Why does Christian music make people uncomfortable?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Or any other kind of religious music (I've never heard anything from other religions, though).

I understand that maybe they can't relate, but then not many people can relate to being a drug dealer or a stalker or an extravagant millionaire, either. =/ For me, those are the kinds of subjects that I can't bring myself to sing about.

Anyway, I know Christian music CAN be kitschy, and often is, but I feel like the "genre" as a whole gets a bad rap that it doesn't deserve, just because people treat it as untouchable.

[GamerPrincessXI]

I'm not sure. I don't have all the answers. Some people have weird/mixed feelings when it comes God or the bible. It comes down to upbringing. Nature/Nurture. I was born in a Christian household. Parents sometimes listened to Christian music but after my dad had his heart attack and my mom had her fall at work. They're musical taste changed. I sometimes listen to John P. Key or Marvin Sapp's Listen. Other times, I listen to Cardi B, and artists.

[skicoak]

I can only speak for myself but the stuff my wife shares with me has the tendency to crib from other popular genres of music. It feels like Christian music is less a genre and just an adjustment of lyrical content.

I think if it had a more specific sound that distinguished it... it'd feel less like they're trying to "trick" me into liking it.

[KoreanTacos]

Despite someone who was christian a lot of the music just felt like they wanted to be other genre of music, but because you know it's just music that's specifically designed to target one kind of audience it was never really all that appealing. There's good Christian based music, but the ones that are like, Hey Jesus is great sinners has always been a turn off and it goes to the whole God is not Dead ideal of how Christians view non christians.

[Nail]

I love this one. The band is weird thought, Gothic-cristian as they claimed, although they weren't quiet understood neither by goths, not by cristians.

IDK. There was a this thingonce upon a time:

And it often feels like cristian bands are trying to do exactly the thing, instead of producing quality music or expressing themselves.
I'm not a religious person but I can appreciate religion themed art in different forms when it has value as itself in a first place. And often it comes from quiet unxpected places.

[FedoraSpooky]

I think it's because there's been kind of a thing with christian media, where in the past at least they would make 'safe' versions of all the pop idols or video games or cartoons, which to a lot of people meant heavily censored or watered down. That and religion can be kind of a hot button issue with some folks, who might think they're just getting preached to, or maybe they escaped an abusive situation in which religion was used as an excuse for cruelty and don't want anything to do with it anymore.

Personally, I think it's just like any other genre- there's the good and the bad. I'm not religious myself but I do like listening to some Five Iron Frenzy now and then. XD

[Merle]

I can only speak for myself. While I usually don´t even mention that I´m not religios and don´t mind going to a church if I´m invitted, Christian Music always gave me chills of the wrong kind.

Maybe because Music for me is something very personal - it´s kind of a one - on - one situation when you´re listening to it and proccess it. And that I really don´t need as a Atheist?
Also, a lot of the lyrics then vex me - the glorification of an omnipotent being when I have all shit in midn that I´ve seen troughout my life. And just as well the atribution of all my achievements to this being, when I know very well I did them on my own.

That´s why I skip the songs if they ever come up on the radio. But I mean hey, I don´t come in contact with them anywhere else, and they´re uplifting for others. No real problem here.

[Kann]

Most of time people who make Christian music think it HAS to be upbeat and over the top cheerful (not speaking about the failed attempts to "appeal to youth"). And at least in my group of friends it's making us uncomfortable, because not only it is the type of music we wouldn't normally listen to sound wise, but also lyrics being like "God is great, Devil is bad" is something way to literal for us. We're not too religious people so that kind of approach doesn't really get to us. xD

I've heard some Christian rock and even metal bands who can pull this off without being too "in your face" with their lyrics. For example this song came to my mind (their other songs might be a little too literal, though).

Also I'm living in a quite religious country, so I hear a lot about priests and monks starting their bands or recording rap songs. While it doesn't quite appeal too me, I find it kind of nice that they are not going the overly cheerful way.

Anyway, everyone has their tastes and some people enjoy music, that other find uncomfortable. Nothing wrong with that.

@Nail Gave a listen to songs you posted and really enjoyed them. o: Especially the Dark Seed one.

[Nail]

Great fan of the DarkSeed. It's a doom metal, bu there's always a bit of light in their songhs. Besides, Stefan Hertrich is a realy nice guy, I wrote him in facebook once and we had a very pleasant conversation about stuff.

[yondoloki]

I haven't heard much christian music other than Skillet. I love their music style, and some of their songs are so kickass and motivating, and others I just cant listen to because I can't abstract from the heavy christian overtones. With that I mean the ones where Jesus or God are specificly mentioned, or the metaphors get unbearable.

