why should the devil have all the good music?

We watched a third movie while at Cornerstone, another documentary (I feel very cultured, watching 2 documentaries and a foreign film all in one weekend!). It was called Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music after an old Larry Norman song. It was made by 2 non-christian women who heard about the growing underground hardcore Christian music scene, and about JPUSA (Jesus People USA, the folks that put on Cornerstone) and about C-stone itself, and set out to make a documentary about it all. It was really well put together, very objective I thought, and came to no conclusions about the subject, it just basically explored what it was about, what certain people, both Christian and non thought about it, and why. There were lots of clips from shows and interviews with a variety of bands (whom they chose based on whether they liked the band name or not - they're kicking themselves because they passed on Switchfoot) and it was enjoyable to watch. There really was nothing that I didn't already know about people feeling buttonholed or written off for being labeled a "Christian" band. There have been bands cursed or laughed at when they mention Jesus at a show, some speed metal groups can't get a lot of credibility with the mainstream folks because it just doesn't seem to jive - a message of hope among all the typical darkness and hatred, etc, etc. We bought the DVD because it's interesting, and there was more footage added to that version, and maybe a little because Steve Taylor was in it too.

The ladies that made the film were gracious enough to discuss and answer questions after it was shown, and it was interesting to hear them talk about not really having any preconceived ideas about the music or musicians, they didn't know what they were getting themselves into with the whole festival thing, but they ended up really enjoying the process, they said everyone was really easy to work with and very open and honest. They ended up coming to Cornerstone for 4 or 5 years straight to get all the footage, including one woman's crazy testimony of how she got saved at a rock concert many years ago. I think it worked out for them to be more of a uniting sort of a project - they still describe themselves as an athiest and an agnostic, but they found common ground in a love for music and art and maybe a new respect for Christians that don't act like the people on the TV, or what everyone generally assumes to be true about Christians being rude and offensive and narrowminded. They did make several mentions that they're not really "festival going people" but they would defintely pick Cornerstone over Lollapalooza, mostly because there's not a bunch of drunken idiots stumbling around everywhere...

Seth and I had a good discussion afterwards about some of the groups interviewed. There was one in particular who had specifically left the Christian music scene because he felt that the expectations put on him to perform "Christian art" or a "Christian show" were really interfering with his art that he was trying to make through his music. He had mentioned that he was actually disappointed to find what when he was playing clubs and other secular venues, that a majority of the audience members were Christians. He said something about being bummed because he thought he would be among people whose CD collections he would admire. I was disappointed to hear him say those things, because he's judging people the exact same way that he didn't appreciate being judged, the reason why he left the scene in the first place.

There are other groups that fully realize that they would like to be seen differently by mainstream labels and such, but they're not going anywhere just yet, I think to try and affect change where they are at. There's a growing understanding that in order to "compete" or be taken seriously at what they do, they have to do it as well, if not better than the rest of the bands out there in their genres. It's not trying to copy a mainstream band's sound or anything like that, but to make their own music, to find their own sound and develop it.

I will say that it's hard both in mainstream and Christian music to find people that are really looking to have that, to stand out and not just ride the wave of whatever's popular on the radio this year. I'll admit that I've gotten to the point of hardly looking for new bands to like anymore because it's not easy to find bands that don't sound just like everything else out there. I've been keeping an eye on Mae for awhile, they had one song on an internet radio station that I was listening to and I loved it. They weren't at Cornerstone, so I'd really like to hear more, because it's not like everybody else. I was listening to a Tooth and Nail/Solid State records sampler just this morning, and apparently the popular thing in Christian hardcore music is to mix singing with the death metal gutteral throat screaming, and it's really not that impressive to me. So I'll keep waiting and probably stumble upon something really special soon enough, and then I'll let everyone know all about it!