YOU DON'T NEED NASHVILLE #5: BEING "CHRISTIAN"

The fifth reason you MIGHT not need a Christian record deal? You might not be "Christian".

Despite various definitions floating around town there is really only one answer to the question "What is Christian music?" that most of us in Nashville Christian music business actually live by daily. This answer doesn't come from wise philosophers like Frankie Schaeffer or Charlie Peacock or from the Gospel Music Association. You won't find it in print at a Christian music seminar either. Instead this answer is arrived at by looking at what the music coming out of Christian labels actually is, who it is consumed by, not what we aspire for it to be or what God has defined it as in some as-yet-unfound appendix to scripture.

Christian music IS, today in Nashville, music made by professing Christians, intended for play on radio stations listened to primarily by professing Christians, and sold primarily to professing Christians. Christian music IS by and for Christians.

We could argue endlessly for a deeper more utopian and ecclesiastical definition - and I think we should - but such definitions are not true NOW. We don't do business by those ideal definitions yet and this is a series about the reality of the music business today - not what we'd prefer it to be tomorrow. TODAY Christians are the consumers of Christian music, just as Christians are the hearers of church preachers.

I received a call from a friend of a friend of a friend one evening a couple years ago. This young sounding rock n' roll rasp on the other end of the line asked me if he should sign a record deal with a well-known Christian label. I asked, "Why do you make music? What's the point?"

He seemed annoyed. I didn't seem to be answering the question he'd asked. He wanted to know if signing was profitable, if that label was effective etc. I wanted to know what his goal was, how God made him to function. I've actually asked this same question (Why do you do what you do?) of every artist I know and some have no real answer. The usual answer is a more flowery incarnation of "I'm a Christian and I make music so I make Christian music." Lame. That's not enough to get me through the hard days of this job.

I'm a preacher. I wish I wasn't. I wish I was cooler than that. My goal is reformation of the Church. I want to upset the comfortable to the point that we live a life together characterized by comforting the upset, making peace and taking away from institutions and governments all that we God intended US (His People) to do in the first place. That's my point. That doesn't mean I forget about being creative or entertaining but it means the undercurrent of everything I do, the general direction of every tangent I take, is reforming the Christian view of God by communicating the bible and retelling my own experiences with both.

That bend in me fits perfectly with the machine that is Christian music. I am very happy in my occupation because it is helpful in living out my vocation. I'm am a pastor in soft-rock star clothing.

The raspy rocker on the phone, however, eventually explained to me that his goal was to make music for non-Christians and Christians alike while still being distinctively Christian in the way he lived, but not necessarily in his lyrical content. Like a plumber or an architect who happens to believe in Christ, he wanted to do the work of a rock star while having the heart of a Christ-follower.

My advice to him? Don't sign a Christian record deal with a Nashville label. It's still my advice to you today. If Christian labels aren't good at helping you do what you know you were made to do, don't sign with them.

Two problems with this advice though. 1) You may not KNOW who you are and what you're here for yet. Man, that' a hard thing to figure out. Takes time. Don't rush into a deal because you fear the chance might not come around again or because you're not getting any younger. Better not to have a deal than to have one that makes you miserable as you slowly discover you were made for another audience.

2) Label's lie. It's actually spin but that's just fancy for lying sometimes isn't it? Or maybe they're just wishful thinkers who get it wrong. They'll tell you what they'd LIKE to see happen with you and your music in language that makes you think it WILL happen. Look at a label's track record for the truth and ask the hard questions that may upset but will always reveal the true character of an exec. For instance, if a label has no history of marketing music primarily to the general market ask why they've decided to start now with you - why haven't they marketed outside the church before? If they say they have, ask why it didn't work before and what's changed since then that will insure greater success this time around. Is your music that much better? If a label claims to have successfully crossed someone over before, ask for specifics on how that happened. Then try to ask that artist the same thing. (Artists are much easier to reach than you might think.) You'll find the answers are often different - I have. A label may say they got a song in a film when in reality a manager did, or a publisher, for example. Ask tough questions and take your time. This is a marriage you'll be in for years. Better to make sure this is a match at the purpose and passion level and not just a romance with a pretty face.

That raspy-voiced guitar slinger didn't take this advice though. Now, having been signed for a while, he's frustrated and angry at times because he draws an audience who doesn't get him, doesn't excite him, and wants him to be something he isn't.

God made him different from them - different from me - not better, just different. He's another part of the Body, the part that doesn't sing only for the Body. You may be different too. That's OK.

So, who are you? What is it you love about making music? Where is it God seems to use you most? Can you be content making music that will primarily be marketed to and heard by other Christians? Are you made to serve Christians in some way: entertainment, encouragement, discipleship, teaching, anything?? If not, you need Nashville as much as a raspy-throated rock n roller needs to play another Baptist youth camp.

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