Christian music industry

The Christian market also includes some unique aspects, such as hymnal production and church music licensed for congregational singing.

Recent scholarship explores why Christian music remained marginal to the general market, was largely critiqued by mainstream media, and was often criticized for being derivative.

[3] First, the Jesus movement produced a large number of bands in a very short period, which the general market was unable and/or unwilling to absorb.

[4] Petra, for instance, struggled to find an audience for their hard rock sound, partially due to limited distribution to Christian bookstores.

[5] By her 1982 release Amy Grant had saturated the Christian marketplace and made significant inroads into the general market.

[5] Sandi Patti and Michael W. Smith also gained influence within Christian music, each playing significant roles in the development of the industry.

[17] In the late 1990s, general market retailers, especially big box stores such as Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and Blockbuster began carrying a wider selection of Christian music products.

[21] Contemporary worship music, a long time staple of the industry, began to gain significant market share in about the year 2000.

In 2009 a New York Times op-ed placed the entire music industry on a "deathwatch,"[28] pointing out that new forms of media, piracy, and new pricing options are driving gross sales down.

John J. Thompson told Christianity Today that "The lack of monetary benefit has filtered out some of the people who should not have been doing this in the first place.

"[21] Christian music is sometimes cited as a "ghetto,"[4][29][30] meaning that the majority of artists in the industry are pigeonholed to operate solely in it.

For many this is a conscious choice, however others, not content to stay in an isolated industry segment, attempt to "cross over" and gain acceptance in the general market.

The study looked at several artists including Amy Grant, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Carman, Steven Curtis Chapman, dc Talk, Sandi Patty, and Michael W. Smith.

Even so, the survey found that the Christian music audience was no more familiar with artists in the field than they were with Hootie & The Blowfish, a popular act at that time.

Stryper received large amounts of criticism from groups on the Christian right, who argue (among other things) that their image as rock stars contradict their espoused faith.

One critic wrote that the marriage of secular and religious elements in "Christian music" "violates all that God has commanded in the Bible about separation.

[35] "Since people don't understand [the term] 'the Blood of Jesus, '" stated a manager for Lamb & Lion, "...music that communicates must approach it another way.

[5] Using downplayed religious content in lyrics has allowed some artists to "cross over" and make significant impact into the general market.

Many Christian bands produce videos with rotation on MTV in mind, however, the images can lead to an ambiguous impression of the portrayal.

[59] The video received a Dove award in a category created specially for it, "Gospel Music Visual Song" in 1985.

At the time the album was pulled, Brian Welsh released a statement about the visual content of the video, relating its symbolism to his personal experiences of addiction and redemption.