Backbeats & Backgrounds

As I was piddling around on liveleak.com, this video caught my attention:



For any of you who grew up in conservative evangelicalism, I'm sure this brings back some memories, or at least rings a few bells. As an impressionable youth who wanted nothing more than to please his parents and other ecclesiastical authority figures, I was taken in by speeches of these type. I remember myself railing against friend and family member alike on the evils of the popular style "invading" church music. OY! Was I ever a mean-body! What really gets me is how this preacher drives home the idea that music which makes you want to dance is not gospel music. And of course, as a good legalist, I bought right into it back in the day. But why, pray tell, is dancing so evil? The Bible is rife with dancing and general merriment-making - in settings of worship or celebratory thanksgiving, even. It frustrates me that Christians can be such killjoys. Why shouldn't our music encourage us to dance?

Ironically, I now sing with the worship team at my church, complete with drums and guitars. At some points, I've attempted to infuse some of the music we sing with stronger rhythmic drive - perish the thought of a backbeat - perhaps to get the congregation moving a bit. Inspiration has at points hit me to whit that I have even composed some of my very own pieces of this sort. It occurs to me that as the Christian world has embraced popular musical idioms, we have made them our own: "redeemed" them, if you will. Praise & Worship has become its very own genre. I will contend that Christian music is not just about lyrics or performers' intention. Certainly it is imperative that as we make choices about particular rhythmic emphasis or melodic/harmonic construction, we should be diligent to promote the glory of God above all. As a classically trained vocalist who loves the longstanding tradition of high church music, I find that there is plenty of fluff and crap on either side of the fence. We must strive - in whatever musical idiom we prefer - to do it right, to do it well, to do it in a way that exalts our Savior.

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On a completely different note, one of my college singer friends Lisa Sain Odom was an extra in the upcoming movie Leatherheads starring George Clooney and Renee Zelwegger. When you watch this preview, you'll catch a glimpse of Lisa in a fabulous cloche and fur-trimmed coat, cheering in the stands with her movie family, right at the 17 second mark. How cool is that?!