The worst type of music is definitely "corporate ukulele music" that horrible repetitive ukulele music from commercials. Literally, makes me want to rip out my own hair.
I hate when they use in videos this "there is hope always" like piano progressions and its "orchestrated" grandiose siblings. ruclips.net/video/VKMTxNaJYxc/видео.html
“Love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of loving something is being indifferent to it because loving or hating implies that you care about it in one direction or another” - Shawn Crowder Damn Shawn getting out here with the life lessons.
Oddly, it reminded me of a bit from Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic and the hydrophobic wizards who had such a revulsion to water they could fly over it from the sheer force of their will to not touch it. Paraphrasing: "They didn't hate water. Hate is an attracting force, like love. They loathed it." That always made sense to me. If we hate something, we want to take action to eliminate it. If we loathe it, we just want it out of our lives entirely, not even wanting to interact with it enough to eliminate it.
@@JusticeChrist hate and disgust/loathe can be related. Not hate and love. Antagonist of love is aggressiveness, and hate is related to aggressiveness. With hate, disgust and aggressiveness are gathered.
When Shawn said “Love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of loving something is being indifferent to it. Because loving and hating implies that you care about it.” That struck a chord with me. Good input.
I mean I'm gonna be a total doodoo head and say I never really liked this maxim since it's basically like saying "Left and right are not opposites -- the opposite of left is the center. Because left and right are both sides and therefore have something in common." I totally recognize that I'm missing the point but I really can't help it...
@@lunafoxfire understandable. Love, hate, anger, joy, etc. are highly recognizable emotions but aren't really defined well. We know what it's like feel them, but how we feel them, when we feel them, etc. makes them elusive and personal for each person. But with that in mind, I guess it's easy now to imagine how those emotions are opposite of indifference, apathy and a coldness to something because those traits meant the lack of any emotion.
Yeah it's just beyond annoying. Makes me wanna horde my money and fly off like an angry dragon instead of buying whatever crap they're selling... eventually they'll have to catch on :) Except... usually the things those commercials are selling is stuff like borderline scam "health foods"... so it may be a deliberate choice to turn everyone off what they're making except the most gullible. But honestly, it's ruined ukulele music for me, 'cause I can't hear the instrument anymore without thinking of that stuff,no matter what it's playing.
That input at 7:22 sums it up...great thinking. All of the people you interviewed had a point in common: we hate things that we feel that could be so much more yet they aren't. And, as artists, we hate to see music that "doesn't deserve it" being at the top of the charts. Which is a fair, but interesting, point. Adam hates contemporary Christian music yet he grew up listening to Christian music. Rhett hates "bro-country" yet he grew up listening to country and plays it all the time. Paul hates dutch carnival music yet he grew up with it. All these 3 examples have the same motivation behind them: you hate music that should connect with you but doesn't; you feel like it's an abomination of what it should be - but deep inside you wish it wasn't so that you could enjoy it. Great video Adam, thank you. Very insightful and gives me a lot to think about.
The more you know about a genre of music, the better you can see the songs and artists that don't measure up, that are motivated by money or ego, and when those things sell well it cheapens what you love.
I have experienced the same thing come to think of it, when getting pizza with friends who are not from Chicago (where I grew up). When the pizza too is from outside Chicago, I can simplify that there is no good pizza option because my geographical and cultural upbringing has made me a pizza snob, but when friends come to Chicago to visit, it is really annoying to have them go 'yeah yeah let's go to Gino's East' and then proceed to say during the meal "wow this IS the real deal," when through my experience there are so many things wrong with it that make it not worth the time compared to the other better (in my opinion) deep dish places.
Do you think, in some cases, this is a symptom of us being too nostalgic with the music we knew in the past that what we hear now, because it is not the same as what we grew to love, feels like the "end times" for that music you liked? You often see this in the argument of "music today isn't like the music they USED to make!" OR, unrelated, do you think in some cases it could be a symptom of jealousy, especially since some part of us shows disdain for certain people who have success and we don't?
Checkmate1138 I think it’s both actually. Adam has a pretty good video where the basic premise is that our music taste is formed by what we listen to when we’re teenagers/young adults. I think that’s quite the case, although obviously our tastes will (mostly) always develop but we never stop liking to what we heard back then. Also jealousy plays a big part - in everything in life, not just music.
This is why I have a love/hate relationship with modern Indie. I listen to indie and alternative groups from the '70s - '90s, and I found it to be me much edgier and more unique. Sonic Youth, The Smiths, Elvis Costello, My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, etc. Ever since the 2000's and all the way up to the present day, Indie has become a more 'polished' genre (meaning that the production and vocals are extremely crisp) that has tendencies to replicate the old indie while sending it through the musical equivalent of a food processor...at times. It doesn't apply universally. I think what bothers me the most is that modern indie fans kind of consist of hipsters that like the neo-psychedelia and folk aspects, but they kinda sneer at the old and darker roots from whence they came. And perhaps more personally, these hipsters were like the preppy kids from school that treated me as a pariah, so it feels disingenuous that they think of themselves as the counterculture when they have loads of judgement issues themselves. They're mostly trust fund kids, anyway.
Imagine Dragons, especially. U2 are tedious and soulless. Imagine Dragon is Stadium Blues. It does to the blues genre what "You'd look really pretty if you smiled" does to flirting.
So the music we all hate is the soulless version of the music we love. Just goes to show how important context and the spirit of the music we listen to is. Interesting to think how our tastes are so dependent on such arbitrary variables
Through most of the video, I was trying to think of a genre that I have a real visceral hatred for, and couldn't think of any. Then he said contemporary Christian, and I went "ah, that's it." I'm the music director of my church, and what really sticks in my craw is not just that the music isn't good, or that it's popular, but because so many others in my position feel pressure to duplicate the sound in their own services, rather than exercising creativity and cultivating a sound unique to their congregation.
This is exactly my issue! There's such a monotony to that generic Christian sound and I tire of it very easily. My own church leans towards a folk-bluegrass style, sometimes drifting into outright rock, and whenever I'm finding new music for our ensemble my first priority is how we can mold the song in our style and really make it our own, rather than just blindly trying to emulate the original recording.
I had the same thoughts. I don’t particularly hate any genres or music, but as soon as he mentioned contemporary or as I call it “lazy” christian music my blood boiled. Although I’ve learned to like some songs over the time I’ve been exposed to it. I still don’t particularly agree nor appreciate the majority of it.
I'll admit part of my negative reaction to contemporary Christian music stems from my negative experiences with the church (not worth going over why here), but a big portion of my bad feelings is just as you said. It's music that was originally meant to convey and facilitate a spiritual connection between community members, but it's been commodified into this plastic monstrosity. It's commercialized Christianity (TM) for sale. It's not produced to convey personal spiritual experiences. Quite the opposite. It is deliberately designed to be as universally palatable as possible across denominations. Rather than speak to the local traditions of different church communities it is watered down so as not to offend the sensibilities of any specific community. And the market facilitates this practice because there are many members in the community (at least that I've met) who will engage with the music non-critically and actively shame others who listen to music outside of this genre out feelings of duty to the religion. They don't realize how their deeply held beliefs have been converted into turning them into ideal consumers. And I think that's icky. Church music is supposed to bring people together in a shared practice not maximize its marketability.
