History Main / ChristianRock

* ''NBT: Never Been Thawed'' includes a subplot about a Christian punk band called The Christers. As it turns out, they shifted towards a Christian image entirely because they thought it might help them get a record deal, and all of their songs are just leftovers from the original incarnation of the band, but with lyrics clumsily rewritten to be about Christianity instead of [[IntercourseWithYou sex]] - for instance, a song called "Pray" was originally called "Fuck".

* Music/AmyGrant started out making explicitly Christian pop music -- her catalog spanning from her {{self titled album}}, ''My Father's Eyes,'' ''Never Alone,'' ''In Concert Vol. 1 and 2'', ''Age to Age,'' ''Straight Ahead,'' ''Unguarded.'' Nevertheless, her artistic inspirations were largely secular - the likes of Music/JoniMitchell (she would later cover Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi"), Music/CaroleKing and Music/EltonJohn. She began dabbling in mainstream pop during [[TheEighties the mid- and late 1980s]], most notably with the [[Music/{{Chicago}} Peter Cetera]] duet "The Next Time I Fall" (a No. 1 hit in 1986) and with several more explicitly Christian songs such as "Find a Way" (from ''Unguarded'') and the title song from 1988's ''Lead Me On''. With 1991's ''Heart in Motion'', she made an all-out shift to mainstream music and found a receptive audience at Top 40 and adult contemporary radio, with the album going quintuple platinum and containing four Top 10 pop hits, including the US No. 1 and UK No. 2 smash "Baby Baby".

* It's debatable whether Music/{{Creed}} is Christian Rock or simply PostGrunge. Their lyrics tend to lean heavily into biblical imagery, but the band rejected the "Christian rock" categorization on the grounds that they didn't have an agenda to lead anyone to their specific religious beliefs.

Some artists have managed to become crossover hits who appeal to Christian and secular audiences alike, while just as many others are content to be primarily for Christians. (The latter group is often described under the catchall term [=CCM=], Contemporary Christian Music.) It's also not unheard of for an artist or group to start in the Christian scene, and then move on from it as they achieve more mainstream success (or experience a CrisisOfFaith). Or, for that matter, an artist from another genre might happen to be a Christian and record an album or two of worship songs for their Christian fans. What they all have in common is a distinctively rock sound (in any style) and lyrics that are specifically about Christianity. If it's AmbiguouslyChristian, it's probably not Christian Rock.

It should also be remembered that an artist's personal religious affiliation can have absolutely nothing to do with what genre they sing in. Christian rock refers exclusively to music that is about Christianity. Christians may (and often do) sing in other genres as well. Non-Christians making Christian Rock would be rarer, but not entirely unheard of. And of course other religions may have their own musical genres as well[[note]]Many Jews and Buddhists have similarly been incorporating overt religious themes into pop-music acts over the past decade; Islamic pop groups, although not unheard of, are quite rare, largely because the strictest sects of Islam forbid ''all'' music. Quite a few rappers, however, are Muslims.[[/note]]. Conversely, rock bands such as Music/{{U2}} may have Christian members and address Christian concepts in their lyrics, but see their audience as the mainstream public rather than just the Christian crowd, so most people would not consider them to be Christian Rock as such. The definition of the genre is not "rock musicians who happen to be Christians" or "rock songs that happen to be about God or religion" but "rock acts that specifically focus their primary output on Christian themes and/or Christian audiences."

* Music/The77s: Famously described by Larry Norman as being "Too Christian for the radio, and too radio for the church," The [=77's=] were a new wave-influenced band who were poised to break out of Christian music altogether in the late-80s. The band got secular college radio airplay, earned critical praise for their albums and live performances, and wrote catchy alt-rock songs about explicitly Christian themes. They actually wound up getting a deal with major label Creator/IslandRecords, but unfortunately, their 1987 self-titled third album got lost in the label's promotional shuffle for Music/{{U2}}'s ''The Joshua Tree'' and underperformed. Their followup album, 1990's ''Sticks and Stones'', is widely considered to be one of the best Christian rock albums ever recorded.

* [[/index]]Ajalon was a Christian prog band who take their name from Joshua 10:12 in Literature/TheBible. [[Music/{{Yes}} Rick Wakeman]] has collaborated with them before. (Wakeman is himself a professing Christian, and has released some Christian stuff, but it's not most of his output.)[[index]]

* Music/BarlowGirl. Their single, "I Need You To Love Me," is to date the longest number one hit in CCM radio history.

* Steven Curtis Chapman, who has also received airplay on adult contemporary stations with songs like "Cinderella."

