BellaOnline Forums Books and Music Gospel and Christian Music Inspirational music vs. gospel

To me, when I was growing up, gospel music had more of a meaning of what salvation was all about. It talked about Jesus, salvation, his death, his blood and the rapture but today, its all about "wordly" (secular) music with a few feel-good words that supposedly makes you feel good.

What do you think? Is it about emotional feel goods or reminders of what and who the Savior is really all about?

I think it is sad that so many churches are being torn apart over "which music is better".

Praise music, gospel songs, and hymns are essentially the same thing - songs to praise God.

Different people are moved by different types of music.

Just like in the secular world; some people love country, some rock, some rap. In the church it is the same. Some people are more comfortable with the hymns. They can sing all the verses because they have them memorized from singing them for so many years. Others love the praise music because they can basically offer up their praises to God without haveing to worry about whether they are messing up a verse they don't know.

Personally I think churches should offer both types of music.

Hymns have beautiful words, much like poems that are outpourings of the writer's soul; and I believe that by completely abandoning them we are robbing the youth today of some amazing insights.

But for the older generations to refuse to sing praise songs is dismissing this generation's feelings. True that words in these songs are not as complex - it is more about feelings, but does that make them any less real? We should have feelings and emotions about God. We should get caught up in praising Him.

This is just one more issue that Satan is using to weaken God's people and tear His house apart.

The music should be about Him, not about us.

The Catholic church went through some music controversy in the years after Vatican 11, which encouraged the exploration and use of newer types of music. For a while some parishes held separate services for "folk" and traditional music. One service would have a guitar group and the other used the organ and parishoners had strong feelings about which one they prefered. But after a while the split seemed to mend itself as people became more accustomed to the newer music, and now I enjoy singing all sorts of music in church, from the oldest Latin chants to the newer pieces, with all the stops between. However, the REALLY pop styles have not yet made it into the average Catholic church.

I feel as Michelle does, that the words of a song/hymn are most important. To me, the song is a prayer, and as a cantor I try hard to make every word understandable to the people. The music adds a layer of expression to the words, and I love to make it beautiful, but the prayer is the reason for the song.

The Christmas services at my parish were wonderful! The choir sang a half hour of Christmas songs before the main service began, and some of them were those beloved old carols like "Silent Night" and "Adeste Fidelis" and others newer popular Christmas songs, and the last one was a powerful contemporary Christmas song by David Haas called "Great Joy" that began, "Great light in darkness, great joy! A child is born and there will be peace, alleluia!"
I was the soloist for that piece, it was a difficult one to learn and I was SO nervous about it that my knees were shaking like mad, and I was SO glad that I had worn a long skirt so nobody could tell! Luckily I had to sing it at the 2 Christmas day services as well and by the third time I felt much more comfortable belting it out.

Sticking specifically with the gospel genre, I think it depends on the artist/group/writer.

I think too, writers have added diversity by talking about life after salvation. As an example, Brooklyn Tab has a song called "Thou O Lord".

I don't recall it talking about salvation, but the lyrics "thou o Lord are a shield for me" are scripture, and I think relate more to life after salvation as I mentioned.

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely some feel good only songs, but I think too there is more of a choice.