Definitely! On the flipside, one of the things that originally encouraged me towards Christianity was the honest, alive, passionate, and often funky music that my first worship pastor brought. God's gift of music can be quite a blessing, but worship doesn't come from music alone. Talk to Matt Redman about that, hey?
Tragoedia I agree with a lot of what you said, I hope the negative church experience made you find a different church and a deeper connection with God and not just run. Oftentimes we chalk the churches’ actions up to Christ’s scorecard- inaccurately, when they’ll be held accountable for their own misdeeds. Be blessed.
I agree with you on CCM, as a guitar teacher I have had dozens of students over the decades want to learn their fave CCM songs. I've listened, I've written chords, I've "tabbed", I've even not note-for-note transcriptions for small groups; your using the word "insipid" is exactly on-point and the one word I've never used to describe CCM! Even from another room, with two doors closed and virtually unintelligible lyrics, I can still pick it out! Kinda like the smell of a skunk...
When I was in school, I remember the song 'fireflies' being released. I don't remember hearing it on the radio, or on RUclips, I would catch snippets of it here and there I'm sure, but by far my biggest exposure to it was from friends who absolutely HATED it. They loved hating it in that theatric and exaggerated way that teenagers love to hate on specific pop songs. And I joined in on hating it, it didn't matter that I had never heard the whole thing, I had heard enough to know it was awful. Some years later I realized that I had never actually heard the song all the way through. I had never attempted to listen to it from a nuetral position. And so I found it on RUclips, put my headphones on, and gave it the chance that any piece of music deserves to have. I was determined to overcome this bias instilled in me by my old peers. I rediscovered the song 'fireflies' that day. And more importantly, I discovered that I really fucking hate the song fireflies. I still have not heard it in its entirety.
I can totally relate, except I encoutered the people who were obsessed with the song first, and they made me hate it before I had anyone to hate it with. The only way I can listen to the song and appreciate it in some way now is through memes of the song, like "Fireflies but every lyric is in alphabetical order", like I take this sick pleasure in seing the song intentionally ruined
@@TroyMcKeown Nah, he is a christian and has done a few songs with a theme but he moved more into scores and continues with his original synth style. Contrary to the music/fireflies, he is a very talented musician.
I am a minister. I listen to punk and metal, and been in a number of punk bands that were all spectacular failures (I wasn't always a minister). It weirds my church out that i like classic hymns and have a deep dislike for most praise music. They think because I like to listen to Slayer I would for some reason embrace the soft rock show that is called worship on most Sunday mornings. I don't make a fuss about it, but I can relate to your sentiment more than a youtube comment can convey.
The first person who welcomed us into a new neighbourhood we moved into was a catholic priest who also happened to be an old punk. We've been to punk gigs togehter since.
I genuinely like how apparently a lot of people in clergies are into rock. Especially rock that some zealots would have considered "Satanic" back in the day.
That's a snobbish yet very educated way of describing toxicity in fandoms. HEY OVER HERE edit: you people thought I'm referring to the OP, but I think you guys need to reread it. Hint: I meant the phrase only.
I feel that. I build gundam models and I can’t stand military vehicle model builders. The airplanes have to be exactly the right color and all the good examples just end up looking the same. Soul sucking military color matching and realistic rust.
This is called the Millennial Whoop, if it is what I'm thinking of. It's in EVERYTHING and there are some good video essays on it that come up when you search for it.
There is a German lullaby called "Heidschi Bumbeitschi" where basically the mom died and the father then sings this song to his baby boy to get him to "Take a long sleep" where the child "dreams of angels" and yes, you guessed it, dies in the end. I cried and left the room whenever this was sung/played when i was young.
replying after two years, buuut there's a children's song originating from one USSR cartoon about mammoths (that's why the song is called "the baby mammoth's song"), and, growing up in this culture, i absolutely hated it as a kid. the text (the most famous part of it) goes as follows: "may your mom hear you, may your mom come to you, may your mom certainly find you, because there's no such thing in the world as lost kids" well, first of all, that is a lie: there are plenty of cases of lost kids, and, as a kid myself, i was so fucking afraid that i would be lost, and my mom won't find me, so i've always interpreted this song not as reassuring, but as threatening (?) in some way. secondly, the music for this song is just pure sadness-- no, not even that - pure *child tears*. it's in g minor, the melody has this feeling like it's gonna resolve, but it never does, and this gives some unstable and crushing emotions. so... yeah, i guess Adam was right: there's music to write paragraphs about for anyone, lol
Greetings from New Orleans, birthplace of jazz. I've recently discovered Adam Neely's videos. I'm an old cat who has been a pro in the "music biz" since I was 15 . He speaks about topics I've pondered, worked with and wrestled with all my life. I'm amazed that such a young cat has such depth, knowledge and wisdom about musical things. I'd love to sit down with him in person and spend some time discussing and learning from him.
Your comments on modern Christian music remind me of an old Hank Hill: "Dang it, Bobby. Don't you know you can't make God better? You're just making rock worse." I actually played in what the Catholic church called "Life Teen" masses and completely agree with your assessment. The saving grace for me, to borrow a phrase, was the musicians I played it with. A lot of the problem is just the sterile production, imo.
I'm Catholic and was in late high school when my church switched over to the Life Teen youth ministry format. We do still have Life Teen masses, with music a mix of some commonly known CCM songs and more traditional hymns that most teens at the parish have grown up with (although fortunately without any guitar nonsense). After high school, I spent 4 years at a very traditional-leaning Catholic college with lots of opportunities to explore traditional liturgical music, especially Gregorian chant. One thing I've found is that traditional music is often (not always) easier for the congregation to sing, more liturgical, and it lends itself more easily to an attitude of contemplation. I have never really liked CCM and everything I've learned about traditional music has led me to better understand why I think it often falls flat.
"Our experience with art is deeply personal" I think this is also the reason why it can feel so incredibly hurtful when people crap on the music that you love. Like, my feelings get genuinely hurt when people are negative about the music I love, because so many of my own personal experiences are wrapped up in those songs. It feels like a rejection of me as a person
I completely understand. There's this feeling of being attacked personally when someone else despise a piece of art that means a lot to you. However, the personal experience is in both ways, so we shouldn't take personally a possible attack to our loved art. Remember that the art doesn't speak for you, but your appreciation of it. "When you judge something, it talks more about yourself than the thing you point at".
This reminds me of Emo Philips' infamous joke... -- Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!" Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.
1. Gungor - Sufjan Stevens of CCM 2. The Oh Hellos - CCM but it’s a fantasy novel 3. John Mark McMillan - wrote the biggest CCM hit ever (How He Loves) and then stepped away to make lots of ambient rock CCM 4. Audrey Assad - beautiful piano CCM (edit for clarity: these ^ are CCM recs, not hates) I play at church once a week. Some CCM is my favorite music ever. Some CCM is my least favorite ever. The love/hate advice is so true.
Heck, I'm agnostic and I love The Oh Hellos. It's only allegorically Christian though, so I can only notice the religion if I really think about the lyrics.
completely agree. grew up in a catholic school and in shows they held they would always have a worship band and it was just really shallow. just the same 4 chords and jesus free me from sin. vvboring
@@dodonkedonks4764 Reverend Lovejoy and the electric guitar on "The Simpsons"? (One of Ned Flanders's sons: "Is he killing that guitar, Daddy?" Ned: "Yes, Son.")