I think we get uncomfortable by Christian music, because (at least in my case) I listen to music for the emotional feel, and the message, and to put our own experiences into them, and if we don't practice Christian religion in our everyday, that might just be awkward to us, or just the genre dissonance are too much? Like Skillet is Christian Rock, and rock is not something you normally connect with christian songs...

Thinking about this is interesting, as I grew up singing in girl choirs, and learned a lot of hymns, and that never bothered me... Is it just a cultural thing? Was it because I learned them at an age where I didn't care and just thought the melodies where nice and didn't pay attention to the words I was sining? Does the awkwardness then come from Innocence lost as I've aged and gained more awareness?

I hope this thought train is of any help to someone...

[ISNEKO]

I get angry when I hear music about Jesus or God or saints or whoever the fuck. I only see religion as a means to control, and never have I ever come across a Christian or a Catholic that wasn't the most unbearably annoying piece of shit I've ever met that thinks they're better than you.

/edgelord

[Nail]

Ok, I came up with a metaphor. Let's substiture "religion" with "art". So you came to your frienf and say: "Hey, you're an artist, won't you draw my portrait", and he's like: "Sure!". So he spends some time drawing and eventually gives you a sheeth of paper with a smiley face drawn on it and the words saying "ART IS GREAT!".
That's often how the problem is.

[KoreanTacos]

[punkarsenic]

i mean, speaking as a christian who has gone to all sorts of churches with all sorts of music... SO MUCH CHRISTIAN MUSIC IS JUST. BAD.

like either its dusty old hymns sung with all the joy and life sucked out of them, or its ultra-generic off-key hillsong. very little old praise music is sung with conviction, and very little new christian music is made with a love of music.

but then theres gospel, which is good, and is generally having quite a heydey with people like chance the rapper using tonnes of gospel in their mainstream music.

speaking of chance - my favourite worship music is made by people who arent Worship Musicians. my favourite favourite favourite worship song hands down is stormzy's blinded by your grace - its a brilliant piece of music, and a gorgeous merger of his gospel upbringing and his grime style. its so heartfelt, genuine. i was also really into owl city as a tween, and he had a lot of under-the-radar worship songs. and ive always had an affinity for not-worship-but-definitely-christian struggling-with-faith music from people like fun., the mountain goats, or (back in my emo days) twenty one pilots. they have some really interesting religious songs in their early days.

lord, ive really shown my ex-sunday schooler hand in this post.

anyway, outside of christianity a lot of traditional jewish music is just True Bops. love it. and islamic calls to prayer are beautiful too. if ppl feel discomfort around this music, its in a very different racist vein to discomfort around corny hillsong hymns.

[ar-ninetysix]

I'm gonna preface everything I say by mentioning that I'm a Christian myself.. sort of? I have my fair share of disagreements with religion as a whole, but let's just keep it simple and leave it at saying I'm one of them before I go off and rant lol

I, myself, play worship music at my church, but here's the kicker. I dislike a lot of the music we play. In my opinion, there's so much of it that feels.. fake. People generally don't like feeling or being lied to. A lot of it also comes off as bragging to me (ooh look at me and how happy I am now that I found Jesus) despite it being meant to be praise, and I can't imagine what people who don't believe in it think about this music. Which, like.. that in and of itself feels like they're flexing on me. And even if I was content with the music I personally feel like there's nothing about it that's appealing, or even the least bit genuine.

The Christian music industry is still an industry, if they see money, they're gonna do what they can to try getting it. And my god, do Christians love buying things related to Jesus. There's a worship song that get pretty well known? Everyone's gonna try to make the next big hit. Did you know that you're actually supposed to pay the rights to play a song in the church if it's not meant to be played for a service? Here's a link to an article about church music and copyright infringement.

People intentionally try to make safe versions of popular stuff on the radio in an effort to make money off of the church. And it works! Christians don't want that worldly music, you'll go to hell automatically because the preacher said so xD if there's safe version, the Christian kids want it, the Christian parents want it to shelter said kids' minds from secular songs, Christian people'll use it to show non-believers "hey, not all Jesus music is bad". It all feeds into that industry making quick bucks, just like any other.

And this isn't a thing people like talking about, it just gets shrugged at and put underneath a rug. Nobody wants to talk about it because it'll taint the image of the songs, the artists, and their respective labels. Nobody cares enough to talk about it because they're so detached from the situation. But all of that is the reality of it, and it's a huge part of why some Christian music makes me uncomfortable even as a believer.

I know I went off about it, but I wanna say that none of this is to say that the "genre" as a whole is shady, far from it actually. There's a lot of Christian music that hits me on a personal level and it's very much a part of me since I started attending. I just wish more of it woud stray away from keeping everything upbeat and happy all the time. Give us the bad side of being religious every once in a while. For more insight on why someone might think Christian music is bad in general, I highly reccomend watching these videos.

