Rock, Metal, Rap Music and Christian Worship

It is good to praise the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High to proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning and Your faithfulness at night with the ten-stringed harp and the melody of the lyre.  (Psalm 92:1-3)

l have many good friends who are musicians who listen and play most of the genres and styles of music. Many close friends listen to all the genres in worship. I have no intention behind writing this blog to prove that listening to any style of music makes it inherently sinful, I have love for my brothers and sisters who would disagree with me, ultimately style of music is a neutral thing. Oh yes I get what normally is argued over style of music in worship. I think that when it comes to worship there are a number of elements considered in this blog. I am not going into the road of historically defined 'regulative and normative principle' debate, I believe if musical instruments have a place in the Bible therefore are allowed in worship. Someone would say, but the New Testament and early church didn't play it. I get it, but allowing it doesn't necessarily make it inherently sinful, otherwise the New Testament would have specifically condemned or denounced Old Testament use of musical instruments in worship.  Many unnecessarily distinguish Temple worship Vs Church in the New Testament in order to defy any use of musical instruments, I find it still lacking any strong evidence from the scripture. Worship is worship, whether in Temple of OT or in churches. There are no moral elements connected in and of itself with any musical instruments. Having said that,

I want to clear out a few blind spots that people often don't understand about Music and worship.

1) Music is not worship but means to worship.

2) Church is not the place where people come to enjoy music.

3) Worship is not feeling generated by musical style but by lyrics. 

4) Worship is not a tool to attract crowds, Worship is centered only for the Glory of the Lord. Aliaster Begg once said, 'Knowing is important in Worship not feeling'... Many argue I only play music for God but their expression of heart is nowhere connected with the Truth of the song. I argue , many secular musicians as well can argue , we play music in the song so we also play it for God, any person can argue I play for God , but do we sing music? Or do we sing Song?. If our heart is not connected with the truth of the song, we are simply enjoying music, that is called 'entertainment' but not worship. Worship  must involve your heart and mind in the song before you play it, Paul says, I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. (1 Co 14:15). Music serves the song for sure, but musical notes in and of itself is not worship, if I just play my drums and guitar and have no words to attach it to, it just becomes noise in front of the Lord. Whenever in the Bible 'playing musical instruments are mentioned' it is always attached with 'Singing words of truth'. For example, Psalmist says, " praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe' (Ps 150:4), one can not exclude two important words 'Praise' and 'with'. Praise precedes music, and it is praise that requires accompaniment of music not vice versa. (cf. Ps. 33:2, 144:9, 92:2-3, 149:3, Isaiah 38:20)  So, just the emotional feeling generated by soulful music is not worship. 

1] Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what about 'appetite particular genre' creates? 

- I learnt a beautiful lesson from a learned musician who turned to be worship leader and now pastor in the USA. He said, "It's not advisable to select songs that minister to you the most, we must think how the song enables everybody to worship together." We often like what our eyes and ears prefer. When it comes to corporate worship, worship leaders normally think which suits their emotional appetite the most, and so goes the song list for next sunday. We live in a music addictive society with invention of bluetooth earphones plugged in for some 18 hours a day in their ears, and continuous production of music, today easily in every song we simply measure up the scale of music and that determines for the most part 'enjoyable songs'. There are many songs where music is good but the depth of the lyrics is shallow. Because, Words are repetitive and often with erroneous theology. No wonder 'prosperity preachers took help of good music bands'. 

It is not the song itself now which decides the ratings of the 'top christian song chart' and popularity, but 'the presentation of musical arrangements'. I am not saying music is not at all important in worship, but at the same time 'attention is heavily over the top musical excellency' and lyrics are often downplayed.  I would suggest to my musical friends who are in worship teams, don't choose songs to create mood. We are looking for truth of the song, not the mood or music of the song. If you want a mood, eat Chocolate or go out and have some extra cheese burgers. What are we trying to do is the question here. We are not aiming for emotional satisfaction but to remember Christ and his word. Unfortunately some genres provide a potentially high risk of creating emotional appetite for music which is based on melody and beat, but Spiritual appetite which is based on deep lyrics is often misguided by the way you choose your genre and teach others the same. Choosing repetitive choruses is not wise, I don't say its sinful but 'not wise'. Because, when we often sing songs which has shallow depth words and sing same thing again and again , i.e. Lord you are glorious , Lord you are glorious, BUT WHY LORD IS GLORIOUS ? If the whole song is made of 3 statements singing 15 times, after 2-3 times it becomes just thoughtless chanting and music takes over our thought process.  That part requires deeper lyrics and more truths in the song to hold our thought process unhindered.  According to Col 3:16-17 , Let the word of Christ dwell in our songs. There are songs which provide truths about 'Sovereignty, Grace, Cross and much more' we want to enrich our hearts with exhaustive truths of the whole bible. For that matter, if you consider 'Hymns' as something big No,No over super-contemporary songs you have got a problem with 'wrong appetite in worship'. 

