Which style of music?

[Starise]

9 hours ago, Willa said:

I have prayed, Lord, I don't want to be in the valley of trials or on a mountain top, I just want to be in the cleft of the Rock!  So snuggle up to Jesus and let  Him hold you in His mighty arms, choosing to stay in that place of safety comfort and healing.  Let the oil of His Spirit flow over you.

Thank you.

[farouk]

On 9/4/2023 at 2:52 AM, Willa said:

I do like the song "I Can Only Imagine".  I also have several Mahalia Jackson CDs love her as well.  Phil Keaggy remains a favorite guitarist.  One Bad Pig isn't the best punk music but they are a fun bunch with a serious message--a cop and a street preacher formed it.                                                                       Otherwise I like hard rock and alternative/post punk.  Of secular I like Santana, Rush, Creedence Clearwater Revival and King's X.  

Of Christian I like Whitecross, Bloodgood, Mastedon, , X Sinner, Rez, Siloam, Breakfast With Amy, Mad At the World, and Steve Taylor among many many others.  Kids have been saved just reading Bloodgood's lyrics!

DO CHECK OUT SILOAM AND IDLE CURE  based on this comment.

I love folk music and dances of all nations and the classical romantic period tops much of my listening preferences--from Gershwin to Tchaikovsky, to Khachaturian, Kodaly, Borodin, Prokofiev, Smetana, Rachmaninoff, Litz, Brahms, Lecuona, and Rimsky-Korsakov.   

No concussions as yet from head banging but there isn't much danger of one since I do have to be careful about re-injuring my neck.  Many thanks to you guys for your concern-- I am sure that many out there need to be warned that head and neck injuries are very real dangers of head banging and that deafness will definitely follow listening to loud music.  Not only are my son and I wearing hearing aids but I have had 3 dogs go deaf from my loud music!!! There are few things more pathetic than a dog that can't hear you call him away from danger.

@Willa Hard rock style is an acquired taste, right? but once you are there it's really gripping, isn't it?

I have heard some Scripture come across forcefully in hard rock style.

[Willa]

3 hours ago, farouk said:

@Willa Hard rock style is an acquired taste, right? but once you are there it's really gripping, isn't it?

I have heard some Scripture come across forcefully in hard rock style.

 It all started when our sons introduced me to Stryper in the 80s.  I was walking 6 miles a day to work off stress hormones, and my classical romantic style was too erratic a tempo.  So I found Leviticus and Jerusalem, hard rock groups to pace to.  Then I noticed that my sons and other kids were handing out tapes to their friends like adult might had out tracts and kids who liked the music were getting saved when challenged to read the lyrics.  Music can be a powerful tool--I think of David playing his harp for King Saul.

 1Sa 16:23. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

[farouk]

7 hours ago, Willa said:

 It all started when our sons introduced me to Stryper in the 80s.  I was walking 6 miles a day to work off stress hormones, and my classical romantic style was too erratic a tempo.  So I found Leviticus and Jerusalem, hard rock groups to pace to.  Then I noticed that my sons and other kids were handing out tapes to their friends like adult might had out tracts and kids who liked the music were getting saved when challenged to read the lyrics.  Music can be a powerful tool--I think of David playing his harp for King Saul.

 1Sa 16:23. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

Hi @Willa

I saw this quote and thought of you. This mom seems to be in the process of internalizing music styles that you yourself seem to have successfully internalized long ago:

"My son will be 18 soon. Now, you must understand – I homeschooled until he was in the 8th grade, we read millions of books together, did tons of things together, even taught a kindergarten church class together. He truly is sweet, kind and helpful......And now – my sweet son LOVES LOVES LOVES heavy metal......music full of screaming...Everything I looked down on as far as music – he loves. I have learned that his music is actually more complicated, etc. than I ever realized...This process has been so very hard for me….  He has wanted a tattoo for a long time, and will get one on his back as soon as he turns 18 (a verse to a song)... I know that he has a heart of gold inside. ... I have learned about it and respect the talent and knowledge that some of those bands possess – and he appreciates that I am willing to learn. " source:Angela cheriegregory dot com

 

[farouk]

PS: @Willa

Your mention of Stryper made me look up some facts and apparently the band's name is derived from Isaiah 53.

Style is a many faceted thing and it's clear that, even as styles develop and may we very diverse in music and other things, Christian young ppl may be spontaneously appreciative of styles that maybe are different from those of several decades ago.

Christian young men at around 18 - active in testimony - may well naturally have their earlobes perforated with rugged, manly studs.

Similarly, the most conservative of Christian young women at 18 may feel deeply compelled to undergo the painstaking perforation of their dermis with a Bible verse tattoo in order to express strongly their priorities as adult women.

And in music, hard rock and heavy metal may be the style in which Scripture is powerfully and hard hittingly expressed, with Christian young ppl using them as testimony tools.

For the most gentle and conservative of Christian young ppl, these various styles may well for them prove to be very compelling.

[Starise]

I believe a lot of the resistance to some music in churches is simply engrained cultural stuff. Having come from a Baptist church I seen that front and center. There was the music that spoke to those people, and I was the 1% that it didn't really appeal to. I didn't necessarily hate the music, but it didn't speak to me in a big way either.

It would not have been fair for me to try and push what I liked to the other 99% who didn't like it. I notice most people are fairly tolerant of music they don't like up to a point. The wife might mumble to her husband that she doesn't like so and so.  Often it goes no further. If something annoying persists, let's imagine a fly for instance. We go for a fly swatter lol.

I have sat in discussions with good Christian people who will feel as if worship was degraded. I wasn't a culprit in that particular discussion. Sometimes they have a point. If the music is so loud and overbearing you can't get any value of worship from it, then something is wrong, and I think church musicians should respect calls to lower the volume. If you are a worship musician you are not playing for you, you are playing for the Lord and in a position to facilitate worship towards Him.

I have been to concerts that are worship concerts, and maybe sometimes with the 'harder' music it's a vehicle to minister to youth afterwards. I think we need to be very careful in not letting the snake in the church doors.

[Willa]

I enjoyed my husband's elevator music for many years but finally got bored with it.  There are so many other styles that I enjoy.  The only thing I really don't care for is music that drags very slowly.  Grandma Willamina used to croon the hymns that way.  It wasn't till 25 years later that I realized those hymns were joyous songs and not dirges.  In spite of that I do enjoy Mehalia Jackson.

[Marathoner]

Anything but polka...

Polka is wretched. 

[Big Boy Stan Murf]

Awe man... I was just about to cut a gospel polka album and ride it to the top of the polka charts!

[farouk]

4 hours ago, Willa said:

I enjoyed my husband's elevator music for many years but finally got bored with it.  There are so many other styles that I enjoy.  The only thing I really don't care for is music that drags very slowly.  Grandma Willamina used to croon the hymns that way.  It wasn't till 25 years later that I realized those hymns were joyous songs and not dirges.  In spite of that I do enjoy Mehalia Jackson.

@Willa I know what you mean.

Some hymns - for example - do not lend themselves to a fast tempo for singing.

I can't imagine wanting to sing Horatius Bonar's 'Blessed be God our God' to a fast tempo; it rather lends itself to singing in a measured, sure and sedate way.  It can also be salutary for young ppl actually to learn that what may seem at first boring may actually be sublime and triumphant.