* Family Force 5 deserves mention. "It's better than drugs/in fact it's sent from above" (from "Love Addict") is a reference to God, if indirect/vague; they've played at Christian concerts, and they even mention God directly in "Peachy". They also did a cover of the song "In My Minds Eye," originally done by Music/{{DCTalk}}, mentioned above.[[index]]

* Music/AmyGrant started out making explicitly Christian pop music -- her catalog spanning from her {{self titled album}}, ''My Father's Eyes,'' ''Never Alone,'' ''In Concert Vol. 1 and 2'', ''Age to Age,'' ''Straight Ahead,'' ''Unguarded.'' Nevertheless, her artistic inspirations were largely secular - the likes of Music/JoniMitchell (she would later cover Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi"), Music/CaroleKing and Music/EltonJohn. She began dabbling in mainstream pop during [[TheEighties the mid- and late 1980s]], most notably with the [[Music/{{Chicago}} Peter Cetera]] duet "The Next Time I Fall" (a No. 1 hit in 1986) and with several more explicitly Christian songs such as "Find a Way" (from ''Unguarded'') and the title song from 1988's ''Lead Me On''. With 1991's ''Heart in Motion'', she made an all-out shift to mainstream music and found a receptive audience at Top 40 and adult contemporary radio, with the album going quintuple platinum and containing four Top 10 pop hits, including the US No. 1 and UK No. 2 smash "Baby Baby."
** Whether Grant could be honestly said to have ''left'' Christian music is debatable. It's true that in the early part of TheNineties, she began downplaying her typical Christian subject matter in favor of songs with more universal themes, but she never quite abandoned it altogether; even ''Heart in Motion'' has two explicitly Christian songs, "Ask Me" and "Hope Set High". Despite receiving criticism from her more fundamentalist fans for "selling out," her music remained family-friendly, clean and positive, with some mainstream media outlets dubbing her the "anti-Music/{{Madonna}}." And at any rate, since her mainstream success dried up in the early 2000s, Grant has drifted back toward religious music in recent years; two of her last three albums have been collections of religious songs. She hasn't promoted a single to mainstream/secular radio stations in several decades. And even at the height of her mainstream success, her albums were carried in both Christian and mainstream record stores, and she continued to release some singles (such as "Ask Me" and "Helping Hand") exclusively to Christian radio.

* Music/JarsOfClay are easily one of the biggest bands in Christian Rock, and they also had some crossover success in the 90's with their first few albums. Initially they played acoustic rock (and even had a music video, "Flood," from their first album become quite popular on MTV); since then, they've been bouncing between rock and folk, re-tweaking their sound every other album or so.

* Phil Keaggy is another seminal figure in Christian Rock, who has received acclaim for his guitar virtuosity even from mainstream artists, being listed as one of the world's top two "finger-style" and "finger-picking" guitarists by Guitar Player Magazine. This is even more impressive considering that he's an IronicallyDisabledArtist who lost the middle finger on his right hand in an accident as a child. There's a popular incorrect UrbanLegend about an interviewer asking [[/index]]Music/JimiHendrix how it felt to be the world's greatest guitar player. He responded by saying, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Phil Keaggy." Incorrect because Keaggy had not recorded his first album until after Hendrix died, and the two never met. [[note]]The real story is possibly more fantastic: Hendrix actually praised [[Music/ZZTop Billy Gibbons]], then a member of [[http://www.last.fm/music/The+Moving+Sidewalks/+images/39344425 The Moving Sidewalks]][[/note]].[[index]]

** Later on, Norman would grow disenchanted with the Christian music scene, claiming that it had become about "sloppy thinking, dishonest metaphors, and bad poetry," and joking that you could write a Christian pop song by taking a secular [[SillyLoveSongs love song]] and [[GodIsLoveSongs replacing "baby" with "Jesus"]]. Unlike later artists, Norman regularly preached in concert and was often seen as confrontational in his lyrics and interviews; He's quoted as saying "My primary emphasis is not to entertain. But if your art is boring, people will reject your message as well as your art." [[index]]

* Michael W. Smith is one of the most popular artists in the history of Contemporary Christian music. He co-wrote Amy Grant's first crossover hit, "Find a Way" (1985), and had some brief success on the pop charts in the early '90s with "Place in This World" and "I Will Be Here For You" (the latter reached No. 1 on ''Billboard'' magazine's Adult Contemporary chart). At the peak of his crossover success, he was even named one of ''People'' magazine's most beautiful people in the world. But with his 1995 album ''I'll Lead You Home'', he returned to overtly religious music and hasn't looked back since, though he has continued to have some occasional success on secular adult contemporary charts (i.e. "Love of My Life," a love song he recorded with pianist Jim Brickman).