[MariMontoya]

Christian Music contains a wide array of other genres from hymns to orchestra pieces to pop and country etc. the thing that makes it Christian is the lyrics. Now as to why it makes people uncomfortable is like any other art form. They don't agree with the words, they don't like the music, or they're obviously not Christian so why would they listen to it?
I don't know. I mean if I listen to a song that really obscene I'll be like No. and that's kinda how ppl feel about Christian music? It would only be something they would listen to if it had meaning to them really otherwise there's no point, it's what I think.
i don't listen to some Christian songs because music is horrible, lyrics don't mean anything, there's nothing profound in it, or the words just don't make sense--and that kinda makes me uncomfortable. I guess I should say this is coming from the point of view of a Christain, but still some of the music I think is bad whether lyric or instrumental wise lol

[spicy_sweets]

Flyleaffff. That's nostalgic! I think other than them, the only christian rock band I listened to was uhhh skillet.

And I didn't even notice they were christian.

[spadesart]

my discomfort stems from being aggressively forced to go to church and getting major sensory overload because their speakers are earsplittingly loud, but irt modern worship music and christian pop i just feel like theres such little variation between the songs? all of them just kind of meld together into one blur in my mind. similar keys, similar instruments, repetitive lyrics, etc. i really cant name a specific song name or any that stand out. unless you count i will wait? i used to like that one til i overplayed it. but im also just really picky since i tend to like less conventional/alternative styles.

daemon irrepit calidus goes hard as fuck tho

[racarter]

I’m assuming it’s because they think it’s all preachy.

I don’t listen to Christian music very often but I do enjoy bands like Thousand Foot Krutch. Normally in their songs it’s clear what they sing about but the wording is a little more ambiguous which means you can choose a different interpretation if you want.

Tho I don’t personally care for hymns. To me those seem more obligatory rather than done to be a genuine celebration of God.

That’s why I always liked Church Camp tho, they knew their audience throughout the years. As a kid, most of it was pop-poprockish stuff, or more upbeat and fun hymnal type songs. As I got older the camps were practically part concerts when it came to music. Most were more rock oriented but some were more soft rock with a country twist to it but not enough to make it Country. I may not have ended up fans of those bands but they were fun and a lot of the time their performances were more of a production. Plus they still had merch booths, where you can buy CDs.

These were actual straight up bands. So those I always enjoyed.

Tho I’m still waiting for the day I get to hear a Christian Rap Metal group. I mean, I guess POD sorta counts? I think? I’m not sure if they’re officially a Christian band or not and I’m too lazy to check. I just remember hearing something like that before. Then again TFK also tried the Rap Rock angle in the past, but I think it didn’t suit them too well.

Ah well, “Christian” describes the content rather than the style of music I think. Most people I’ve met who hate Christian music hate it purely because it’s Christian and they have to mantian their edgy anti-religion (but specifically Christian) militant atheism. One so called friend of mine even said she was going to set a group of Christians on fire for praying. And then I tackled her and threw her lighter away as far as I could. She was literally making her way over there, lighter out, ready to use it. Man that was a dark day. Then she threatened to set me on fire. And this other chick, who was a massive bitch, 100% supported her on it. Actually so did a lot of my friends, that or they were apathetic about setting people on fire.

Yeah. But I mean, militant atheists, if you’re religious they’ll assume you’re a dumb ignorant ape and will dismiss everything you say even if it’s “hey it’s wrong to set people on fire”.

Most non-militant atheists I know tend not to care for Christian music but some enjoy it. Because they think it’s good. It has nothing to do with being Christian or not.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Hm. So what I'm getting here is that (a) people who are less-religious/atheistic find it icky, and (b) it's too "in your face" with its God-praising themes.

I can understand (a), but (b) doesn't really make sense to me. Like...it's music made FOR praising God. That's literally its purpose. What else are they supposed to be saying??
And I know they could be more subtle about it, but I don't see why they should have to. People who write romance songs aren't required to be "more subtle" in order to gain approval. It's an unfair double standard...

And about hymns...I didn't even consider those, which is weird because those are the ones I love the most. ^^ But then I'm kind of a fan of classical music in general. I mean, listen to this:

I didn't even realize it was a hymn when I found it, and I honestly don't care. It's GORGEOUS regardless. I usually find Mozart pretty boring, but Requiem is one of my all-time faves.
I also guess I'm one of the blessed few who enjoy the hymns they hear in church, too. I love them a lot, partly because of nostalgia but mostly because the melodies are just so nice. I can appreciate them from a music-lover's point of view, not just a Christian point of view.