I've had to do this for forever. But I finally decided to post these after I heard my two favorite songs on the radio a couple days ago, after forever. So, I'm going to post my top 10 songs.
NBARDEN'S 10 FAVORITE SONGS
1. Strong Tower- Kutless. Amazing song. Great message, great beat, I have to give this song two thumbs up.
2. Creed- Third Day. ANOTHER amazing song. Tough call deciding whether I liked Strong Tower or Creed better, but finally decided on Strong Tower because of the beat. Still, what can be more powerful than simply putting the Apostle's Creed to music? Especially to a harpsichord.
3. Stay- Jeremy Camp. I like Jeremy Camp a lot. His music has great lyrics, which is refreshing to see. See my previous post for my thoughts on lyrics. However, his song Stay HAS to be his best ever, mostly for musical quality.
4. Lifesong- Casting Crowns. Amazing beat. What more can I say? Lyrics are good as well.
5. Let It Fade- Jeremy Camp. Simple, but with amazing lyrics. Jeremy Camp is just plain awesome, and this song in particular rocks.
6. Things Left Unsaid- Disciple. Every now and then, a song comes by with lyrics that affect you so deeply that you ignore the music completely. Fortunately, I don't have to do that with this soing. Disciple in general is to hard for my listening, but this song is the exception with great music. However, the outstanding part of the song is the lyrics. I strongly recommend everyone get this song and listen to the lyrics. Closely.
7. High of 75- Relient K. Uplifting lyrics are awesome, but who doesn't like a Relient K beat? Add in some awesome guitar (I've been informed that its not that difficult, but its still awesome) and you have a winning song.
8. Who I Am Hates Who I've Been- Relient K. Gotta love this song all around. Great lyrics, but the musical value is exceptional. Great chorus in particular, and itg even has a small hint of reggae thrown in.
9. Numb (Cardboard)- Family Force 5. Okay, so the lyrics are lame. Oh well. You gotta love the music. Krunk is awesome, but unfortunately, I've yet to see it put to strongly Christian lyrics. See previous post for my standard on that. Still, the music is completely amazing, the only reason its not in my top 5 is the lyrics.
10. Rebirthing- Skillet. To hard for ordinary listening, the lyrics are decent, when understandable. However, what makes this song amazing is what they do with the synthesizer. Its not on my list for everyday listening, but it has to make the top 10 because of the synthesizer.
11 and beyond. Honorable mention to Skillet's "Savior", Stephen Curtis Chapman's "Live out Loud" and "Dive," tobyMac's "The Slam," "Irene," "Gone," "Ignition," "No Ordinary Love," "Lose My Soul" and "Burn for You," Casting Crowns' "Praise You In This Storm," Family Force 5's "Kountry Gentleman," and Switchfoot's "Awakening" and "Gone."
I've got to start this blogging again. :P Oh well. I guess when I have something profound to say, or a lot of time on my hands, I'll blog.
SO, since I have NO time on my hands, I must have something REALLY profound. Or not. But I'm gonna post it anyway.
"Is this one for the people? Is this one for the Lord? Or do I simply serenade for things I must afford?" ~DC Talk, "What If I Stumble?" Jesus Freak.
I love that quote. Its amazing, and sums up the trouble that bands face. AS SUCH, I am not here to criticize, but to propose that we re-examine what we consider, "Christian."
