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What Makes Popular Christian Music “Popular”? |
45www.jrfm.eu
2020, 6/2, 41–57
Why Adapt the Term Contemporary Christian Music to
Popular Christian Music?
In the Anglo-American sphere, the origins of Contemporary Christian Music
as a genre characterized by evangelical content can be traced back to the
1970s and the Jesus People movement (which itself emerged from the hippie
movement). Specifically, the Jesus Rock genre enabled conservative Christian
milieus’ critical approach to rock music to be overcome, with the enormous
attraction of the Jesus People to younger audiences directly attributed to the
combination of worship with rock’n’roll.16 Since the 1990s the term CCM has
been used as a genre label in the music industry, with charts established for
“Hot Christian Songs”, “Christian Airplay” and “Top Christian Albums” in ad-
dition to Billboard magazine’s regular “Billboard charts” and also two awards
reserved for CCM at the annual Grammy Awards ceremony.
In this article, I use the term “Contemporary Christian Music” only in ref-
erence to the specific genre label applied by the US-American music industry,
preferring instead the term “Popular Christian Music” (PCM). The necessity
for such change arises from the fact that the concept of “contemporary” is
much more charged in Germany than in the United States, with the related
German term zeitgenössisch understood in light of the artistic avant-garde.
“PCM” thus allows for a general classification into the category of popular
music that contrasts with “classical music”. Despite the necessity to adjust
the terminology, my observations are in line with those of Amy McDowell,
who suggests that the genre “Contemporary Christian Music” is defined more
by its Christian lyrics or its use in a Christian context than by its musical style,
which can vary greatly depending on the artist, although semantic correla-
tions between music and content (e. g. the lyrics) can be important.17 In Ger-
many, PCM artists and bands have rarely achieved great economic success.
Unlike in the United States, in Germany there are no official music charts
for PCM, and there was no category for Christian music in the former Echo
Awards.
16 McDowell 2013.
17 Kopanski/Albrecht-Birkner/Heesch/Stöhr (forthcoming).
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Band 06/02
- Titel
- JRFM
- Untertitel
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Band
- 06/02
- Autoren
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Herausgeber
- Uni-Graz
- Verlag
- SchĂĽren Verlag GmbH
- Ort
- Graz
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Seiten
- 128
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften JRFM