2] Rock Music and Worship?

Today heavy rock, death metal , punk rock not only are connected with drug addicts and satanic worship but they 'create a strong attention shift to music rather than lyrics'. Heavy rock is heavy because instrumentation is shifted to the forefront of the song and usually yelling and screaming death metals disrupts the normal focus on the song to the heavy noise these genres create. This is not the case in classical, soft country, Southern gospel,  worship genre which is mixing soft elements of drums and guitar until they make sure instrumentation is under the impression of lyrics and not override song attention from lyrics to music. Sometimes soft rock filling without making it overrule or squash the attention from lyrics makes worship songs really appropriate but when we are talking about a particular heavy rock genre, this is not normally true.  There is a constant struggle for Christian musicians to not give music the lead role but to actually 'serve' the lyrics. Genres where 'lyrics are in background' and they seem like serving 'music' is a road to pragmatism in worship. If I say, the style of the music has wordly underpinnings, but says some, Piano /drums were pagan once, yes ! But 'they necessarily do not shift the attention until you make them hyper musical noise in the song'. Any genre or instrumentation provides a potential platform to shift the focus from lyrics to 'style of music' , creating wrong attention in worship. Now let's dig into what I just mean. If a little lack of 'self-conscious effort' could shift attention from lyrics to mere enjoyment of musical vibes, now imagine how much the genres which are designed for 'specific platforms giving boost to musical vibes' are capable of shifting the focus. Because 'rock,metal,punk, and rap' Instrumentation is known for their over the top sound arrangements'. Rock isn't rock unless it is backed up with heavy guitar tunes played at high amplification. The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. (J..M. Curtis, Rock Eras: Interpretations of Music and Society, 1954–1984- Madison, WI: Popular Press, 1987), Technically 'rock and metal can't be played softly because that's what they are made of'. You can't have sweet chillies , because chillies are never sweet. The very vehicle that 'rock,metal,punk' genre carries 'requires heavy sound and  the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain and distortion tones uniquely designed for these genres, produces a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Which inevitably makes the music lead role 'flashy' in the song that is why  it achieves the desired 'Heavy rock' title. Now, says one, but the same mistake and argument can be applied to any genre because any musician can over-amplify instruments over the lyrics, rightly said, but we are specifically talking about 'specific genres that require such a platform without which you can not perform those genre songs'. And by the way again every musician should feel constant attention whether or not he is allowing music amplification to go beyond the vocals. 3] What about Metal Music and Worship?

Metal music is unquestionably giving very less chance for 'lyrics concentrated songs', In the late 1960s, a harder form of rock music called "heavy metal" was invented. The first use of the term was in a 1968 song by Steppenwolf, "Born to be Wild". The electric guitar in heavy metal is always amplified through powerful amplifiers so that it has a loud, distorted, angry sound. Other bands such Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Eric Burdon and Alice Cooper played even louder, harder forms of heavy metal rock music. Another type of heavy metal in the 1980s was called "thrash metal" or "thrash." Thrash metal bands played a faster, more aggressive type of heavy metal rock. Thrash metal bands such as Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer had many fans. Head banging and flash-mob kind of technically derived term 'mosphit' are undoubtedly connected in this genre in case you are concerned about 'negative associations that promote culture attached with it'. Two other styles of heavy metal music, "death metal" and "black metal" are very angry, fast music. A normal person who does not pay heavy intense concentration to vocals will have a much harder time listening to death metal or black metal because it is much faster, louder, and more aggressive than other types of music. I am not saying 'you can't perceive the lyrics in Metal' but In order to pay attention to the lyrics your mind has to give scuffled fight between very little window you get in attending lyrics. In Metal as often said, the singers usually do not sing, but instead they growl or roar to make the songs more intense. This makes it harder to hear the lyrics (words) and most people are not used to singers who use their voice in this way. One can scarcely imagine Worship Metal songs, it is way too scuffled for Worship Songs. To achieve moderate sound under the lyrics is very much manageable if the genres are classical, soft contemporary, country, southern etc, because these genres don't require or give a platform for the instrumentation to go unrestrained arrangements. Not that I give a check list of which genres are my favorites and which you should listen to, rather I am giving you the reason which genres are providing better room for vocals to be center and musical arrangements are in the position to actually serve the song. You don't want to pick up a genre where the musical arrangements become very much cloudy and over-powering , this can include any genre. Well, says some but what if 'same argument is applied to normal drum rhythm and keyboard, should we then clear off all instruments'? Absolutely not, that's why I said 'musicians should always be under self-restraint not to glorify instruments but to serve the lyrics'. Any musician who doesn't love the Lord of the song but his display of music by giving extra attentive amplification becomes disruption to the worship.   4] Rap Music and worship?

