Cardi B Shares Alleged Text From Chef at Center of Stefon Diggs Scandal Shitty response. Does she think that text makes the accuser look bad or in any way discredits her testimony?
'Stuck' Singer Stacie Orrico Files Childhood Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Her Former Manager Alleging 'Profound Harm' Always wondered what happened to her. She had two big songs and just kind of stopped doing anything. What an awful thing to experience, especially as a kid.
I forgot about her, dang. Fucking horrible what she went through. Hope she’s able to find more healing from all that. Of course she was signed to Forefront Records, the same major CCM label that Tait was on. Don’t really see anything about how active it is today, except that TobyMac’s albums are still at least partly under that banner. I doubt I wanna know how many more stories there are from that corner of religious music; may others get the chance to share their stories (to whatever extent they want to) and see some measure of justice.
horrible stuff. i remember hearing that she was on TikTok a few years ago hinting at prior instances of abuse from people in the mainstream and Christian industries (supposedly alleging that record executive L.A. Reid was also culpable/involved). hope she gets the justice she deserves. throw that whole fucking industry away
Damn, this is awful and infuriating. Was such a big fan of hers and got the chance to meet her after a show around 2001~2002. She was so cool and kind. I hate that she's had to live with this all this time. That entire CCM industry is just completely and utterly morally bankrupt. Sickening.
Can someone give me a TLDR about what exactly CCM music is? Is that the worship music that proliferates radio stations that take over commercial stations or is it different?
it's music with a message rooted in conservative Evangelical Christian beliefs and lifestyles without explicitly showing extreme reverence for God the same way that worship songs do (even though both kinds get lumped into the same category when talking about the industry as a whole). sometimes there's crossover into the mainstream music industry as well, but most of the time the genre is pretty insular.
Ah so like....are Switchfoot and Relient K considered CCM or is that basically secular at this point?
Yeah, CCM stands for “contemporary Christian music” and includes a whole lot of stuff that isn’t outright worship music. Though that market isn’t from what I understand as big a thing as it was at its peak. Youth groups will still go to things like Winter Jam or Skillet concerts, but a lot of it is stuff that either can exist in secular spaces or the kinda worship that churches can play in their services. Switchfoot and Relient K are bands that successfully ride the line, being able to play CCM centric events but also exist outside of that.
i'd classify them as CCM-adjacent at this point in their careers. don't think either band really did a whole lot that was in line with what many would call "worship" music, but Switchfoot has at least dipped their toes in and out of the CCM waters the past couple decades (i think they might've been hesitant about being associated with the label, but they made arguably their most "Christian" album in years like a decade ago and seemed to still associate with those in the industry, although supposedly they might be trying to move away from the label again with their next album?). i don't pay as much attention to RK as others on this site, but i think they haven't really used the label or been involved with the scene in a long time.
CCM is Christian music not intended for use in church worship settings, and more in the adult contemporary genres. Switchfoot and RK both are more on the Christian rock side - bands made up of Christians, who write songs with Christian themes, but marketing is not the same. In my mind at least, CCM is the Christian parallel to pop (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, etc) and Christian rock is more adjacent to bands like Foo Fighters, Nickelback, etc.
When Christian bookstores were a bigger thing, there would famously be those recommendation lists where, if you like so and so secular band, here’s a more Christian alternative. When a band (especially like a peak Tooth and Nail band) would talk about being “Christians in a band” vs “a Christian band,” essentially what they were navigating was how much they could have religious lyrics and get into those evangelical events while still having success on the radio or at Warped Tour, etc.
was thinking about those lists a couple days ago, haha. some of the comparisons were spot on, and others made me laugh, even at a young age.
They've both definitely distanced themselves over time, but I'd classify both as CCM bands, especially in the 2000s. At least the first three Relient K albums were released by Gotee, which I believe is a subsidiary of Forefront Records.
i definitely think their audience is either largely Christian or former Christians who listen for the sake of nostalgia. for Switchfoot at least, The Beautiful letdown was released on a major label, and i think they explicitly tried to shrug off the CCM label from that album up until i think their 10th (Where the Light Shines Through). those first 3 albums of theirs though i'd definitely place firmly in the CCM category.
CCM as it once existed has definitely taken a back seat to the worship centric era that took off in the mid 2000s and has never really let up since. The 90s to early 2000s were, like, peak CCM. Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, Carman, Ray Boltz, Avalon, Point of Grace, Phillips Craig & Dean, Chris Rice (yikes!), Caedmon’s Call, Plus One, The Newsboys, DC Talk, The O.C. Supertones, and on and on and on the list goes. That era was another world compared to the CCM that exists today.
As someone who has been a forever atheist, the "Christian music scene" always used to bug the shit out of me even though I liked some of the more secular bands. I recognize that as a middle age man now that was probably annoyingly self-righteous of me but there was always this weird smugness under-the-surface of a lot of those acts/scenes that left a bad taste in mouth.
damn, lots of those names take me back. my dad worked in Christian and country radio many decades ago, so i always had exposure to a good chunk of these artists (i think Plus One might've been the first concert i ever went to, although that might've also had to do with the fact that one of the members was from my hometown, so lots of local churchgoers were excited). the industry is terrible (probably always has been), but some genuinely decent music came out of that time period.
Basically the only Christian artist I still follow today is Lauren Daigle, who from the outside seems pretty naive and surely believes stupid things that’d upset me, but also seems genuinely super well meaning with joyful vibes. (Cue a story that puts a damper on that, lol.) I did still like revisiting some dc Talk, etc., now and then up until the Tait shit show really broke open. But now there’s more apprehension on which artists’ voices I still care to hear. Like, blah blah blah ethical consumption etc, there are long dead shitty people with work I find beauty in. But, there’s a limit to how much I’m willing to engage in a machine that rotten, even if certain people in that machine are maybe not directly culpable.
i'm in the same boat. i might throw on Nothing Is Sound every year or so for nostalgia sake, but too much of it is built on shit that i don't want to be associated with anymore (and haven't been in a very long time)
As someone who was raised ultra-Christian and is currently not attending church, but still spiritual... I also have been annoyed for a long time by that same smug self-righteousness. Yes, every scene has it, but the Christians really made that attitude their whole identity. The 90's evangelical to MAGA pipeline had to start somewhere, after all.