new lows

as i listen to the thoughts in my head, i realize how opinionated i've become since i've been a music major. keep that context in mind as i say that i'm pretty sure contemporary Christian music has sunk to a new low. i actually heard on the radio a few minutes ago some generic pop group singing a 'rendition' of "for unto us a child is born" from handel's messiah. granted, i have become rather tired of contemporary Christian music, which is itself NOT a good thing. it has nothing to do with the message, just the fact that....it. all. sounds. the. same. it's nice, it's easy, but there is no substance there. and now they're taking great pieces of musical literature and dumbing them down, for who knows what reason. argh. it drives me crazy. i wasn't sure whether to laugh or scream.

we're talking about bach at the moment in music history. at/soon after bach's time, much of his music was thrown out because it was seen to be outdated and apparently uninteresting. it's lucky that any of it survives at all. i wonder what will happen a hundred years from now with music today. will any of it still be around? or will we just be made fun of? is it possible that music could get even more shallow? is this all just another facet of fast-food america? music has to be on-the-go, too? if it involves more guitar chords than you can learn in an hour, then it's just too demanding.

it's funny how most of any praise and worship song can be played by knowing only three or four guitar chords. i'm not sure why this is. it's not like it's unheard of in the rock/pop genre to be creative or at least to have some sort of variation. most of you have some idea of how much i adore the beatles. i'm pretty sure the beatles are like the definition of rock music, or should be. they are, at least in my opinion, a paragon for rock music. if you just take some time to listen to harmonic aspects of their music (at least their later music)...holy cow. it's INSANE. so why can't Christian music follow in that kind of vein? why do we hear the same things over, and over, and over again? and why do they insult handel's work by trying to sing it like britney spears? shudder.