I think this is a fascinating topic and I’m glad Shaun got quoted in the article. I totally agree with him and I think people automatically link Christian radio with “faith influenced” and secular radio with “not faith influenced” and there is more of a tie-in to being “faith influenced” if you take a sampling of the best of all genres (country, R&B, Rock, Pop, and Christian) and not think only Christian radio is the way to go. Now, to do that, ironically it means you can’t listen to one radio station because one doesn’t exist that I know of that plays all of those genres of music. But on my iPod, that’s what I listen to. I posted on the music part of Shaun’s blog that 3 of my top 5 favorite artists (including Shaun) are Christian and 2 are secular. However, my 2 favorite secular artists are Live and Collective Soul and most of their lyrics are very “faith influenced”.
On the other hand, 2 of my favorite Christian artists, Shaun and Matt Redman, don’t get a whole lot of Christian radio airplay so I don’t have much choice to hear their music other than to buy their CD’s. Overall, I generally like the selection on my local Christian radio station and it is the best it’s been in years, but it’s too repetitive and not original enough for me to listen to exclusively and I think people are missing out if they don’t seek out “faith influenced” secular music as well. My pastor recently said as Christians in the secular world we can accomplish more by supporting the good that can be found in media (Rocky Balboa’s faith message in the new movie for example) than by simply trying to isolate ourselves from the secular world.
Thanks for your comments Shaun in the article and I look forward to the next 3 parts of the series. Kevin
