In light of my previous post (incidentally my 300th ever) I thought it would be worth sharing these words from a CD review I read this morning. It really set me thinking as to the aims of our musical mission, and what it's all about
At the start of the 20th century, the Salvation Army took the contemporary pop songs of its day, changed the words and hit the streets to see souls saved. Radical stuff! Judging from this, at the start of the 21st century, they now take a fairly boring selection of almost contemporary Christian praise and worship songs (Kenoly, Kendrick et al) and record them with bland arrangements. Wonder what General Booth would make of all of this! I long for the Salvation Army to rediscover its roots and choose to make music that is relevant, impacting and dynamic but this selection is enough to make me weep at how a once vibrant movement has been reduced to badly recording religious music. If General Booth was around today, there wouldn't be a brass band in sight but rather a church whose worship sounded like Fatboy Slim. What went wrong?
It doesn't matter which CD the review was for, as the comments speak for themselves
Timmy "Modern Muso?" Magic
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1 comment:
Hey Tim!
I don't really agree with that at all. In Booth's day, the range of styles of music was MUCH more limited than today. Popular music then meant the old drinking songs that Booth and co. used so successfully to their advantage.
Today 'popular music' is such a wide concept that it's almost not a concept anymore. There are so many different styles of music and today - just as back then - there are people who can relate to a brass band more than any other type of music - just as there are people who can relate to your Fat Boy Slim type stuff. This music on its own would alienate a vast proportion of British society. We need to be inclusive and incorporate many different styles in my opinion, inlcuding brass bands.
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