I got hire once to show up at a particular address at 6;15 p.m. rehearse until 6:45, play from 7 to 8. Go home. It was Benny Hinn's church and at 8 he decided to go off on a theological tangent we played non-stop until 12:30 a.m. It was the most boring night of my musical life. On the other hand I got to watch this "faith healer" up close for hours.
Controversial take, but 9/11 ruined country music. It all turned into patriot baiting which then evolved into modern bro-country. It turned from "I drive my tractor and stick it to the man" to "I drive my road-only lifted pickup and obey everything the man tells me"
"You're not making Christianity better. You're just making rock 'n' roll worse." - Hank Hill Good luck with that, brother. Or should I say: go with God.
to summarise: People hate music they find disingenuous in intent and/or execution. It seems to me that disingenuous art is way worse than tasteless or stupid art. The melody, rhythm and harmony of disingenuous music still touches us in some way that we resent, and the worst part is that the creator is succeeding in manipulating us. Edit: maybe there is a cognitive dissonance happening because the musical language is inspiring emotions which we cannot justify.
I like this answer, but will add that as a semi-musician myself, I've always had the feeling from the very beginning that anything I created musically was to be played with reason, with passion. There's a difference between passing someone by and saying "how are you", compared to stopping someone to ask and looking at them intently and asking carefully "how are you?". They are both essentially the same phrase, but one carries meaning, and the other does not. I feel like a lot of these answers provided are by people who feel the music they hate is empty or fake. Maybe even so far as to say tricking you, as they might spot the differences and not be able to describe why they feel it's fake, while the mass majority doesn't realize that it's fake and feels like "oh it's Christmas music, this is what happy music feels like!"
I think it's that disingenuity (disingenuousness?) or "betrayal" that's the common denominator as I'm reading these comments. During the video, I had trouble figuring out what genre would get my teeth grating and gnashing. By the end, I realize I absolutely detest (most) metalcore as well as anything by the likes of U2. These sorts of music always try to be "bigger" than what they are. Whether it's emotions of "I HATE MYSELF" from metalcore artists to "you're inspirational and yasss you're amazing!!" fluffy stuff from U2, they're like the musical equivalents of "motivational speeches/posts" that you'd find on LinkedIn. It's like if someone's trying to hit on you but they keep using pick-up lines they read somewhere on some random website. That's what these songs feel like.
Dude, I’m Christian, ever since opening myself to other generes and intricacies that come in making Jazz and other new gamers you’ve helped introduce; has helped me realize how stale contemporary Christian music can be.
I’m longing for someone to start writing songs that are ‘different’. Here in the uk back in the 80s (probably) we had Christian song writers who def did not follow the 4 chord trick, and I think a couple had some jazz influences. Love playing those again.
Erik Bojay I remember a time when there was more to Christian Music than today. I guess they want to make it easier for both musicians and christians to digest, learn and sing these days.
Jonathan Diaz Yeah, I thought the same. Kanye West’s gospel album is a good example of a completely novel area in contemporary Christian music. It’s just so foreign and novel compared to all the songs we hear in churches over and over again. Listening to the album feels weird and strange, but kind of in a good way, y’know?
@@Decordelights__ I hate auto-tune and I think it ruined what could have been some otherwise excellent music . ... but I am grateful for all the excellent Hip Hop out there that does not have Auto-Tune
One time, a friend of mine was like "I don't get why people hate Ed Sheeran, he just makes fun pop music" And I hadn't really listened to Ed Sheeran, so I thought, hey, I enjoy fun pop music and liking things that people hate, so let's Google up some of his tunes And I swear to God, two bars of anything that man has ever made makes me feel like Satan is puking on my soul. It provokes the most gutwrenchingly visceral sense of absolute loathing that I have ever experienced, and I have _no idea_ why. It just feels like I'm being targeted by some kind of experimental sonic weapon that bypasses any concerns for taste or quality and just deals psychic damage directly.
should get this quote printed on a T-shirt, wear it under a jacket, go to an Ed Sheehan concert, go right to the front, out-woop all the surrounding fans, and then at the right moment pull the jacket off and continue as if nothing has changed
YES! And I feel so ashamed to admit this too because everyone's like "wow you're such a hater dude you just dislike it because it's popular" and MAYBE I DO but not really. I can't really tell why I DESPISE people like 1D or Ed Sheeran meanwhile, although I don't listen to them all the time, don't mind Somebody I Used To Know by Gotye or This Love by Maroon 5, for a few examples. All of them are catchy, pop, quick tunes that people just jam to but there's just something so gross, like having a look around and then back at your icecream and seeing there's now a used tampon on it, every time these quirky e-boys open their mouths.
ProjectThunderclaw Thank you for this comment. It’s nice to be reminded that I’m not alone about this. Whether or not he’s aware of what he’s singing, it really sounds like he isn’t. This is what I think people hate about the lack of authenticity if they detect it. But it’s really disappointing to see this get passed everyone else. “People fall in love in mysteries ways!” Imagine if you wrote that yourself. How accomplished would you feel? Imagine how these shitty throw-away place holders for lyrics are being plainly slopped in, recorded, commercialized, and are producing great success for him! But about the sickening essence that I find in his music that I thought was relatable to what you said: When you have this really cliche, poppy, commercial jingle that tries to relate with these empty, emotional sentiments presented with lyrics like “will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?”, it might make you feel like your soul has food poisoning.
I dont really hate any genre specifically, but the one thing that I have like a pure, visceral reaction to is any piano cover that also harmonizes the vocals along with it. Some of my favorite songs are ruined in covers where the right hand is doing "A-A-A-A-A-A A-A-A-B-A-A B-B-B-B A-A-A-A" Uugh I cant even.
@@lauramessy Kitsch refers to art that is considered to be in poor taste, but is appreciated in an ironic or knowing way. Some people may feel that way about Philosophy of the World by The Shaggs, for example.
I definitely feel you on this one! As a musician and Christian, I was always conflicted with what songs are popular in the Christian community and was expected to bring to church and what was musical about those songs. And yes I did and still do outright refuse to bring a song that was generic, as in 3/4 chord structures with uninteresting melodies. For me, music is like crack, the more 'chordally', melodically, rhythmically, 'instrumentationally' interesting the better, it's like an addiction. But I will say some of these Contemporary Christians songs are beautiful, musically satisfying to me and as a Christian I believe there is an anointing on a song that I connect with on a spiritual level (unquantifiable you may say). But there is also an art, I found, in playing simply, that if I was not 'forced' to play these basic songs I would not have discovered and I found a musical satisfaction in that, something new. I will also add that contemporary Christian music is played by all levels of musicians and there is a complexity that can be added regardless of your ability. I hate American country music like Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw (yes I did google these names)
When I was in junior high and high school, I had an hour-long bus ride to and from school, and the bus driver on my route kept the bus' radio tuned to HI-99, "the Wabash Valley's Country Station!" HI-99 being a shamelessly commercial pop country radio station, it played the top few current chart hits over and over, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. This was in the early-to-mid 1990s, when "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and "Achy Breaky Heart" dominated the pop country charts for months at a stretch. I was forced to hear the same small set of $h!tty stupid songs multiple times per bus ride, twice a day, every school day for five years. I don't enjoy hearing even songs I love multiple times in a row, and I never enjoyed pop country at all. It was psychological torture. I'm still pissed off at my bus driver for putting me through that, and I'm 41 years old. I consequently loathe both of those songs, and other pop country songs of the era, with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.