* Music/{{Switchfoot}} is somewhat on the fence, as most of their music does not explicitly reference Christianity, but some of it makes no sense until a Christian perspective is taken on the lyrics. "Dare You To Move" from ''The Beautiful Letdown'' is a good example. Jon Foreman (the group's lead singer and usual writer) is a Christian and his work does tend to reflect that fact. Switchfoot was a little more obviously Christian with their first few albums; "The Beautiful Letdown" actually wasn't their first release, it was their fourth. Granted, their success since going mainstream would seem to prove that the "Christian rock" label narrows down your audience by a huge degree. It's worth noting that the band rejects the label specifically because they feel that it excludes people who aren't Christians but would still enjoy the music. Their official stance is "The band members are Christians, it is reflected in the music, but the music is not written to be explicitly Christian in nature. We want to make music that everyone can relate to."

* Another Christian music star who made a pop crossover in the early '90s was Kathy Troccoli, who landed a Top 20 hit in 1992 with the dance hit "Everything Changes." She's had several other AC hits as well.

* Music/TheRedJumpsuitApparatus are another group which is on the fence; their first album, ''Don't You Fake It,'' emphasizes the general theme of being a good person (see their breakout single and anti-abuse song "Face Down"), but ''Lonely Road'' and ''Am I The Enemy?'' have more heavily Christian themes in the lyrics. For example, "Believe," from ''Lonely Road,''talks about needing "a little help from above" to change the world. "Wake Me Up," from ''Am I The Enemy?'', more straightforwardly discusses Christian redemption:

* Music/{{U2}}: A thoroughly ZigZagged example of a band that's been described as "too spiritual for rock but too strange for church." All the band members are Christian, and many of their songs contain overtly Christian themes or at least go heavy on the GodIsLoveSongs. On the other hand, they have never restricted themselves to Christian audiences or record labels, and a lot of their songs have a degree of ambivalence about faith, especially organized religion. Nonetheless, Christian fans have been happy to use their songs even in church; several denominations have put on entire services dubbed "[[{{Portmanteau}} U2charist]]". All that said, the band's career has been completely in the secular mainstream rock scene, and they will certainly not be filed under "Christian Rock" in anyone's listings.

** Larry Norman made a similar joke in the early '90s. "I mean, replace 'baby' with 'Jesus'..."

** The "having sex with Jesus" nature was likely due to the tendency in some Christian rock to use metaphors that sound very sexually-loaded to some non-fans - e.g. repeatedly saying that one wants to "touch," "feel," or "hold" Jesus.

* [[/index]] Music/KingsX: The three founding members were all fans of Petra and started their own band – then called The Edge – in 1980. In 1987 they changed their name and sound but stayed true to Christian and other spiritual topics, getting quite some recognition from the Christian Rock scene although they never openly aligned themselves to it. Their association with the genre got subverted when lead singer/bassist Doug Pinnick publically declared his loss of faith (as well as coming out as gay) and sang about it on the band's albums "Dogman" and "Ear Candy" among others.

* Family Force 5 deserves mention. "It's better than drugs/in fact it's sent from above" (from Love Addict") is a reference to God, if indirect/vague; they've played at Christian concerts, and they even mention God directly in "Peachy". They also did a cover of the song "In My Minds Eye," originally done by [[Music/{{dctalk}} DCTalk]], mentioned above.[[index]]

* Music/FiveIronFrenzy were a Christian ska band that gained a following in the mid-90's with secular audiences. They also eased back on the explicitly Christian references and titled one of their albums ''Cheeses of Nazareth''. At least one of the members has publicly stated that he is now an atheist.

* Haste the Day
* [[/index]]Andy Hunter and his contribution to the ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnderground'' soundtrack, "The Wonders Of You". It is, in fact, Christian {{Techno}}.[[index]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28FZ1ijkQBk Impending Doom]] is a straight Death Metal/Deathcore example, with their self-proclaimed "Gorship" style of worship to God through their music. If you look back in their discography, their first EP ("The Sin and Doom of Godless Men") is almost Noise.

* Music/PrefabSprout: While songwriter Paddy [=McAloon=] had often flirted with religious themes before (in particular the closing sequence of ''Jordan: The Comeback'', which among other things includes a VillainSong written from the point of view of Satan), he'd never quite gone into actual Christian Rock... until the release of ''Let's Change The World With Music'' on which several songs are unambiguously advocating for Christianity.
* Rackets and Drapes, called the Christian version of Marilyn Manson, they definitely live up to that title. Also, the lead singer Kandy Kane admits to being a cross-dresser.

