I'm almost ready to start taking Christian music seriously again. I don't mean the way I did when I had pictures of MxPx and Hoi Polloi all over my wall from ages 14-17, but there's just so much weird crap going on in the murky territory of Bands that are Marketed to Christians ... such as, I don't know: Family Force 5. These guys are doing what U.S.E. already has (hot pants, songs are always about LOVE, equal parts Daft Punk and Andrew W.K., sweaty and sexual but oddly chaste, crypto-Christian*) but somehow moreso, and in the Bible Belt. (The best part is that they used to be a band called the Brothers, a Christian version of Hanson.)
What is this strange web of money, marketing, music, and genuine fandom (and dare I say idol worship? Dare I?) that makes a band like Family Force 5 "work" as a Christian Band? Why do they and so many others choose the weird world of touring the churches, Christian colleges, Bible bookstores, and Jesus-Fests of suburban America? Because more and more I'm convinced that it is only this choice -- that ultimately the band has to be responsible for, or they wouldn't sign the contracts, right? -- that makes Christian music possible. It is true: you can get paid for playing music to kids who won't, for some reason, listen to KROQ or whatever, who need to know that deep down, whoever is delivering them their rap-rock or their trip-hop or their R&B (non)sex-jams is an Evangelical, or hangs out with Evangelicals. I don't blame these kids for it, don't hold them at fault. I just marvel at the weird world they help create. That I helped create.
(*Can I copyright this phrase? I love it.)
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