41, so that would have been, what, the mid 90s? Was a walkman or a CD player at max volume not an option? I only had to ride the schoolbus (my bus driver played some bullshit pop station all the time) one year in middle school but I had a little iPod shuffle I got at a school raffle, and I gladly sacrificed my eardrums for the sake of my sanity.
@@FGLKyouma I'm 43 now, the comment you're replying to is over a year old. I graduated from high school in 1995 when I was 16. I have a hard time tuning out irritating stimuli, much harder than most people seem to. Any personal stereo I may have had from 1990-1995 was utterly insufficient to drown out the awfulness of that bus ride.
@@bartolomeothesatyr Oh, my bad, didn't even look to see when it was posted. Well, I hope your grudge towards that driver doesn't bug you too often. Have a good one.
I've strongly disliked Bruno Mars for quite a while. I couldn't stand hearing him. And why? Because for a while every single time I turned on the radio, my mum turned on the radio, or I walked in somewhere with a radio, I would hear Bruno Mars. It was like he was the only artist playing on the major radio stations here. It was only after not hearing him for over a year or so that I could slowly begin appreciating some of his music. It's crazy how radio can ruin songs or even entire genres.
I had a similar experience with one of my coworkers who was in control of the music. He played the same 10 hip hop songs over and over. It has put me off the genre ever since
I have to admit that my annoying philosopher's side had an opinion about that too. Loving something and being indifferent to it are certainly different things, but are they really opposites? Aren't there all kinds of relationships you can have to a thing? Also, in the context of the video, it makes sense to view it from the subject's perspective, but from the perspective of the object (the music), I would say that being loved probably would be the opposite of being hated. Don't study philosophy, folks. You won't ever be fun at parties again.
Gungor’s “Ghosts Upon the Earth” is a hauntingly beautiful album that existed in the CCM sphere after “Beautiful Things.” I’m not sure I still consider it CCM as much as I consider it their transition away from CCM, but may be worth including nonetheless
Ethan Windham King’s Kaleidescope - Becoming Who We Are is a worship album and it’s is incredibly good. Even the cover of “All Creatures” has polyrhythms.
Yes yes yes YES!!!! I've grown up in a Christian household my whole life and I myself am a Christian and I despise contemporary Christian music. You described every problem I have with it especially the hollowness. You would think that with a genre based off of the boundless passion for the creator of the universe would fit into the music but it always feels so lifeless and simplistic as if it were just to make a quick buck and it doesn't help that a vast majority of contemporary Christian artists and band that I've seen in concert don't seem to have much musical background at all and seem to be in this perpetual state of being inspired by the people before them who also don't have musical training. I just can't stand the wasted potential and it's something I've always dreamed about changing. That being said I'd recommend Casting Crowns. They're, to this day, the only contemporary Christian band I can tolerate at all.
yeah bro I think that the general lack of musical background really contributes to the problem. I feel like no real artists want to make christian music because at this point it has solidified itself as mediocre and no one really likes it who is great at music. Its a shame, and ive thought a lot about the irony you pointed out about the inspiration too.
My feelings for Casting Crowns are exact opposite compared to you, but for more personal reasons. I can not stand Casting Crowns. I was at a Bible Camp one year and the cabin leader asked if the kids in my cabin liked to listen to quiet music during the night and some of them said yes. The cabin leader decided to play one Casting Crowns album every night for the whole week I was there. I grew to despise the sound of the lead vocalists voice and could not listen to them without cringing in disgust after that week. To each there own of course. I agree with the whole simplicity of modern worship music. I volunteer my slightly above average drumming skills to the church that I go to every week, however I only play once a month. The people I play with are awesome and very creative, however that does not make the music we play any less boring and repetitive. I do not hate all Contemporary Christian Music, but some big names in that genre need to maybe step it up a notch. Maybe step up more than one notch.
@@jo88sip I do not blame you in the slightest for feeling that way. A vast majority of things I dislike or outright hate are due to people either forcing me to partake in something or practically begging me to try something. It's like when RUclips plays the same ad over and over and people who are regularly on the site just end up hating whatever the ad is for. As far as Christian musicians go, I've played drums for 6 or 7 churches and all of them have given me the same comment. "Less is more." Which would be fine if the comment wasn't given to me for the slightest bit of syncopation. Either I play metronome, or not at all, simply because they're not able to deviate from the orginal sound of the song. Which for me is frustrating as a music major. They make me feel over qualified to play the genre despite me being above average at best.
Similar experience here. I don't think I like any music that would be qualified as "Contemporary Christian Music" in genre terms at least, but there are artists that I love that have Christian lyrics that would be categorized as Hard Rock, or Blues, or Soul, or whatever. I don't like that CCM is a "genre" per se; it's really just bad pop with Christian lyrics. Why should we differentiate? Anyway, personal picks for just good, Christian-driven music would be the "Odd Soul" album by MUTEMATH (Experimental Alt Rock), the "Turn Around" album by Jonny Lang (Blues Gospel Soul), the "School of Roses" album by Christon Gray (R&B), the "Deep" album by Mark Lettieri (Instrumental Rock Funk Fusion), and then the "Still Feel" song by half.alive.
I can’t think about a genre I hate, but I HATE when I hear that people play for there one good and not for the sake of the music. Especially drummers (I’m a drummer myself). Idk if it makes sense, it’s a bit hard to explain, but when you don’t play for the music, but just use it as a opportunity to shine
Oof. I resonate with this really hard. I grew up with CCM and even was a proponent of it. But I'm not anymore. My reasons are that I feel it cheapens the experience one has making music collectively, in church (just like you said). But I'm a fan of knowing that which I hate, so good work on your exposing yourself to the stuff that's out there. I'm a worship leader for a ministry conference (Revoice) and I owe it to myself and the folks who come to the conference to know what's actually good and where I can transcend or even transgress my own tastes to allow others an experience of God and each other. Art. It's fraught. Love the videos. Keep up the good work.
I'm a Christian who played in a worship band a few years ago and I completely agree with your hatred for CCM, especially Bethel music and Hillsong. They are not just melodically and lyrically shallow but theologically shallow.
I was wondering if Hillsong qualify. I've heard at least one song by them that I like. I've sung in church choirs and my dad was a church organist in his youth. My dad played a lot of Bach for me, both recordings and on the piano. But that's only a part of my musical background so maybe I've escaped the uncanny valley there. My dad expressed a lot of hatred for pop music and I picked up on that as a kid. But as I've gotten older, I've found appreciation for more and more genres.
My issue with Hillsong United specifically is that once "Oceans" got huge, they walked away from their roots for a little while in an attempt to be Christian Coldplay. Their newest album, People, is a return to form and really reminds me of their older catalog. I love, love, love "Highlands (Song of Ascent)" which is very poetic and rich theologically - a sad rarity these days.
This was so long ago, yet so relevant. I sit up on the platform at church week after week and trudge through the music that you described. It frustrates about 30% of the worshippers, mostly because it came in with a rush for it to take over and completely uproot and discard all the other flavors of worship song.
