Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music. By Mark Allan Powell. Hendrickson Publishers. 1,088 pp. $29.95   Although Rolling Stone describes the world of contemporary Christian music as a “parallel universe,” there can be little doubt that, with annual sales approaching $1 billion and such artists as Amy Grant and Jars of Clay regularly crossing over onto secular charts, the Christian music scene is thriving. By 1998, according to Billboard, contemporary Christian music accounted for a larger share of recording industry revenue than jazz, New Age, classical, and soundtracks combined.

Now, contemporary Christian music has its own encyclopedia. The massive and mind-numbing tome, with well over a thousand double-columned pages, provides more than any sane person should care to know about everyone from rockers Larry Norman and Whiteheart to pop artists Michael W. Smith and Sandi Patty, as well as Bob Dylan, who for a time told concert audiences that “Jesus is the way of salvation.” The entries provide biography, discography, and a description of the musical styles of each artist or group, and the introduction offers a brief history of contemporary Christian music.

Scholars are now engaged in a lively debate about the origins of contemporary Christian music. Some trace its roots back to 19th-century shape-note singing in the South, although Powell insists that its history goes back no farther than the Jesus movement of the late 1960s. Today, contemporary Christian music embraces styles ranging from heavy metal to ska, and an equally lively debate is taking place over whether lyrics have to be explicitly Christian, or whether the disposition of the artist alone suffices to define music as Christian.

Although he is a professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, Powell writes that rock ’n’ roll “has done a lot more for the good of humanity in the last 30-plus years than all the theologians on the planet.” His entries are analytical, occasionally amusing (not often enough, perhaps), and frequently opinionated.

He notes, for instance, that Pat Boone helped make rhythm and blues safe for a skittish general audience in the 1950s, an effort that met with opposition—southern pastors burned his records and accused him of plotting “to destroy the moral fiber of white youth.” Powell observes: “Boone can be viewed either as pillager or promoter; there is no question that he benefited commercially from the racism of white music fans by getting hits with songs by people who couldn’t get a hearing themselves, but there can also be little doubt that he did as much as anyone to deconstruct that racism. Indeed, one might say that he worked to put himself out of business: He labored to teach white America to like the R&B music that he obviously loved, and to the extent that he succeeded in doing this, his fans found they no longer needed him.”

The book is cumbersome (a companion CD-ROM replicates the text and provides links to artists’ web sites), and it omits some useful data, such as artists’ dates of birth. Still, the volume represents a significant achievement, and its appearance marks the coming of age of contemporary Christian music.