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World star hip hop freaks review12/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Tait and Max both became lead singers of CCM legacy acts. His music continues to be a high-energy blend of slickly produced rock, hip-hop, and pop. tobyMac has remained one of CCM’s rock stars in a time when that designation has less cachet. This may be reading too much into album titles, but if anyone can be said to have carried the momentum of Jesus Freak forward, it is McKeehan. In 2001, all three members put out solo albums: Tait released Empty, Max made the creatively sprawling Stereotype Be with progressive rock legend Adrien Belew, and McKeehan released the rap-rock-pop Momentum. Tait, Max, and McKeehan have recorded four songs together in the past 15 years, including one on tobyMac’s new album, This Is Not a Test.ĭcTalk made Supernatural in 1998, but it wasn’t as cohesive or world-changing as Jesus Freak, and the band soon became inactive. All three members began solo careers after dcTalk’s “intermission,” but the band never officially broke up. And their previous album, Free at Last, had won a Grammy in the rock gospel album category. Second, it didn’t hurt that dcTalk was already the biggest Christian music act in the country, having won multiple Dove Awards for both rap and rock songs. Jesus Freak features superb songwriting and production and lyrics that reflect the struggles and joys of establishing a Christian identity as a person coming of age in a secular culture. Why? First, it’s simply a masterful pop-rock album. So many classic Christian rock albums were released in 1995: The Prayer Chain’s Mercury, Sixpence None the Richer’s This Beautiful Mess, Jars of Clay’s self-titled debut, and MxPx’s Teenage Politics, to name a few. A series of essays I’ve been editing this year, titled “ Chrindie ’95,” (a portmanteau of Christian and indie), has explored the perfect storm of a thriving mainstream music industry churches and parachurch organizations willing to support edgier bands and the emergence of artists who were passionate about both pop music and faith. MTV and radio still controlled the boundaries of popular music, meaning a well-placed single or music video could reach millions of consumers prepared to spend $18 on a CD.ġ995 was the economic and artistic zenith of the CCM boom. ![]() Smith’s sixth studio album, Go West Young Man, and end with Switchfoot’s The Beautiful Letdown in 2003. ![]() The golden age can be said to begin-somewhat arbitrarily, as these things go-in 1990, with the release of Michael W. Fewer albums loom larger in the imagination of those of us who came of age amid Acquire the Fire conferences, WWJD bracelets, and See You at the Pole. It was the flagship album of Christian music’s golden age, minting frontmen Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait, and Kevin Max as genuine Christian rock stars. Jesus Freak was released in the right place and the right time for maximum impact. Is it music marketed just to Christians? Do the bands have to play shows at churches, or just claim faith?īut by the conventional definition of CCM-music made by and for evangelicals-it’s hard to think of a more groundbreaking, genre-expanding, or era-defining album than Jesus Freak, which turns 20 this month. What about Amy Grant’s Lead Me On or Rich Mullins’s A Liturgy, a Legacy, & a Ragamuffin Band, or any number of releases by Larry Norman or Jars of Clay, or even U2 or Bob Dylan? “ Contemporary Christian music” is a notoriously tricky genre to pin down. ![]() Jesus Freak, by dcTalk, is the most important Christian pop album of all time. ![]()
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