Alrighty people, it has been a long time coming but I have finally decided to share with you about music! For those of you who know me you know that music is something I am very passionate about. For those of you that don’t know me, let me tell you, music is something I am very passionate about.
I listen to all kinds of music, The list includes (but is not limited to): Singer/Songwriter, Pop, Punk, Rock, Worship, HipHop, Electronic, Hardcore (some call it metal, some call it screamo… whatever floats your boat). The last one on that list is the one most people focus on, telling me that “Any good christian should not listen to that type of music.” My normal response to these people is “Ummmm… ok” because most of the time I don’t feel like getting into an argument/don’t have my thoughts in order at the time. But now I have time to type it all out so HA!
Quite a few people will pull out argument that metal lyrics are evil and I have to say that for some bands that is totally true, but not for the bands I listen to. For example lets take a look at a song by one of my all time favorite bands, Fit For A King. This song is called “Kill The Pain” and it goes a little something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZiKZw-8w8g and the lyrics go a little something like this,
I've filled my veins with poison
And silenced my voice just to take another breath
I've broken my vows to you a thousand times before
I'm losing myself, sit back and watch me die
How can I say that I'm scared of death
when I spend each day sprinting towards my eternal grave.
Every move that I make, every step that I take, crawling to my eternity.
These words are my plea,
show yourself and rescue me.
Kill the pain, from the curse of myself.
Kill the pain, show me the way back home.
Kill the pain, guide me back to you.
Guide me back to you.
I've let these demons bleed me dry (hollow and cold, lost and alone).
Screaming these words to the sky.
Kill the hate within me.
When I'm at my darkest I crave for the light,
but when your hand reaches out, I abandon you.
Begging for death with every breath that I take,
pull me from my self made shallow grave.
Now, believe it or not, this song is a lot like the typical worship song at your typical Sunday morning service! Lyrically it is different, but content wise it is the same. The entire song is a plea about how he messed up, and how he needs God to reach out and save him. Almost all of the songs by Fit For A King are like this, but most people will say that “God is not in their music” and other statements like that just because they don’t agree with the presentation of the music.
Another great example is Wolves At The Gate. This band was what originally got me into hardcore. Lyrically they remind me a lot of the music they play on Air1 and other popular Christian radio stations, but they get discredited because of the style of music they play. But take a listen to them playing acoustically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yns5lkZfq-w Musically and lyrically it is something someone would play for a special at church while communion was being passed out. But because of the normal version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Kf0PDgj8E) people judge it because of the style, not because of the lyrics!
Now there are many other points and things I could point out, and many more things that people judge, but this is the main point I wanted to get across today: People tend to judge because of the style, not because of the lyrics.
