Like a good Christian music listener, you look at lyrics before you listen to music. Good for you. This of course keeps us all safe from “bad” music, right?

Let’s be blunt: to think that a lyric alone is what makes a song bad or good defies reason. After all, the whole point of a song is that it brings  words and music together. In particular, to think that a song is “good” if it mentions Jesus – and even BETTER if it mentions Jesus 5 times! – and “bad” if it doesn’t will only suffice as a method of discernment if you are the most extreme type of binary thinker.

For example, your 17-year-old son sends you an email one day asking if you will allow him to listen to the following song. You read the lyrics, and to your surprise you can sing along as you read (or so you think):

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed;
Refrain:

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

“Praise God!” you say, “That boy has got a good head on his shoulders.”

By that method – which, believe me, MANY people use – the basic rule of discernment for a Christian parent is illustrated:

Basic Rule of Discernment:

Regardless of the style in which these lyrics are sung, we have no choice but to give this song a “thumbs up”.

This is the thinking that has ruled for some time now, as long as Christian parents have sought to be discerning about the music that enters their homes via their teenagers.

Now, take a listen to music that accompanies the above lyrics:

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I think you’ll agree that the first 40 seconds are quite pleasant. After that, I imagine it’s a split decision. The above song is by a band called “Becoming the Archetype”, whose musical genre is best described as “Christian Death Metal”. By the way, If you think about Stryper when you hear the words “Christian” and “Metal” together, you need to stop wearing spandex – we’re a long way there my friend.

But back to the point – the big question is this: Does the delivery method affect the message? You can make this point in a live setting (which I did with our Youth last summer – it was quite amusing) by doing the following:

1. Choose a volunteer (It’s important that they don’t know about it ahead of time)

2. In your most pleasant voice and while patting the person on the back, say something like “Joel, I’m going to do you a favor!”

3. Observe the emotional and physical response of the volunteer. Mine was quite pleased. Hey, who doesn’t want someone to do them a favor?

4. Reset the stage.

5. Now say the same thing except scream it at the top of your lungs, have a very angry look on your face, and lunge at the person as if you’re going to strangle them.

This works perfectly to illustrate what the phrase “The medium IS the message” is all about. When I smile and pat you on the back while offering to do you a favor, you probably think the favor is going to be something good; when I scream those words and lunge at you, you probably think the opposite.

Let’s apply this to musical style: Does the style or method in which words are delivered have any effect on the message they communicate? It’s obvious from the example above that is does. Is something different communicated when the lyrics to “How Great Thou Art” are wrapped in a musical style like that of the above song? Yep. But what is it? And what is the difference between what is communicated by those lyrics delivered by Becoming the Archetype as opposed to, say, Randy Travis singing them over a soft bed of slow Country Gospel?

Unfortunately, at this point I can’t offer you a new magic bullet matrix of discernment; I can only say that the old “lyric-only”, binary “Mentions Jesus=good / Doesn’t Mention Jesus=bad” method has to go.

One more thing… It would be enormously dishonest of me to omit the following confessions: I really like this type of music (although not this band/song in particular… since it is both derivative and cliche). I listened to it when I was younger, and I still do occasionally. I can honestly say that it emboldened my faith – at whatever level of maturity I was at when I was in my late teen years.

Far from seeing metal music as indecipherable noise (which, ok, some of it is), I see it as music requiring much musical skill, many hours of practice, and a lot energy to pull off.

In fact, sometime in the next couple of months I plan on putting up a series of posts on the history and current state and varied sub-genres within the metal genre.

The above observations are not those of someone who “doesn’t understand” what’s involved or who shakes his head and says “those crazy kids – they’ll grow out of it.”… Au contraire – I have been in real mosh pits (not happy jumping clubs like kids go to now); I spent years of my life immersed in these styles, albeit in the Christian versions of them; some of my best friends are in great metal bands (and of course, they’re going to comment on these thoughts, right guys?)

So don’t get defensive…or angry.