MUSIC
Christian Music- This music is Christian. Meaning that Christ is sung about in a positive manner. Notice that this does NOT necessarily mean that Christ is mentioned explicitly. However, distinctly Christian principles are present, clearly differentiating from other forms of music. By the way, this kind of music covers ALL genre, as it is the lyrics that make music Christian. For this reason, I'll put the genre in front of the songs I examine. Some examples of this kind of music: -Worship: Newsboys "He Reigns." In this music, God is mentioned repeatedly. -Rock: Jeremy Camp "Let It Fade." An interesting case, God or Christ is NOT mentioned at all, but I believe this song is Christian because the song is entirely about throwing off the old self and putting on the new. -Rap/Rock: tobyMac "The Slam." Again, numerous references to Christ. Listen to the opening line. "God's in the spot, you can like it or not." Accompanied by references to the life of John the Baptist as well as Jesus Christ, this music is CLEARLY Christian -Rap: KJ-52 "Dear Slim" This song is written as a letter to secular rapper Eminem calling him to accountability on his immorality. However, that isn't all. KJ-52 witnesses to Eminem and all who listen to this music by rapping the salvation message. I don't like hardcore rap, but I make exception with this song. You can't beat the lyrics. -Grunge Rock: DC Talk, "Jesus Freak" The entire album. This album is COMPLETELY and EXPLICITLY Christian in every song. Although the genre, Grunge Rock, seems to be from a culture that isn't the strongest on Christianity, Jesus Freak provides an alternative to the depressing lyrics usually found in that genre. It also started the whole CCM craze. "Christian" Music- This music is from bands that consider themselves "Christian," however the messages are shallow, or can be read to have different meanings. Is this music bad? Not necessarily. I'll get to that in a minute. However, the sad thing is that these bands are watering down the gospel message. Here's the example of some of the songs, again, with genre. -Punk Rock: ReliantK "High of 75" A great song. I love this music. However, although the message of "took my heavy heart and made it light" can obviously be interpreted to have Christian meanings, it saddens me to hear a Christian band tone down the message of the gospel so that its acceptable to everyone, ignoring the MAINSTREAM success of the album Jesus Freak, which cares nothing for marketability and simply proclaims the gospel unashamedly. However, as I said, this does NOT mean that this music is wrong to listen to, as it has a positive message that is encouraging and uplifting. -Metal: Red- "Breathe Into Me" Again, a vague reference to Christ, and easily overlookable. -Rock: Skillet- "Rebirthing" A vague reference to calling out for someone, felling his presence, sounds Christian, eh? But in other sections of the lyrics, in sends out some conflicting messages, making you wonder, "What are these people singing about?" Again, this song is not necessarily bad, but although appearing "Christian" this song isn't.
Non-Christian "Christian" Music- This music, unfortunately, doesn't even TRY to appear to be Christian. The music, although not negative and by Christian artists, fail miserably at sharing the gospel. -Punk Rock: ReliantK "I So Hate Consequences" So, you can go through an ENTIRE song about ditching your life, running away, being to chicken to face up to your problems and then come back in the end and say "God, you accepted me back"? I don't think so.
I'm not going to post too many songs here, because its not for me to judge, but I would like you to be aware of the kind of music you listen to.
In short, the CCM movement has been drifting away from Christianity as a whole. Ironically, there are only two genres it appears haven't lost focus. (1). Worship. Worship music has always been worship music. It will never change, the beat in general is NOT marketable to the general public, in contrast to other genres, so this would be the genre that you would expect to stay the same. However, the other genre might surprise you. (2). Hip-Hop/Rap. Shocking. But true. It seems that in the filth of secular hip-hop, probably the MOST obscene, explicit genre out there, Christian artists haven't lost their focus and stayed VERY focused on Christ. They disregard marketability of their albums and try to live out the call of Jesus in their lives. I would also like to point out how THE biggest Christian hip-hop/rap artist out their, tobyMac (NOTICE: To prevent objections to the genre, if you REALLY want to get into technicalities, he's Hip-Hop/Rap/Rock/Reggae/Techno, but PRIMARILY Hip-Hop), has ALWAYS stuck to his convictions, from his days in DC Talk to his solo career. Maybe, and this is just a thought, if these bands threw out marketability and instead sang for Christ, they would be blessed in that.
Okay, I'm really in big trouble now. Exams tomorrow.
Okay, here's the promised post. The Luis Palaus Heartland Festival.
Two days of awesome music, great preaching, and a great evangelical opportunity. It was awesome. I'm not going to even guess how many people showed up, I'll leave it at "a lot."
Anyway, I went on Saturday. Mandissa, KJ-52, Salvador, Building 429 and tobyMac performed. It was awesome!
FYI, Salvador and Building 429 are much better on CD than in concert. Although Building 429 was definitely fun to watch...
Oh yeah, tobyMac was just downright awesome! If you think the CDs are awesome, go to a concert! He's definitely my favorite artist now.
