In a nutshell: I’m getting concerned with the lack of exciting new Christian music.
The past two weeks have found my Top 10 list invaded by K-Pop artists. Super Junior is obviously tops on the playlist (their Super Junior Happy incarnation is finding massive airplay), and I’ve got songs too from SHINee, SS501, Girls’ Generation, and, odds are this week, another addition from an early 2009 release by Lee Hyun Ji and SHINee’s Onew, a track called Vanilla Love. It’s the first time since I can remember that there hasn’t been a single Contemporary Christian song in my Top 10, a far cry from just six months ago, when every song in the list was a current Christian single.
I don’t think this is an infatuation with KPop as much as it is an indication that I’m getting a little bored with the new stuff coming in from Christian Adult Contemporary. Looking at the Top 25 songs, very few connect to me, and it’s the same artists charting well. TobyMac. Casting Crowns. Kutless. Chris Tomlin. Same old, same old. To my knowledge, only Sidewalk Prophets, at #4 with The Words I Would Say, and Chris and Conrad, at #10 with Lead Me to the Cross, are the only artists in the Top 10 enjoying their first hit singles. The Top 20 has slightly more (Among the Thirsty, Chasen, and Pocketful of Rocks), but that’s a pretty sad batting average.
Also, female artists are suffering on the chart: the highest ranked female vocal is #8, as Lacey Mosley sings with Third Day on Born Again, then after that, it’s #20 with Pocketful of Rocks’ Alive, then Francesca Battistelli’s It’s Your Life (#21) then my girl Mandisa, who couldn’t make the Top 20 with He Is With You (currently down two notches to #24. Chynna & Vaughan sputtered out with One Reason, which failed to go past #40.
I’m getting a bit bored with the current crop. It also doesn’t help that my favorite Christian artists seem to be relegated now to Inspo (Avalon, Nicole C. Mullen, Selah), working on new material (Matthew West), or seem to have dropped off the face of the Earth (where are you, Warren Barfield?)
Is there any current Contemporary Christian song you’re enjoying right now that isn’t charting on the Top 20 of Billboard’s Christian charts? Please post a link to YouTube or MySpace so I can swing by and listen to it and hopefully discover more new Christian music. :)
