;-)

Nah, that's Nine Inch Nails.  You want my copy of Skinny Puppy's 
"Vivisect VI"?  It completely bores me too.  You want it, it's yours.  
 
>Bob (now how can I listen to SP without *buying* it) Miller
>rhm@hpfirhm.fc.hp.com

There *is* a way :-)

Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
att!cblpn!ajw  or
ajw@cblpn.att.com
Newsgroups: rec.music.christian