The preaching was awesome, but what really spoke was the music. Especially the rapper I'm focusing on in this post, KJ-52. Before hearing him in concert, I just dismissed him as a hard-core rapper. I'm not a particular fan of hard-core rap. I prefer rap with a bounce (i.e. No Ordinary Love by tobyMac), and why listen to KJ-52 when tobyMac has an obviously better beat?
I was proved wrong. He has two songs he wrote called Dear Slim, and Dear Slim Pt. 2. At the end of the post you can play Part 2 on it. The beat is hard-core rap, and I still prefer a tobyMac beat, but what really got me was the lyrics. Let me summarize.
The song, Dear Slim Part 2, is addressed to the secular rapper Eminem. He's not exactly clean, many of his songs are explicit (no, I haven't heard them, I'm taking it from people who have). Anyway, this song is a letter, sung by KJ-52 to "Slim" (Eminem's nickname). In the song, he calls Eminem to accountability for the number of kids who listen to his explicit music, shares the gospel, and prays for him. The way he does it is amazing. He sang this song at the Luis Palau Heartland Festival, and now I love his music.
Interesting side-note. The hip-hop community shunned his song, called it one of the top 50 worst moments of hip-hop, and actually went so far as to say that it wasn't hip-hop because of the lyrics. Now listen to the beat and tell me that's not hip-hop (for those of you not familiar with hip-hop, rap is a form of hip-hop). But this is the kind of flak he's taking for this song. He took a WHOLE lot of flak from the first Dear Slim, and guess what? He had the guts to stand up and make part 2. In the song, he mentioned that he knows where he's going and doesn't care if he died today and never sold another record. I'm telling you, it takes guts to stand up to probably the top rapper in the hip-hop industry and share the gospel with him.
I challenge you to listen to this music. Its an awesome message, something that can be used in the rap genre. I'm still a fan of bouncier beats, but KJ-52 is worth the time, not for the beat, but for the message.
Okay, here's the song. I'm not sure it will work, but I hope it will. Enjoy!
Okay, so I haven't been posting that much. Its um....*pulls name out of hat* Bob's fault.
Yeah, its his fault. Anyone know who Bob is anyway?
Anyway, here goes. Last post was homeschool convention. I registered enough Generation Joshua members to go to camp for free. But before camp, I came up to my grandparents. My grandpa had a stroke earlier this year (and is recovering AMAZINGLY well), and my Grandma is struggling with major arthritis. So, I came up to help, and then went off to camp.
Camp was awesome. We had a mock presidential election, and our party won, by a landslide. I started in the black party, and later defected to Gold. Gold won! W00T!!!!!!!
Anyway, so camp wasn't all a mock election. Paintball, swimming, kayaking, blobbing, archery, climbing wall, and a bunch of other stuff. I sprained my thumb in a jousting match, but its getting better.
So, after camp I came back to Nebraska, where I'm currently helping my grandparents out. July 14th-15th was the Luis Palau Heartland Festival, which was a blast! I'll dedicate a whole post to that, because that's the most recent interesting thing that's happened to me.
Anyway, ongoing stuff, I'm enrolled in Friends University in Wichita, KS as an early admit student for two classes a semester. I've been working through the entire application process since June, and I'm finally in. W00T! I'll be taking College Algebra and Public Administration.
Brittany, (my sister, for those of you on who don't know the rest of my family that well), is heading off to PHC, for at least a semester.
I'm also taking a couple classes at CHFM, the local homeschool co-op, including debate, which happens to be taught by Brittany's former debate partner. That should be fun...I can usually beat him at about anything I do...(although he'll tell you different. Don't listen.)
Anything else I missed...hm...I helped paint my grandparents garage, actually, I helped redo the whole garage. I'm taking a look at a new trading card game, which I may or may not get into, um...oh yeah. Tomorrow I have to haul 1200 bricks for my uncle, from one end of his property to the other. Fun stuff.
So, signing out. I'm going to post on that Luis Palau Heartland Festival...
.Wow, its been a
long time since I posted. Anyway, my life has been usual, just got
through with a huge homeschool convention where we represented
Generation Joshua. That went well. And I got tobyMac's new album
Portable Sounds. That album is AWESOME! I'll post my favorite song here.
