Music Monday – Christian Pop Crossover

I’ll just start this off by saying that I’m not a super religious person.  I’ve got my relationship with God and I don’t find it necessary to go to church.  Part of my issue with church is all the standing and singing and sitting and standing and singing and sitting and…you get the picture.  Organ music grates on me and while the songs that are played/sung, even those without organ accompaniment,  are supposed to be uplifting to the church members and guests and to offer praise to God, they bore and/or annoy me.  I’m not saying no on e should listen to it, it’s just not for me.  That being said, there are a number of artists who have made careers singing gospel/Christian music.

The name that pops first to mind, in the Gospel category, is the group The Winans, followed by Take 6, a group that I mistakenly purchased looking for a song years ago, and then Kirk Franklin.  Franklin’s been a major headliner in the annual Gospel Fest (don’t recall the name exactly) in my area.  Back in the late 90’s, Kirk Franklin collaborated with God’s Property and had a huge crossover hit with Stomp!, also featuring Cheryl “Salt” James.

 

On the more rockin’ side of the Christian music scene, we’ve got metal band Stryper, Third Day, Newsboys, and Jars of Clay.  Jars of Clay kind of burst onto the crossover scene with a great little tune, Flood.

 

In the last few years, Busch Gardens Williamsburg has hosted Glory at the Gardens, a concert series held on Sundays that features Christian pop and rock artists.  This past year, Newsboys kicked off the series, which included their drummer on spinning platform.

If you’ve got kids who were young over the last decade, you may have heard of the Veggie Tales.  It’s a show with animated vegetables as the characters that teaches kids about about God and Christian values and life lessons, some more overt than others, some much sillier than others.  The video below is the Newsboys video for In the Belly of the Whale, their song from Jonah, A Veggie Tales Movie.  It’s got a catchy tune and the movie was pretty funny, as are most of the Veggie Tales movies, and episodes, especially Silly Songs with Larry.

The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps…or Dontcha hate it when a song gets stuck in your head???

Dontcha Hate It When songs get stuck in your head…especially when you’re not sure where they even came from?

Last night after dinner, for instance, the Veggie Tales popped into my head.  Maybe it was because my wife said something about our gimpy, more-than-half-broken wiener dog which made me think of the following Veggie Tales’ song, specifically, the line “if I sing to the poor sick kitty, he’ll feel better in a day or two”.  Not sure how that would have made the connection…the animal is wrong, singing isn’t really going to make her better, and it’s been months that we’ve been trying to rehab her back injury.

Can’t explain it, but here’s the video…

And just a few minutes ago, as I was getting ready to sit down at my computer, I realized I’d been humming Taylor Swift’s “You Belong to Me”…all day.  Granted, I picked Taylor Swift station on Last.fm, but this song was played about 0815 hours…about ten hours ago and I’m still singing it in my head.  It’s a catchy tune and I love Taylor Swift…for those that need clarification on that statement:  I love her music and I love how she seems able to be a star while remaining grounded, how she came be beautiful without having to “slut up” her appearance, and how, to a certain degree, she seems wise beyond her years while still maintaining her innocence.

Anyway, here’s her video for the song I am still humming…”You Belong to Me”