I posted a note yesterday about a new website that’s just launched, CMDish, which in its intro email likened itself to a Christian TMZ.
As regular readers of this blog expected, I couldn’t let that go without comment.
Understandably, the folks at CMDish weren’t exactly thrilled with my post, to say the least, and responded on their site today. (Which, if you think about it, is exactly the kind of page view whoring we all have to do to make a buck. I write a post, they refute it, I have to respond. Oh the irony of it all. And just for the record, I’ve made zero dollars since May, so if you think I’m doing this to get rich, guess again.)
See, in the Christian music industry everyone likes to smile and prop each other up, which is why the founder of the site was surprised by my post. Everyone else in the industry thinks the site is a wonderful idea.
Well, at the risk of being too snarky, duh.
The labels, the publicists, everyone in Christian music loves sites like CMDish (and Beliefnet and CCM.com and every other entertainment site) because they promote their artists.
I regularly take the Christian music industry to task for blurring the lines between church and commercialism, between spirituality and selling out for a record sale.
And those of you who read this blog also know I put myself in that category, something I clearly admitted to in yesterday’s post. I hate the spin cycle, the constant promoting and posturing and patting ourselves on the back. And yet, here I am, feeding the monster every day.
It’s not a job I take lightly. That, as CMDish points out, I get my paycheck from Fox, which owns “TMZ TV”? Sure, that’s icky, but if you check the holdings of most public corporations in American you’ll see a mix of soft drinks and sex. What are you going to do? Stop drinking Coke?
In fact, it’s even like that in Christian music. Most of the labels are owned by larger conglomerates. Look at the roster for Columbia Records; there’s everyone from AC/DC to MercyMe. There is no neat dividing line between Christian and secular any more, much as we’d like to tell ourselves there is.
You know – people you know, if you’ve been reading this blog long enough – that I struggle with being part of the problem I complain about.
Trust me, this gig hasn’t been easy. I’ve been the target of horrible internet gossip and lies. I’ve had crazy people contact me at home. I’ve worked for no pay. I’ve been hounded by every artist from here to Nova Scotia to please, please listen to their CD.
So why do I still do it? If for no other reason than to make one Christian music fan rethink their deification of Chris Tomlin or Third Day or the superstar du jour, then I’ll get up every day and rifle through the two foot stack of press kits and the hundred press releases to find something that isn’t completely inane and report on it. And no, it won’t be Natalie Grant’s kidney stones.
So if you think I was too hard on CMDIsh, my apologies. In the interest of fairness, I’ve offered CMDish founder Rick Hall the opportunity to do guest blog post about his site, the notion of promoting Christian music, what a big jerk I am, whatever he wants. I’ll keep you posted if he takes me up on the offer.
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posted October 22, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Joanne,
Will you listen to my CD?
You do a great job…I for one am thankful for your contribution to the dialog concerning CCM.
Can I make a donation to your ministry?
posted October 22, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Awesome post.
posted October 22, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Congratulations! You single handedly accomplished just what you did not want to happen. Countless people read your blog and flipped right over to CMDish!!! I was one of them.
I found your comment “for no other reason than to make one Christian music fan rethink their deification of Chris Tomlin or Third Day” a slap in the face to every Christian that reads your blog. (As well as terribly insulting to Chris Tomlin and Third Day.) Tomlin and Third Day are worship leaders who go to great lengths to keep God front and center in all that they do. They not only lead worship, they are amazing Christians who do much to advance the Kingdom of God. How dare you! While many people admire them, nobody confuses them with the Almighty. If they did, Mack Powell and Chris Tomlin would be the first to straighten them out.
Through my volunteer work, I have met several Christian Worship Leaders. You do a great diservice to them all, and the Christian community, by assuming that the Christian music consumer has the depth of a soap dish. You are a Christian. Do you deify worship leaders? Don’t assume that the rest of us do either.
I’ll pray for you. In your attempt to be edgy, you slammed the very people you originally hoped to educate.
posted October 22, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Lori Ann, you’re probably the exception.
And that comment wasn’t about Chris Tomlin or Third Day or Christian music artists – it was about Christian music fans in America, who have become so enamored with Christian music they’ve become mindless syncophants fawning over the latest worship song. Trust me. I see it day in and day out. Is that true of everyone? No, but the so called Christian pop culture looks very much like the mainstream pop culture, and that, my friend, is not a good thing.
It was never my intent to deter you from visiting CMDish. I did include a link to their site in my post, in case you didn’t notice. I didn’t want you to do anything other than think about how Christian music has become so commercialized that we’re happy when we have a site that’s a Christian version of TMZ.
If you want the latest news on Christian music artists, like who has kidney stones and what someone looked like in high school, by all means, head over to CMDish.com. And if my post offended you, then that’s probably a better site for you to get your Christian music news from anyway. Remember: http://www.CMDish.com
Joanne
host of the GS blog
posted November 3, 2009 at 12:29 pm
“They not only lead worship, they are amazing Christians who do much to advance the Kingdom of God. How dare you!”
Like what, put out awful retreads of 2 year old trends in secular music?
Third Day, and bands like them, are EVERYTHING that is wrong with Christian music today. It’s bad enough that they’re given a platform. But to have such ardent defenders is proof that Christian Culture in America is all too eager to circle the wagons and deal with good enough instead of being better than. Good words or not, they’re still, from a musical standpoint, an awful band that will spawn more awful bands. And THAT’S a pretty big slap in the face to God as well. He is deserving of our worship, but not deserving of our musicians taking a music theory class or learning song craft?