I am not musical but I love music; it’s such a clever idea – noises that sound good. Also, I like it when people put words to the backdrop of said music. I believe that they’re called ‘songs’.
Like most people, I have my own personal taste in music, but it’s a taste that seems to put me at odds with the Christian majority, a fact I find hard to believe. Surely I can’t be the only one who thinks that most church services could be improved by the introduction of some Dubstep?
When I was a teenager in the 90s, the Christian music I was familiar with didn’t do anything for me. As for the lyrics? Well, let’s just say that I felt more of a spiritual kinship with someone like Kurt Cobain than I ever did with Matt Redman or Martin Smith. One of the best things that ever happened to me at university was meeting Terry Wright. During Fresher’s Week, Terry sat next to me in a chapel service purely because I looked like the type of person who was into the same music as he was. He was wrong, but only because I had never heard anything like it before. Terry had an extensive knowledge and collection of alternative Christian noise from such labels as Frontline, R.E.X. and (my own personal choice of the mid to late 90s) Tooth & Nail. It was a revelation to hear these bands playing music more to my tastes, and singing about their faith in a way that resonated with my bruised and growing soul. Take, as a random example, a simple verse from The Prayer Chain‘s song, Dig Dug:
Can you hear my heart beat?
Do you even know my heart?
When I hold the doubts of Thomas
As hard as I hold your promise?
I never heard anything like that sung on a Sunday morning, but it was exactly the sort of honesty that I was desperate for at the time. Although I am no longer the angsty teenage nightmare that I was then, I know that a lot of the music I listened to during that time has supported me through my difficult journey over the years, and still provides the foundation for my own personal expressions of worship. I might write a bit more in the future about specific albums and songs that have been meaningful to me (hopefully with fewer distracting hyperlinks…), but I’ve wanted to write something like this for a while; partly to share something that has been influential and might give a bit of insight as to why I write the way I do, plus also as a belated thanks to Terry for first exposing me to those particular noises that sounded so good.
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