* Music/TheDevilWearsPrada
* ''Music/{{Theocracy}}'' is a Christian Progressive Power Metal band.

* Charlie Daniels (from the eponymous band, whose songs included "Long-Haired Country Boy" and "Uneasy Rider" ... as well as "Devil Went Down to Georgia", which, while certainly anti-Devil, wasn't exactly "Christian" either) released an album in the 1990s entitled ''Steel Witness'', on which the songs, while some of them were rather catchy, were about as subtle as you'd expect from an album with cover featuring a riveted cross approximately the size of South America.

* The Choir: Another Christian AlternativeRock band. This band seemed to be the most accessible to secular audiences of the four, owing to their jangle pop-rooted sound and less overtly religious lyrics. They typically didn't write songs that revolved around God or Jesus, instead focusing on humorous Creator/FlanneryOConnor-influenced SouthernGothic narratives or lyrics about ghosts and spirits. Basically, think of them as a Christian version of Music/{{REM}}. Were poised to break out of Christian rock entirely with their heavily promoted 1989 album ''Wild Eyed Wonder'', but it underperformed nationally and they went back to their cult following.

* Day of Fire is a repeatedly stated Christian Rock band, whose songs are so rock that it's hard to notice the christian references, unless they directly throw it in there, and even then it's hard to notice sometimes (Rain Song comes to mind). Having a guitarist tour previously in a non-christian rock band certainly helps with the sound. Unfortunately, they recently went on hiatus.[[index]]

It should be noted that this genre can be as diverse as the secular form of rock music. ''Just as diverse.'' Everything from soft rock to the various forms of HeavyMithril will be covered. And it's erroneous to assume what the viewpoint/theology of any Christian band or its members is, because Christian rock's theologies are as diverse and unpredictable as the entire population of Christians, which is pretty diverse. This does sometimes make for a degree of LyricalDissonance, as many of the harder rock genres aren't normally associated with the [[GodIsGood positive and hopeful]] aspects of UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}. Nonetheless, Christian Rock artists have found success making every form of rock music, even BlackMetal (its devotees wryly call the Christian version "Unblack Metal").

[[index]

* Norma Jean, a "Christcore" artist who achieved enough mainstream success to play at Mayhem 2010 with, for example, the decidedly non-Christian Music/LambOfGod.

* Music/LambOfGod is sometimes mistaken for a Christian band by those unfamiliar with their work, considering that their name is taken from one of the biblical titles for UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}. More than a surface-level look, however, will quickly reveal they are ''very much'' not, starting with their debut album "[[ReligionRantSong Burn The Priest]]". WordOfGod is vague but has said they picked the name mostly to stand out ironically from the satanic band names popular in the HeavyMetal scene at the time.[[/index]]
* Music/{{Mutemath}} is a similar example. Their first EP was released under a Christian sub-label, so the band found a different company to sign with. They've since seen much more exposure, but their albums can still be found in Christian music stores. Don't think they qualify as Christian rock? Go listen to "Peculiar People", then read Isaiah 40:31. Funnily enough, "Peculiar People" was co-written with Jon Foreman of Switchfoot. Lead singer Paul Meany and drummer Darren King also used to be in the Christian [[GenreBusting rock/rap/reggae/funk/electronic]] band Earthsuit.

* Music/LambOfGod is sometimes mistaken for a Christian band by those unfamiliar with their work, considering that their name is taken from one of the biblical titles for UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}. More than a surface-level look, however, will quickly reveal they are ''very much'' not, starting with their debut album "[[ReligionRantSong Burn The Priest]]". Lead singer John Campbell has said they picked the name mostly to stand out ironically from the satanic band names popular in the HeavyMetal scene at the time.[[/index]]

* Music/{{Evanescence}} is a subversion. They were initially referred to as a Christian rock band, but they have publicly rejected the label, even asking for Christian music stores to stop selling their albums. Commercially, it was a smart move on their part -- Christian rock bands usually don't go on to sell over fifteen million records internationally. Amy Lee was quoted on the other wiki as stating the Christian labeling was Ben Moody's thing. He left the group shortly after.[[/index]]

* Music/LostDogs: A folk-rock {{Supergroup}} of musicians from several Christian Alternative bands. The Lost Dogs recorded three albums before Gene Eugene's death, and decided to kept going as a quartet. They recorded five more albums after that.