Personally, I separate the “Contemporary Christian Music” genre from the “Praise & Worship” genre. I hate CCM but love P&W. CCM being more radio-y songs, P&W being the songs that would be sung congregationally. Someone to listen to that I think you’d like is called the Trey Hill Band! Some interesting stuff going on there. Hopefully you’re still taking suggestions lol
That's hilarious because I feel exactly the opposite! I'm fine with hearing Christian pop, but I was raised in a traditional liturgy church service, and every time I hear a Contemporary church liturgy it feels incredibly bland and flavorless by comparison. Especially when they add in the bongos 😭
I do NOT like choir songs but this one strikes a deep chord with me. I just spent a good 20 minutes trying to find it again. ruclips.net/video/2dWKoXyNDGc/видео.html
Listen to Kings Kaleidoscope. It's a beautifully composed blend of genres. Some of it is exactly the kind of contemporary christian music you're describing.
Night Visions was actually a decent pop rock/alt rock album, and Smoke+Mirrors had several songs that were at least fun and energetic, if not exactly the most creative things out there. Everything after those two albums, though? Yeah, formulaic, emotionless tripe.
There’s literally no other band I hate more. Why they’re so popular and inescapable on the radio is still beyond me. The instrumentation lacks personality, song structure is repetitive as hell, melodramatic for no reason, and the singer is always trying so hard to sing in a register he clearly isn’t made to sing so he’s just constantly yell-singing. Ugh. Get it away from me
3:28 Oh Paul, I'm totally with ya. As a fellow Dutchman, the two types of music that I absolutely can't stand are; 1 Dutch carnival music. Whenever I hear it, it creates this fear of being a child in the midst of drunk adults in "de tent" in the Brabant village I grew up in. The songs have this very minor, fast, scary kind of horror feel to them that absolutely terrified me as a kid. Ok, it's just "s*x met die kale" which gave me PTSD, the rest I can still kinda handle depending on how "go and be drunk" the lyrics and song are. Still, if you put up "shirt uit en zwaaien" around me, any song by Snollebollekes, or overal any song that forces me into a "polonaise" (and even if the song doesn't but the people do), I'll turn into a fetal position and cry on a floor (that I'm afraid is gonna be) sticky of beer. (For some reason, I'm fine with "Welkom in de feesttent" which is exactly about that experience but doesn't fall into this "scary carnival genre" for some reason....) 2 Dutch rap music, but only when my sister puts it up. So I grew up white, very white. I have carnival-ptsd from when I was a child, shows I grew up in the southern Dutch countryside like I good ignorant white boy. Yeah, and then my sister and her friends decide to all go and listen to boys from bad Amsterdam neighbourhoods singing on how they became rich. Look, I have nothing against the boys, but having to listen to that while my sister sings along to it, it gives me shivers. It just doesn't feel correct. It doesn't feel like a white girl from the Dutch countryside should listen to a Dutch-Moroccan guy sing on how he had to deal drugs to feed his mother when he was younger. Something just doesn't feel right there. But I still don't know what.
Please, please listen to King’s Kaleidoscope’s “Becoming Who We Are.” One of the best worship albums ever recorded. The musicianship and songwriting is out of this world. Hope you enjoy it, Adam.
I played in a praise band for years as a teenager. In that time, there was precisely one song that didn't make me want to die when I played it: "King of Glory" by Jesus Culture. Maybe I was just biased toward CCM creators who were actually willing and "brave enough" to use diminished chords.
Didn't expect a recommendation for CCM I hadn't heard before but this is actually really interesting (listening now). I think the reason I actually love Elevation and don't just kinda tolerate them like the other big worship groups is they actually attempt to make their progressions somewhat interesting while still making the songs playable to the average person playing the song. One of my favorites is the Minor 6 add 2 which they use occasionally, but putting the 2 and 3 of the chord next to each other. It's a surprisingly dissonant sound for a typically cheesy and happy genre.
yea disingenuous could sum it up. I guess when something is just overdone to where it's practically beating a dead horse lol like others mentioned the ukulele type songs with the "edgy cool hipster" vocal style. Yeesh lol
@@davekent6023 I think we can subjectively identify music as "fake" if we are exposed to a genre of music and can tell when it's not quite true to that genre as we know it. I mean, I like taco bell, but maybe someone who's eaten "real" mexican food will be turned off by it, even if it's not inherently distasteful. Likewise, I've been getting into hip hop, and I like a few songs, but maybe someone who grew up with a certain variant of hip hop will be more repulsed by some hip hop that is different from what they'd identify with. I guess people are sometimes turned off by when they think they are being manipulated. But it is hard to know if you are being manipulated, until you know the strategies. Some tactics are more obvious than others, and it takes experience. IDK
@@ethanwest3393 I guess that has more to do with the overall image of the artist and the marketing around them than the music itself. Not going to look through the video again to get the original quote, but at least the OP and some others in the comments seem to be talking about the music specifically. I don't think music itself can sound "fake" or "phony".
Yeah, for the most part I'd say 'it sounds fake because you don't like it', but sure, I think there could be a reasonable scenario where you have some understanding of a genre or the history of a genre, and hear something that just comes across as like the third iteration of the telephone game of that genre or something - the components are there, but not the understanding of why those component _should_ be there, and the result is that the music sound like less than the sum of its parts. It's a bit like when someone does a cover of another artist's cover of a song, instead of an interesting interpretation of the original song. They're missing a major step in there.
If I want some real country, I'll turn on either some twangy George Jones or Dolly Parton, or some mid 90s stuff like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. Today's country is like classic rock.
If i want real country i'm either going for carrie underwood or taylor swift's old stuff. Garth brooks or trace adkins every once in a while to break up the monotonous routine.
Put that song on RUclips. Turn up the playback speed one tick every time you shift between a chorus and a verse or vice versa. Witness soul-pop emerge from its ponderous ballad noise.
The guy talking about music that builds to nothing… that spoke to me. My most intense interaction with music is dancing and I just love electronic music. Good electronic music knows how to really build up the tension, to fill me with energy, and then get that energy to explode into something complex and energetic. And then there's music that gets the buildup right and then… does a drop and goes right back to the same goddamn rhythm it started with and it's so incredibly frustrating.
My most visceral reactions towards music are usually moral gripes with the message of a song or genre. I know now that a lot of the musical quality arguments I made in the past about music (many of which I no longer subscribe to) stemmed from this type of objection. It also has weird properties. I tend to give a moral pass to music that I'm used to. Music I heard when I was young, or that I associate with a positive role model who I saw listen to a song, etc, which has lyrics I'm still not comfortable with, I might still listen to because I want the musical quality of it, yet I won't justify similar things in music which is more foreign to me.
The music I can’t stand and makes me want to punch something is the cheap ukulele music from like diy and craft videos or like those “yummy” cooking videos on Instagram it’s just sounds so algorithmic like you chose a key and a computer just spit out a 30 second clip of music that theoretically sounds good together but in reality just ends up sounding so lifeless and gross and empty
@nice try167 I wouldn't really call the Uke the worst sounding string instrument, It's just overused. In the hands of a good musician it can be used tastefully
-Kings Kaleidoscope and all Kings(MHM) “Zeal” “Joy has Dawned” -Kingdom of Priests “Prelude” -David Dunn “It is Well (Portrait)” -Josh Garrels “Closer Than a Brother”
your channel rocks bro! appreciate you! not trying to mindlessly agree with everything but I appreciate that you touch on questions and issues that have not been explored. These are definitely thoughts that got through my head and I am happy they are being explored
Once on acid I was watching a Monk concert. In a solo of his, my body was purified and got rid of a very bad pizza I ate earlier. Thanks for the vomit Thelonious. There you are, love and hate in one sentence.
