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 Review: Classical merges into Modern music

Classical merges into Modern music.

     Music has been around since the creation of man and different sounds were compiled into musical pleasure. Over time it's developed into whatever the current generation most appeals to, with constant changing of media and social interested, as quickly as a "viral video" can spread, that's how quickly the musical taste can change for the current generation.

Kelis, "Like You" (using Mozart's The Magic Flute).

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

     Kelis is able to bridge the generation gap between modern girl-pop artists like Rihanna and classical artists like Beethoven or Mozart, in W.A. Mozart - Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute). While Kelis appeals to the pop artists, Spike T Jones, a raper who found his recordings through Beat Boutique 2010,

Spike T. Jones - A Fifth of Beethoven (Hip Hop Instrumental Mix).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5lvlfZhmV0

     Is another great classical-rap mix-up or mash-up. It's like taking two records, a classical record, and a rap record recording, and you play them the same time at the right times, that they mesh well together into a coherent song. It's not everyone's favorite genre, but it's the way out generation explores our musical creativity; the mix is a strange, but a lovely blend of two generations melding into an appreciable song for both generations, bridging the gap, (Though, it doesn't mean you'll immediately want to listen to rap, or classical, baby steps)

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

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     And in case you think I forgot the title of this blog is, "Modern music" here's a band that didn't necessarily mix tracks of classical and rap or pop music, but the music is a hybrid, a breed of rock and punk and rap, like Beastie Boys - Sabatoge.

Beastie Boys - Sabatoge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE

     Many would say, simliarly, that Nirvana was the staple of a new area of music, the changing of a generation of music. It's exciting to keep up with new and fresh music to see what's developing around the world from all cultures. Share it.