First of all Congregation can't join you which is the main point in corporate worship. Secondly but some say, what if I listen in my separate playlist? Of course not sinful but there are certain things to consider. Rap is a genre of music defined by its rhythmic lyrics spoken or chanted over a (usually) syncopated and repetitive beat. Christian rap music follows the same musical pattern but with lyrics that tie into the Christian faith. The question of whether or not Christian rap music is appropriate is a matter left up to the individual, but there are still some biblical points to consider. Rap has a track record of being profane, violent, and sexual. Unfortunately, this reputation is pretty well earned. A good chunk of mainstream pop music is rap or hip-hop, and a good chunk of the accompanying themes have to do with illicit sex and the objectification of men and women. Because of these associations, some people have trouble separating the lyrics they expect to hear from secular rap from the lyrics that are actually being spoken in Christian rap. Rap has what I call 'psychological images' attached with it, which is very much with immoral culture in the society, you may not be aware but unless you track down your disciples or some younger Christians who actually start thinking about all compromises which the rap community at large comprises. Moreover, just like metal , Rap also provides very little window to actually think over 'lyrics' and understand it and then sing. Paul says, I will sing with my mind (1 Cor. 14), we don't just want to enjoy the beat which is usually so fast in rap that singing just becomes cloudy and unattended , you can rap nicely but not necessarily thinking over every word that you sing, because I believe rap utterance is usually faster than our mind can actually process and connect every word with the Lord and understand it and express gratitude about it to the Lord. Unless you are superhuman, no normal person can pick up a thought in the middle of a rap song, you constantly have to be in the struggle maintaining the fast chased lyrics which gives a scuffled window for thinking over it. If there are rich songs available in other genres why to prefer something which provides potential attention shifts to beat and vibes rather than lyrics. If you say, well I can adjust my mind with fast lyrics, what about your young disciple who is taking example from you creating wrong appetite or emotionalism in worship, let alone get attached with the rap community ? Gangsta rap has been recurrently accused of promoting disorderly conduct and broad criminality, especially assault, homicide, and drug dealing, as well as misogyny, promiscuity, and materialism according to LA Times. According to one New York Magazine, The Beastie Boys were one of the first popular groups to identify themselves as "gangsters", and one of the first popular rap groups to talk about violence and drug and alcohol use, though largely in a more humorous manner. They had started out as a hardcore punk band. Not necessarily every form of rap is literally Gangsta rap, but unavoidably all the baggage this genre carries with it, gives a whole new compromise level to the hip-hop culture mindset. If you say, 'that's not my responsibility' , that is not good discipleship.  However, it is also important to note that, even if Christian rap has a positive effect for you, it might have a negative effect on someone within earshot. The moment our personal preferences overrule our love for our brother is the moment we’ve sinned (1 Corinthians 10:23,24,31).

In conclusion, that is why Christian Contemporary Music genre mostly known today has been created out of the Gospel Music genre which were mainly hymns and Progressive Southern Gospel or Old Bluegrass all came out of making 'words in forefront and music served it'. Which postmodern genre like Rock, pop, Punk, metal, rap takes too lightly and gives way too much appetite for instrumentation and flashy amplification. I say let us do whatever we do for the glory of God, yes we have freedom but we also have freedom to let go our preferences for the sake of the Kingdom of God.