{"title":"God Rock, Inc.: The Business of Niche Music by Andrew Mall (review)","authors":"Paul A. Anthony","doi":"10.3138/jrpc.2021-0050","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In the summer of 1983, the rock band Petra was riding high, selling out larger venues than ever on the concert tour supporting their blockbuster LP, More Power to Ya. With its catchy guitar licks, soaring vocals, and slick concert performances, Petra—the Greek word for “rock”—fit comfortably within the musical milieu pioneered by such contemporary giants as Kansas and Foreigner. However, unlike those better-known bands, that summer Petra also released the first issue of a newsletter with the headline, “Arming Ourselves for Spiritual Battle,” printed below an illustration of a teen boy in a futuristic space suit, holding a sword and shield as he blocked a laser blast. As the masthead proclaimed, the publisher was Petra Ministries. The very phrase “Petra Ministries” reads like a non sequitur outside the world of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM), but within it, the marriage of music and ministry is assumed, even if the appropriate balance between the two is contested. Although most rock bands will never publish a Bible study on spiritual warfare, musicologist Andrew Mall argues in God Rock, Inc.: The Business of Niche Music that the underlying tension between subcultural ethics and musical aesthetics among CCM artists can serve as a useful case study for niche markets generally. Markets, according to Mall, are those “spaces in which the interactions of musicians, listeners, and cultural intermediaries . . . are grounded in the production and consumption of music” (3). While scholars in religious studies, cultural studies, and music history increasingly have found CCM a worthy area of research, none thus far has focused so strongly on the market itself and its influence on the artists who seek to conquer or transcend it. God Rock, Inc. pursues this argument in two main parts: The first four chapters focus on the CCM industry and its history, and the final three chapters analyze the tension between ministry and industry. The book also includes illustrations and four appendices that provide crucial contextual detail, as well as—in a fun twist—Spotify playlists of the songs and albums Mall discusses. God Rock, Inc. begins its story with the 1960s Jesus People movement that eventually birthed CCM. As Mall shows, artists almost immediately struggled to balance sacrificial ministry with seeking the profits that would allow their ministry’s expansion, sometimes adjusting lyrical content to reach audiences outside of the Christian market, adjusting musical styles to enhance radio airplay opportunities, or both. This “double marginalization,” in Mall’s words— too Christian for the mainstream, too mainstream for the Christians (16)—was unique to the formative decades of CCM. A prime example of attempting to overcome this dynamic, which Mall analyzes in Chapter 4, “Find a Way,” is Amy Grant’s infamous crossover into the general pop market from 1985–91. Grant, who for a decade had been touted as the Christian alternative to mainstream pop artists such as Madonna, surprised the CCM industry with 1991’s Heart in Motion, a pop album focused more on generic sentiments of love and life than explicit references to Jesus; it sold more than 5 million copies, even as many of her older fans accused her of selling out her ministry in pursuit of profits. “Niche market boundaries,” Mall","PeriodicalId":38290,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion and Popular Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Religion and Popular Culture","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3138/jrpc.2021-0050","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In the summer of 1983, the rock band Petra was riding high, selling out larger venues than ever on the concert tour supporting their blockbuster LP, More Power to Ya. With its catchy guitar licks, soaring vocals, and slick concert performances, Petra—the Greek word for “rock”—fit comfortably within the musical milieu pioneered