It's basically marching band type music with lyrics about either something extremely inane (so you can still sing it while on the cusp of being blackout drunk) or about the holiday itself.
In case anyone is wondering here's a few of them: Staat een paard in de gang (there's a horse in the hallway) (really an older carnaval song) ruclips.net/video/4ozVntId3c4/видео.html Alie Exprezz ruclips.net/video/aRq6ttlugGk/видео.html Liever Te Dik In De Kist dan Weer Een Feestje Gemist (better to fat in the coffin than to mis a party (but it rhymes in Dutch)) ruclips.net/video/eg8YHJmmLfc/видео.html Links, rechts (left, right) ruclips.net/video/pFEDBewcfks/видео.html Hé Jacqueline, waar is de Vaseline (hey Jacqueline, wheres the vaseline) ruclips.net/video/2W7vExP3BpA/видео.html (I am in no way responsible for the damage done to you by any of this music, I also don't endorse this music nor condone it)
If we could combine the repetitive Contemporary Christian chord progressions with the words “dashboard, mini skirt, beer can and small town”, we may have found our Mecca...or at least mine. 😬
i hate music where theres a small part thats beautiful, perfect and very satisfying and the rest of the song is extremely mediocre or worse yet the rest of the song is trash, makes me wanna scream that they didnt release the music project file so that it can be used for the good part and it at best just needs to awkwardly be clipped out or attempted to be recreated (if someone's seen this comment already, im reposting it here in case it gets seen more here)
It is far easier to construct a good build-up then it is to also deliver a sufficient drop. This is especially true for electronic music, even more so since edm-tier dubstep growls are more or less off the table.
Good one... so you really putting yourself outthere now! Incidentally, I have the same 'uncanny valley' reaction to the same type of music that you speak of.. Good luck! WORSHIP ON!
Falling In Reverse has a song that starts with a verse that goes: "White boy on the beat rocking gucci sneaks" And I've never hated anything in the world more.
i only just got reccomended this today and it is making me feel really stressed seeing you wander around a public place with all these bare faces and knowing that in a month covid is going to be run through everything
The worst type of music is definitely "corporate ukulele music" that horrible repetitive ukulele music from commercials. Literally, makes me want to rip out my own hair.
ruclips.net/video/AIxY_Y9TGWI/видео.html you would like this!
Yeah like the quizlet live theme
@@hezekiahdaggett2179 just checked it out, it made me angry.
I hate when they use in videos this "there is hope always" like piano progressions and its "orchestrated" grandiose siblings.
ruclips.net/video/VKMTxNaJYxc/видео.html
And also any music featured in a TV commercial that contains whistling. It makes me want to jump into the nearest active volcano.
“Love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of loving something is being indifferent to it because loving or hating implies that you care about it in one direction or another” - Shawn Crowder
Damn Shawn getting out here with the life lessons.
That's a damn good quote isn't it?
It's a nice fun video and then suddenly Crowder comes out here with the straight up wisdom of the fucking ancients
Nice piece of knowledge... Glad I heard it when I was super young from a snowboard instructor lel
It's like a horseshoe. While on opposite ends of the horseshoe they're actually quite close together.
@@TheKingOfToast Found the Horseshoe Centrist /s
What Shawn said reminded me of a quote by Neil Gaiman: "The opposite of 'funny' is not 'serious'. The opposite of 'funny' is 'not funny'."
Oddly, it reminded me of a bit from Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic and the hydrophobic wizards who had such a revulsion to water they could fly over it from the sheer force of their will to not touch it. Paraphrasing: "They didn't hate water. Hate is an attracting force, like love. They loathed it."
That always made sense to me. If we hate something, we want to take action to eliminate it. If we loathe it, we just want it out of our lives entirely, not even wanting to interact with it enough to eliminate it.
not funny
didn't laugh
@@JusticeChrist
hate and disgust/loathe can be related. Not hate and love.
Antagonist of love is aggressiveness, and hate is related to aggressiveness.
With hate, disgust and aggressiveness are gathered.
"the opposite of love is not hate, but being indifferent. Because love and hate means that you care". What an eye opener.
Horseshoe theory for music
"I don't dislike you. I nothing you."
-Jordan, Scrubs
bollocks
No, the opposite of LOVE is FEAR !
But in the end love wins :)
opposite of forward is backward but they still go somewhere
for me it's the background music of every single spotify ad
want a break from the ads 😏
That stuff is genuinely atrocious.
I think it's made on purpose to make you go premium as soon as possible, there's no other explanation
eNjOy YoUr 30 MiNuTeS oF uNiNtErRuPtEd LiStEnInG
@@LinaVlogz how much did they pay you
When Shawn said “Love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of loving something is being indifferent to it. Because loving and hating implies that you care about it.”
That struck a chord with me. Good input.
I mean I'm gonna be a total doodoo head and say I never really liked this maxim since it's basically like saying "Left and right are not opposites -- the opposite of left is the center. Because left and right are both sides and therefore have something in common." I totally recognize that I'm missing the point but I really can't help it...
What chord was it?
@@lunafoxfire I actually completely agree with you.
Agreed.
@@lunafoxfire understandable. Love, hate, anger, joy, etc. are highly recognizable emotions but aren't really defined well. We know what it's like feel them, but how we feel them, when we feel them, etc. makes them elusive and personal for each person. But with that in mind, I guess it's easy now to imagine how those emotions are opposite of indifference, apathy and a coldness to something because those traits meant the lack of any emotion.
Commercial music. Ukulele music, especially with whistling and clapping of any kind. So...cute animal video music.
I call it hipster commercial music
I can hear a specific song in my head from reading this comment......
@@swanslistener6130 DANG ME TOO AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT'S FROM i hate this
Sometimes they use hot jazz in animal videos...
Yeah it's just beyond annoying. Makes me wanna horde my money and fly off like an angry dragon instead of buying whatever crap they're selling... eventually they'll have to catch on :)
Except... usually the things those commercials are selling is stuff like borderline scam "health foods"... so it may be a deliberate choice to turn everyone off what they're making except the most gullible.
But honestly, it's ruined ukulele music for me, 'cause I can't hear the instrument anymore without thinking of that stuff,no matter what it's playing.
“You’re not making Christianity any better. You’re only making rock and roll worse.”
Based
-Hank Hill
Love that episode of King of the Hill
Sufjan Stevens: “am I joke to you?”
Stryper has entered the chat
It’s almost less of a feeling of hatred, and more one of betrayal.
next video: reharmonizing some Christian music.
Use me as a 'vote for this idea to be the next video' button
Oceans by Hillsong United but it's Giant Steps
...followed by reharmonizing bro country feat Rhet on the 808 keys
I've made half my career out of this practice.
I V VI IV
That input at 7:22 sums it up...great thinking.
All of the people you interviewed had a point in common: we hate things that we feel that could be so much more yet they aren't.
And, as artists, we hate to see music that "doesn't deserve it" being at the top of the charts. Which is a fair, but interesting, point.
Adam hates contemporary Christian music yet he grew up listening to Christian music.
Rhett hates "bro-country" yet he grew up listening to country and plays it all the time.
Paul hates dutch carnival music yet he grew up with it.
All these 3 examples have the same motivation behind them: you hate music that should connect with you but doesn't; you feel like it's an abomination of what it should be - but deep inside you wish it wasn't so that you could enjoy it.
