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Jesus music, also known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music which originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of the Jesus movement. before the Christian music industry had begun to take form.
Jesus music primarily began when some hippie street musicians converted to Christianity. These musicians continued playing the same styles of music, though they infused their lyrics with a Christian message. Many bands developed out of this, and some became leaders within the Jesus movement, most notably Barry McGuire, Love Song, Second Chapter of Acts, Larry Norman, Randy Matthews, Andraé Crouch (and the Disciples), and later Keith Green. In the UK, Malcolm and Alwyn were the most notable agents of the gospel beat.
Much of the music manifested itself in folk music and folk-rock (Children of the Day, Paul Clark, John Fischer, Nancy Honeytree, Mark Heard), but it also encompassed soft rock (Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, Pat Terry), R&B (Andraé Crouch (and the Disciples)), Soul music, Jazz fusion (Sweet Comfort Band), country rock or California rock (The Way, Daniel Amos, Mustard Seed Faith), hard rock (Resurrection Band, Agape, The All Saved Freak Band) and all forms in between.
American churchs largely rejected these artists at the time, unable to see the difference between their music and the music of mainstream, or secular, artists of the day. Many within the church felt that the message was being lost because of the "worldly" musical style. Some Jesus Music artists responded by quoting 16th century reformer Martin Luther, "why should the devil have all the best tunes?"
By 1973, Jesus music was receiving enough attention inside the mainstream media that an entire industry began to emerge. By the mid 1970s, the phrase "contemporary Christian music" had been coined, developing directly out of Jesus music, and Christian music magazines, radio stations and record labels had begun to emerge around the country. Although, many of the early Jesus music artists were quickly snatched up by large record labels, many of these artists also became very critical of the industry itself, fearing that the focus was on making money and not on the Christian message or the making of good music.
An early hard rock influence was Resurrection Band. Glenn Kaiser, one of the band's founding members is also a pastor, at Jesus People USA. JPUSA is a ministry and commune on the North Side of Chicago. They have been a primary source of some of the counter-culture movement. One of the first influences was Cornerstone magazine. In the early 1980s, they spawned the Cornerstone, the USA's largest Christian alternative music festival with about 25,000 attendees annually. Cornerstone Florida arose out of that. They also founded Grrr Records as an outlet for the community's alternative music acts. Bands such as Crashdog and Ballydowse, both including member Andrew Mandell, have influenced Christian musicians outside of the mainstream all over the world. Other notable bands include punk rockers Headnoise.
Jim Palosaari, one of Britain's influential Jesus people and the founder of the group JPUSA, grew out of, and was one of the originators of the Greenbelt festival in England, the largest Christian rock festival in the world.
List of Jesus Music artists
As of 2006, most of these artists are either retired, are completely independent from the larger industry, or have entered the ministry as pastors or music ministers. Only a handful remain active within the Contemporary Christian music market.
Early "Jesus Music" performers included
- Second Chapter of Acts and a band called David
- Salvation Air Force
- Selah
- Servant
- Tim Sheppard
- Randy Stonehill
- Noel "Paul" Stookey
- Sweet Comfort Band
External links
"Jesus music"