On Contemporary Christian Music

The first album I ever bought

Back in the day, I was quite the aficionado of so-called Contemporary Christian Music, or CCM. During the period between 1988 (when I came to faith) and 2003 (roughly), my discipline was not to buy or even to own an album by any recording artist who wasn’t known (or thought) to be a practising blood-bought, born-again Christian. In many respects, I feel that my faith was consolidated by listening constantly to the likes of Carman and Petra in the late 80s/early 90s and the bands that Tooth & Nail Records churned out a few years later. I’ve never believed that CCM is inevitably inferior to the ‘secular’ market. True, some of the artists I used to listen to—the aforementioned Carman, for example—I’d now put firmly in the category of ‘cheesy’. But let’s be clear: there is a lot of pure fromage out in the ‘mainstream’ world, too. It’s a matter of style, not musical proficiency. And in this respect, many CCM artists were and are every bit as good as their ‘secular’ counterparts, if not better. Comparisons are essentially pointless.

I thought I’d start a new blog series listing (in no particular order) the CCM albums that have made the most impact on me over the years, albums which have influenced or strengthened my faith in some way. I’m not planning on analysing the albums I feature; I’ll just post the cover and write a few lines about why I regard a particular album as impactful. Occasionally I will make bold claims such as ‘this is the best CCM album ever released’, but it should be obvious that this is little more than a list of my favourite albums released (mostly) within a sixteen-year period; an exercise in nostalgia.

Three things to note. First, I don’t know how long the series will be, or exactly when I’ll post—and that doesn’t matter. Chances are that I’ll post enthusiastically to begin with before the project dies a death, like my inScripturations series.

Secondly, while many of the albums I plan to feature include ‘praise and worship’ songs, I doubt there’ll be anything on here from what could be called the ‘contemporary worship’ scene. Aside from the occasional song, I find Hillsong, Jesus Culture, Worship Central et al. more soporific than uplifting—and that’s my polite opinion.

Finally, I apologise in advance for the title I’m giving the series: ‘Impactful CCM Albums’. It’s boring, it’s functional, but it does what it says on the jewel case.