Great video Adam, thank you. Very insightful and gives me a lot to think about.
The more you know about a genre of music, the better you can see the songs and artists that don't measure up, that are motivated by money or ego, and when those things sell well it cheapens what you love.
I have experienced the same thing come to think of it, when getting pizza with friends who are not from Chicago (where I grew up). When the pizza too is from outside Chicago, I can simplify that there is no good pizza option because my geographical and cultural upbringing has made me a pizza snob, but when friends come to Chicago to visit, it is really annoying to have them go 'yeah yeah let's go to Gino's East' and then proceed to say during the meal "wow this IS the real deal," when through my experience there are so many things wrong with it that make it not worth the time compared to the other better (in my opinion) deep dish places.
Do you think, in some cases, this is a symptom of us being too nostalgic with the music we knew in the past that what we hear now, because it is not the same as what we grew to love, feels like the "end times" for that music you liked?
You often see this in the argument of "music today isn't like the music they USED to make!"
OR, unrelated, do you think in some cases it could be a symptom of jealousy, especially since some part of us shows disdain for certain people who have success and we don't?
Checkmate1138 I think it’s both actually. Adam has a pretty good video where the basic premise is that our music taste is formed by what we listen to when we’re teenagers/young adults. I think that’s quite the case, although obviously our tastes will (mostly) always develop but we never stop liking to what we heard back then.
Also jealousy plays a big part - in everything in life, not just music.
This is why I have a love/hate relationship with modern Indie. I listen to indie and alternative groups from the '70s - '90s, and I found it to be me much edgier and more unique. Sonic Youth, The Smiths, Elvis Costello, My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, etc.
Ever since the 2000's and all the way up to the present day, Indie has become a more 'polished' genre (meaning that the production and vocals are extremely crisp) that has tendencies to replicate the old indie while sending it through the musical equivalent of a food processor...at times. It doesn't apply universally.
I think what bothers me the most is that modern indie fans kind of consist of hipsters that like the neo-psychedelia and folk aspects, but they kinda sneer at the old and darker roots from whence they came. And perhaps more personally, these hipsters were like the preppy kids from school that treated me as a pariah, so it feels disingenuous that they think of themselves as the counterculture when they have loads of judgement issues themselves. They're mostly trust fund kids, anyway.
"I hate his music and my own music"
Relatable
Modern folk music where they stomp, clap, whistle and shout "Hey!"
Just kill me
Yes!
Yes!!!
Is ‘HO’ okay?
Thank you!
let me introduce you to this great song called Ho Hey
I wanna see the "I listened to Contemporary Christian Music for a week" reaction video
I really don't. Unless he manages to put that video together without actually showcasing any of said crappy music.
Calling it music is a sin !!! lol
Same
Probably a lot of autistic screams at first, and silence with drooling at the end
That's an unfair generalization. Like any genre there's good and bad.
I really hate "typical" film scores which we hear almost in every modern commercial movie trailer
m m oh, don’t let me talk about the music from telenovelas either😩
Trailer music is definitely distinct from movie scores.
* high pitched single piano note with reverb *
Canvaverbalist
(G5 plays with every cut)
*profound speaking line by a supporting character*
The entire genre of "Ad Rock", created by U2 and perfected by Imagine Dragons. It should be constrained to car commercials only.
it took me a few minutes to realize you were talking about "Advertisement rock" and not the member of Beastie Boys named Ad-Rock...
The Ford F150 meme
Imagine Dragons, especially.
U2 are tedious and soulless.
Imagine Dragon is Stadium Blues. It does to the blues genre what "You'd look really pretty if you smiled" does to flirting.
Believer and Thunder are the worst songs on earth. They play EVERYWHERE.
Personally, I like U2, especially Sunday Bloody Sunday. I can't say the same for Imagine Dragons(I hate them with every fibre of my soul).
So the music we all hate is the soulless version of the music we love. Just goes to show how important context and the spirit of the music we listen to is. Interesting to think how our tastes are so dependent on such arbitrary variables
Through most of the video, I was trying to think of a genre that I have a real visceral hatred for, and couldn't think of any. Then he said contemporary Christian, and I went "ah, that's it."
I'm the music director of my church, and what really sticks in my craw is not just that the music isn't good, or that it's popular, but because so many others in my position feel pressure to duplicate the sound in their own services, rather than exercising creativity and cultivating a sound unique to their congregation.
This is exactly my issue! There's such a monotony to that generic Christian sound and I tire of it very easily. My own church leans towards a folk-bluegrass style, sometimes drifting into outright rock, and whenever I'm finding new music for our ensemble my first priority is how we can mold the song in our style and really make it our own, rather than just blindly trying to emulate the original recording.
I had the same thoughts. I don’t particularly hate any genres or music, but as soon as he mentioned contemporary or as I call it “lazy” christian music my blood boiled. Although I’ve learned to like some songs over the time I’ve been exposed to it. I still don’t particularly agree nor appreciate the majority of it.
I'll admit part of my negative reaction to contemporary Christian music stems from my negative experiences with the church (not worth going over why here), but a big portion of my bad feelings is just as you said.
It's music that was originally meant to convey and facilitate a spiritual connection between community members, but it's been commodified into this plastic monstrosity. It's commercialized Christianity (TM) for sale. It's not produced to convey personal spiritual experiences. Quite the opposite. It is deliberately designed to be as universally palatable as possible across denominations.
Rather than speak to the local traditions of different church communities it is watered down so as not to offend the sensibilities of any specific community. And the market facilitates this practice because there are many members in the community (at least that I've met) who will engage with the music non-critically and actively shame others who listen to music outside of this genre out feelings of duty to the religion. They don't realize how their deeply held beliefs have been converted into turning them into ideal consumers.
And I think that's icky.
Church music is supposed to bring people together in a shared practice not maximize its marketability.
Definitely! On the flipside, one of the things that originally encouraged me towards Christianity was the honest, alive, passionate, and often funky music that my first worship pastor brought. God's gift of music can be quite a blessing, but worship doesn't come from music alone. Talk to Matt Redman about that, hey?
Tragoedia I agree with a lot of what you said, I hope the negative church experience made you find a different church and a deeper connection with God and not just run. Oftentimes we chalk the churches’ actions up to Christ’s scorecard- inaccurately, when they’ll be held accountable for their own misdeeds. Be blessed.
Everyone at NAMM talking about gear, Adam talking about Uncanny Valley effect.
I like that
Nader Chnag nice local natives pic
I agree with you on CCM, as a guitar teacher I have had dozens of students over the decades want to learn their fave CCM songs. I've listened, I've written chords, I've "tabbed", I've even not note-for-note transcriptions for small groups; your using the word "insipid" is exactly on-point and the one word I've never used to describe CCM!
Even from another room, with two doors closed and virtually unintelligible lyrics, I can still pick it out! Kinda like the smell of a skunk...
I'm sure somebody said "I hate Ed Sheeran" and Adam cut it out
I can confirm. That was me.
Me too
Who's Ed Sheeran
@@davidwillis7991 pop singer
@@sebastianelytron8450 More than that, I'm indifferent to his music.
Paul Davids' "rendition" of Dutch carnival music is scarily accurate...
indeed, I hate it too. For an idea: ruclips.net/video/pFEDBewcfks/видео.html
@@computerfan1079 is gewoon goeie
@@computerfan1079 Holy crap that's bad!
