"

The About.com has been removed and cite templates added for un-sourced statements. Here is the breakdown of my edit that was reverted that I was told could be replaced due to no legitimate consensus dispute (keep in mind when I added this much info or sites the first time that I may have made a mistake with what got copied in the actual entry, hence some disagreements):

 
Happy Goodman Family, (NY Times, MTV and the group's website.)
 
In the first sentence of NY Times: ""a matriarch of gospel music whose influence ranged far beyond its traditional audience"". The list of artists who are similar and influenced by the Happy Goodman family are on MTV's site (and doesn't even need to be included as it was just a ""verification"" source), among other statements to support what I typed are on the group's site: ""Their influence is still felt in many singing groups of today."" Lastly, the info is covered on the singer's Wikipedia article. This is just one example of many I picked to ""open"" the statement about CCM's history or later changed to CCM's diversity.
 
Some other musicians who began making a significant impact in CCM (including on Christian radio) were/are Jon Gibson, Bebe & Cece Winans, David and the Giants, Rich Mullins, Carman, David Meece, DeGarmo and Key, Randy Stonehill, Keith Green, Kirk Franklin, and Steve Green, among many others.
 
First off, the info to support these statements are already explained within the artist's articles that they are linked to. Jon Gibson is ""overly"" sourced on his article, I made sure of that as a user with a different user name/ip/id in the past. Secondly, iTunes/TCM/GMA/CBN/CCM and the radio sites as well as the artist's actual websites are valid sources. I removed all sources Walter said only had ""books"" and ""albums"" listed, although if [you] scroll down or look for a different tab to see the ""bio"" or ""description"" sections, it would confirm what my entry claimed. The above 17'ish sources listed in another section were ones I removed and I did not need to be advised what was wrong with them, they are only being ""saved"" for future reference. Third off, this article didn't give any diversity which was an element I wanted the genre to reflect. Within the About.com that was recently removed and within the actual article of the artists (ie. Randy Stonehill), this statement can be verified. It gives a better idea of the veteran and popular CCM artists that the article didn't mention, those who are significant and some award winning ""record breakers"" (if nothing else just diversity in race/nationality such as Carman and Kirk Franklin which I provided reliable sources for).

""Word press"", ""CCM Top 500 albums"" and Kirk Franklin honored by CCM on his website are all valid points made on the credible sources I provided.
 
Contemporary Christian music also became popular with secular musicians as well, including Stevie Wonder,  Johnny Cash, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and M.C. Hammer (who vowed to God he would include at least one song of praise on each album). Bands like P.O.D. and Creed contained Christian themes within their lyrics yet still appealed to a secular audience. In some cases, contemporary rock & roll and pop music artists such as Dion (winning a GMA Dove Award and nominated for a Grammy Award in 1984), [[B.J. Tho