Music Review: Christian Rock Origins

Christian Rock: Origins

     Heavy rifts, epic voices, electric guitar hammering that will rock your socks off, Christian rock has been popular since the days of "hair bands" in the 70s and 80s. Although there may have been other monumental Christian bands, Petra is one that stood out from the rest and paved the way for other faith-inspired music to gain in popularity. Around this time, there were many other groups with similar music styles that began forming. When people finally globally accepted the terms "hard rock" and "Christian Music", it opened the flood gates for various music genres like hip-hop through DC Talk (more on them to-come on another blog).

Petra, "All Fired Up" (1982)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYeXBA7x-MY

     Of course there are other great bands during this decade as well, White Heart, Styper, Audio Adreneline, and News Boys all began forming in the 1980s. You can't mention Petra without recognizing Styper. At the time, they were comparable to Metallica, Def Leapard, Whitesnake, Scorpions but with a Christian spin on it. They could be heard on the Trinity Broadcast Network, which was a huge outlet for Christians to compete with air time especially when certain radio stations and networks wouldn't air "religious" music.

Stryper, "Soldiers Under Command" (1985)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iPZ0cNtqIQ&index=24&list=PL3554CAE591775485

     Over half of the bands I mentioned have been around over 30 years and are still making music to this day. Styper released the album, "Fallen" in 2015 and Petra a few years back. Once again they helped pave the way for other genres because they compared to similar mainstream, secular artists which wasn't a far-stretch for consumers to recognize talent. Even today, Christian music has branched out to metal, ska, hip-hop, heavy rap, folk, any just about every other genre you can think of. I'll be featuring various bands in future blogs, so stay tuned, share your thoughts and YOUR favorite bands, and check back!

Christopher J. Rosario, Writer, Entertainer, Freethinker, San Antonio, TX

Music: Singer/Songwriter's Sucess on Youtube

Singer/Songwriter's Success on Youtube

     The music industry has changed from it's original platform of distributing pressed vinyl recordings to a whole new world of digital multimedia. Music sales have exploded from digital downloads and distribution through Recording Companies and online media sales like iTunes, Amazon, Google Play Store, and other similar sources. Gone are the ways of submitting demo tracks and recordings to big-name music industries, and now everyone has an opportunity to share their music and talents with social media. Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube have made it easy to get the word out there, any many famous artists started making a name for themselves on Youtube.

Charlie Puth, "Chandalier" - Sia cover song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWInNGhwidQ

     Charlie Puth started off much like Justin Bieber in that his music career began with international online success through Youtube writing cover songs and personal music on their Youtube channel. Charlie Puth has been around since 2009, but gained in success in 2011 during Perez Hilton's music video compilation competition where he gained early attention and by 2015 Charlie Puth gained success with the release of "See You Again" a song by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for the movie Furious 7. Many of the scenes from the music video feature Paul Walker, an actor who died while filming Furious 7, a continuation of his Fast and the Furious movie series, along side Vin Diesel.

Wiz Khalifa - "See You Again" ft. Charlie Puth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk

     Although internet music sensations like Charlie Puth, Justin Bieber, Christina Grimmie, Meghan Trainor, Hailey Knox found ways to show off their talent to the world in order the music industry is free game to anyone talented enough and willing to put in the hard work to get recognized. In 2015 Meghan Trainor came out of the woodwork. She was originally told she wouldn't make it in the industry because she wasn't "skinny enough". Her sensation "All About That Bass" proved that body shop had nothing over showmanship and talent. Meghan proved her doubters wrong by going from 10,000 views to 1 million within a few months and after 2 years the music video has over 1.5 billion views making it one of the fastest selling singles of all time.

Meghan Trainor - Dear Future Husband

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShlW5plD_40

     The list of successful independently started artists grows and it's hard to keep up with. One of my favorite group of artists who gained in popularity performing acoustic session cover songs is Boyce Avenue. One of my favorite and one of their biggest hits is an acoustic rendition of Miley Cyrus's, "We Can't Stop". Performed with Bea Miller (another up and coming artist, who happens to be friends with Demi Lovato) and the Manzano brothers out of Sarasota, Florida, the song completely turns around from a teenie-pop artist's song about partying, to a beautiful masterpiece of melding vocals and soft folk-like instrumentals.

Christopher J. Rosario, Writer, Entertainer, Freethinker, San Antonio, TX

Music Review: Bring Me The Horizon (Modern Metal)

Bring Me The Horizon (Modern Metal)

     Everyone has their own tastes in music, and I refuse to be bias against a particular music genre simply because I prefer one over the other (I still have a soft spot for emo or screamo, hard rock like Escape the Fate, Jacks Mannequin, Something Corporate, or Senses Fail) but I'm open to all music like Adele, Justin Bieber (yes, I know), Ariana Grande or Bruno Mars and a whole slew of pop culture and old music, and I think music has a way of bringing us together.

Bring Me The Horizon, "Down" - Live at Wimbley (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkV5709EG5M

     This blog is for the rockers out there. The metal rockers. The ones that head bang in their car or rock-out at the gym or walking through the grocery store. One band who has caught my attention a few years ago, but never really focused on is a band called Bring Me The Horizon. They're a British rock band from Sheffield, UK. I first started listening to them on their 2013 Album Release, Sempiternal which blew my mind and I've been a fan ever since. Admittedly, I didn't catch their days of "There Is a Hell, Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret" (2010).

     You can see from 2006 to 2016 that the band has matured musically. The above song, "Down" off their latest album, "That's The Spirit", the music is much more toned-down on the metal-core side that they used to be. Even their prior release, Sempiternal (2013), which had the song that introduced me to this awesome band, "Sleepwalking". Sleepwalking was their second biggest hit, so below I'm going to cut to the chase and introduce you to the Album wit the biggest hit off of that album, .

Bring Me The Horizon, "Can You Feel My Heart" - Sempiternal (2013)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AVRCQBc59w

     Just in case the last song, "Can You Feel My Heart" scared you off with the screaming (and I'd consider that a very soft song), compared to the entire album of sensational metal and grinding guitars and screaming into a musical masterpiece. Their newest album, "That's The Spirit" (2015) is a testament to their ability to merge metal with electronica and in order to bring-in the pop-rock music genre, but also enjoy hard rock. The screaming is toned down into only when necessary, rather than throughout the entire songs. Their newer releases, "Throne" is an excellent example of merging genres into more of an alternative rock feel.

Bring Me The Horizon, "Throne" - That's The Spirit (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_qI_F2ZJI

     If you'd like to see some of their music off of their older albums that birthed the beginnings of Bring Me The Horizon, you might want to check out their website here. I mentioned before that the band musically matured. Some would call them a sellout, but I think they developed themselves artistically to appeased their target audience of metal and screaming, with a subtle mix of electronica to open the gates to other musical interests (namely, reducing the amount of cussing a bit).

     If you like what you're read, or have comments, for against or otherwise, share them or email me.

Christopher J. Rosario, Writer, Entertainer, Freethinker, San Antonio, TX


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I've been protecting you. Their old stuff is very loud and very hardcore metal. In case you were curious on what BMTH started out as, before they got radio-air-time. Check out their song, Prayer for Plagues (parental discretion advised).