by such contemporary giants as Kansas and Foreigner. However, unlike those better-known bands, that summer Petra also released the first issue of a newsletter with the headline, “Arming Ourselves for Spiritual Battle,” printed below an illustration of a teen boy in a futuristic space suit, holding a sword and shield as he blocked a laser blast. As the masthead proclaimed, the publisher was Petra Ministries. The very phrase “Petra Ministries” reads like a non sequitur outside the world of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM), but within it, the marriage of music and ministry is assumed, even if the appropriate balance between the two is contested. Although most rock bands will never publish a Bible study on spiritual warfare, musicologist Andrew Mall argues in God Rock, Inc.: The Business of Niche Music that the underlying tension between subcultural ethics and musical aesthetics among CCM artists can serve as a useful case study for niche markets generally. Markets, according to Mall, are those “spaces in which the interactions of musicians, listeners, and cultural intermediaries . . . are grounded in the production and consumption of music” (3). While scholars in religious studies, cultural studies, and music history increasingly have found CCM a worthy area of research, none thus far has focused so strongly on the market itself and its influence on the artists who seek to conquer or transcend it. God Rock, Inc. pursues this argument in two main parts: The first four chapters focus on the CCM industry and its history, and the final three chapters analyze the tension between ministry and industry. The book also includes illustrations and four appendices that provide crucial contextual detail, as well as—in a fun twist—Spotify playlists of the songs and albums Mall discusses. God Rock, Inc. begins its story with the 1960s Jesus People movement that eventually birthed CCM. As Mall shows, artists almost immediately struggled to balance sacrificial ministry with seeking the profits that would allow their ministry’s expansion, sometimes adjusting lyrical content to reach audiences outside of the Christian market, adjusting musical styles to enhance radio airplay opportunities, or both. This “double marginalization,” in Mall’s words— too Christian for the mainstream, too mainstream for the Christians (16)—was unique to the formative decades of CCM. A prime example of attempting to overcome this dynamic, which Mall analyzes in Chapter 4, “Find a Way,” is Amy Grant’s infamous crossover into the general pop market from 1985–91. Grant, who for a decade had been touted as the Christian alternative to mainstream pop artists such as Madonna, surprised the CCM industry with 1991’s Heart in Motion, a pop album focused more on generic sentiments of love and life than explicit references to Jesus; it sold more than 5 million copies, even as many of her older fans accused her of selling out her ministry in pursuit of profits. “Niche market boundaries,” Mall
1983年夏天,摇滚乐队佩特拉(Petra)在巡回演唱会上大放异彩,演唱会场地比以往任何时候都大,为他们的大片LP《More Power to Ya》提供支持。Petra——希腊语中“摇滚”的意思——凭借其朗朗上口的吉他声、高亢的人声和流畅的音乐会表演,非常适合堪萨斯州和外国人等当代巨头开创的音乐环境。然而,与那些更知名的乐队不同的是,那年夏天,佩特拉还发布了第一期时事通讯,标题是“为精神之战武装我们自己”,下面印着一幅插图,画的是一个穿着未来主义太空服的十几岁男孩,手里拿着剑和盾牌,挡住了激光爆炸。正如刊头宣称的那样,出版商是佩特拉部委。在基督教当代音乐(CCM)之外,“Petra Ministrys”这个短语读起来就像是一个不合逻辑的推论,但在它内部,音乐和牧师的结合是假定的,即使两者之间的适当平衡存在争议。尽管大多数摇滚乐队永远不会发表关于精神战的圣经研究,但音乐学家Andrew Mall在《上帝摇滚,股份有限公司:利基音乐的商业》一书中认为,CCM艺术家中亚文化伦理和音乐美学之间的潜在紧张关系可以作为利基市场的有用案例研究。根据Mall的说法,市场是指“音乐家、听众和文化中介的互动……以音乐的生产和消费为基础的空间”(3)。尽管宗教研究、文化研究和音乐史的学者越来越多地发现CCM是一个值得研究的领域,但迄今为止,没有人如此强烈地关注市场本身及其对寻求征服或超越市场的艺术家的影响。God Rock,股份有限公司将这一论点分为两个主要部分:前四章关注CCM行业及其历史,最后三章分析了工信部之间的紧张关系。这本书还包括插图和四个附录,提供了关键的上下文细节,以及Spotify播放列表中Mall讨论的歌曲和专辑。God Rock,股份有限公司的故事始于20世纪60年代的耶稣运动,该运动最终诞生了CCM。正如Mall所展示的那样,艺术家们几乎立刻就在努力平衡牺牲牧师与寻求利润之间的关系,这将使他们的牧师得以扩张,有时会调整抒情内容以接触基督教市场以外的观众,调整音乐风格以增加广播播放机会,或者两者兼而有之。用Mall的话来说,这种“双重边缘化”——对主流来说太基督教了,对基督徒来说太主流了(16)——是CCM形成的几十年所独有的。Mall在第4章“找到一条路”中分析了试图克服这种动态的一个典型例子,那就是Amy Grant在1985-91年间臭名昭著的跨界进入普通流行市场。十年来,格兰特一直被吹捧为麦当娜等主流流行艺术家的基督教替代者,1991年的《心在动》让CCM行业感到惊讶,这张流行专辑更多地关注爱情和生活的一般情感,而不是对耶稣的明确提及;这本书卖出了500多万册,尽管她的许多老粉丝指责她为了追求利润而出卖了自己的牧师。“利基市场边界”购物中心