The Worshipfication of Christian Rock

In the early '00s, CCM could have gone a few different ways. The path they chose reshaped the Church.

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In the very early ‘00s, there were basically two kinds of Christian rock. The first was represented by bands like POD, Switchfoot, Underoath and Relient K, who were finding healthy amounts of mainstream success the old fashioned way: playing interesting music people wanted to hear. The second was represented by the burgeoning worship music scene, with Chris Tomlin, David Crowder and Matt Redman packing out stadiums with a millennial spin on praise choruses.

We’ll call these two kinds of rock Horizontal and Vertical. POD, Switchfoot, Underoath, Relient K and the rest are the Horizontal Rock — mostly directing their lyrics to audiences. This is how most music works. You’re singing to the listeners. Tomlin and the Passion Conference set (along with Bethel Music and the rest) are Vertical Rock, mostly directing their songs upward, to God. At least, that was the idea.

This may sound like an oversimplification (I can already hear the “Everything Is Spiritual”-heads tut-tutting me with a “isn’t all music worship music?” and to them I say “you know what I mean, nerd!”) and it definitely is, but this was very much the perspective of the label execs in Christian music at the time. Two roads were diverging in a wood. And the road the industry ultimately chose reshaped the American Church.