Gelukkig geen last van.. Ik woon boven de rivieren.
@@computerfan1079 Yikes, we have pretty much the same stuff in Germany and it is just as disgusting
When I was in school, I remember the song 'fireflies' being released. I don't remember hearing it on the radio, or on RUclips, I would catch snippets of it here and there I'm sure, but by far my biggest exposure to it was from friends who absolutely HATED it. They loved hating it in that theatric and exaggerated way that teenagers love to hate on specific pop songs. And I joined in on hating it, it didn't matter that I had never heard the whole thing, I had heard enough to know it was awful.
Some years later I realized that I had never actually heard the song all the way through. I had never attempted to listen to it from a nuetral position. And so I found it on RUclips, put my headphones on, and gave it the chance that any piece of music deserves to have. I was determined to overcome this bias instilled in me by my old peers. I rediscovered the song 'fireflies' that day. And more importantly, I discovered that I really fucking hate the song fireflies.
I still have not heard it in its entirety.
I can totally relate, except I encoutered the people who were obsessed with the song first, and they made me hate it before I had anyone to hate it with. The only way I can listen to the song and appreciate it in some way now is through memes of the song, like "Fireflies but every lyric is in alphabetical order", like I take this sick pleasure in seing the song intentionally ruined
Oddly enough I used to really hate that song and all my friends loved it... 10 years later I think it's aight
"You would not believe your eyes
If ten million FIREFLIES
Lit up the wall as I fell asleep..."
😈
Hasn't that guy moved over into the CCM world?
@@TroyMcKeown Nah, he is a christian and has done a few songs with a theme but he moved more into scores and continues with his original synth style. Contrary to the music/fireflies, he is a very talented musician.
I am a minister. I listen to punk and metal, and been in a number of punk bands that were all spectacular failures (I wasn't always a minister). It weirds my church out that i like classic hymns and have a deep dislike for most praise music. They think because I like to listen to Slayer I would for some reason embrace the soft rock show that is called worship on most Sunday mornings. I don't make a fuss about it, but I can relate to your sentiment more than a youtube comment can convey.
The first person who welcomed us into a new neighbourhood we moved into was a catholic priest who also happened to be an old punk. We've been to punk gigs togehter since.
I genuinely like how apparently a lot of people in clergies are into rock. Especially rock that some zealots would have considered "Satanic" back in the day.
Freud called this the “narcissism of small differences” - communities with very similar or overlapping interests not being able to stand one another.
That's a snobbish yet very educated way of describing toxicity in fandoms. HEY OVER HERE edit: you people thought I'm referring to the OP, but I think you guys need to reread it. Hint: I meant the phrase only.
@@lesteryaytrippy7282 What's snobbish about it?
I feel that. I build gundam models and I can’t stand military vehicle model builders. The airplanes have to be exactly the right color and all the good examples just end up looking the same. Soul sucking military color matching and realistic rust.
Freud predicted Emos vs Goths.
This sums up the Balkans.
A wise man once said
"I hate his and my own music"
john lennon to paul mccartney
Who says that?
dumb blonde 1:04
Reid Gowan yeah but what's his name?
dumb blonde Carl Jonatan according to his name tag
Any top 40 pop song where they sing "WoOOooAaah oh oh oh" In the chorus
This is called the Millennial Whoop, if it is what I'm thinking of. It's in EVERYTHING and there are some good video essays on it that come up when you search for it.
Saved me the comment
That's just when they can't think of anything to say there
I was thinking about what this song would be For The Longest Time, but I just couldn't think of anything.
Benjamin Alfveby California girls by Katy Perry is a prime example
There is a German lullaby called "Heidschi Bumbeitschi" where basically the mom died and the father then sings this song to his baby boy to get him to "Take a long sleep" where the child "dreams of angels" and yes, you guessed it, dies in the end. I cried and left the room whenever this was sung/played when i was young.
German lullabies be like
The mum does not die, she has to leave her boy alone so he dies.
replying after two years, buuut
there's a children's song originating from one USSR cartoon about mammoths (that's why the song is called "the baby mammoth's song"), and, growing up in this culture, i absolutely hated it as a kid.
the text (the most famous part of it) goes as follows:
"may your mom hear you,
may your mom come to you,
may your mom certainly find you,
because there's no such thing in the world as lost kids"
well, first of all, that is a lie: there are plenty of cases of lost kids, and, as a kid myself, i was so fucking afraid that i would be lost, and my mom won't find me, so i've always interpreted this song not as reassuring, but as threatening (?) in some way.
secondly, the music for this song is just pure sadness-- no, not even that - pure *child tears*. it's in g minor, the melody has this feeling like it's gonna resolve, but it never does, and this gives some unstable and crushing emotions.
so... yeah, i guess Adam was right: there's music to write paragraphs about for anyone, lol
Greetings from New Orleans, birthplace of jazz. I've recently discovered Adam Neely's videos. I'm an old cat who has been a pro in the "music biz" since I was 15 . He speaks about topics I've pondered, worked with and wrestled with all my life. I'm amazed that such a young cat has such depth, knowledge and wisdom about musical things. I'd love to sit down with him in person and spend some time discussing and learning from him.
@@JcastroCFH What, how?
@@MilesFinder the power of jazz
@@MilesFinder Everybody wants to be a cat... (because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at)
Meow 😺
Everybody pickin' up on the feline beat ... 'Cause everything else is obsolete!
When it comes to Christian music I prefer Gregorian chants
yeah boy them orthodox chants, ever heard of their trap beats shut is soon sick
My favorite's gotta be the Confiteor
Hayden of Everything Dies Irae is good too
@@Blorp52 They're all slaps. I struggled to choose one as the best.
Yes I totally agree Gregorian chants are lovely and give one a sense of space and peace... equilibrium
Your comments on modern Christian music remind me of an old Hank Hill: "Dang it, Bobby. Don't you know you can't make God better? You're just making rock worse."
I actually played in what the Catholic church called "Life Teen" masses and completely agree with your assessment. The saving grace for me, to borrow a phrase, was the musicians I played it with. A lot of the problem is just the sterile production, imo.
+1. "Can't you see you're not making Christianity better? You're just making rock and roll worse!"
Talkin bout dang ole yeah man
I understand how things are for you. I'm the bassist for the Life Teen band at my church
I'm Catholic and was in late high school when my church switched over to the Life Teen youth ministry format. We do still have Life Teen masses, with music a mix of some commonly known CCM songs and more traditional hymns that most teens at the parish have grown up with (although fortunately without any guitar nonsense). After high school, I spent 4 years at a very traditional-leaning Catholic college with lots of opportunities to explore traditional liturgical music, especially Gregorian chant. One thing I've found is that traditional music is often (not always) easier for the congregation to sing, more liturgical, and it lends itself more easily to an attitude of contemplation. I have never really liked CCM and everything I've learned about traditional music has led me to better understand why I think it often falls flat.
@@RianeBane One major problem with modern Christian rock: music is meant to ask questions, not answer them.
"Our experience with art is deeply personal" I think this is also the reason why it can feel so incredibly hurtful when people crap on the music that you love. Like, my feelings get genuinely hurt when people are negative about the music I love, because so many of my own personal experiences are wrapped up in those songs. It feels like a rejection of me as a person
Interesting
I completely understand. There's this feeling of being attacked personally when someone else despise a piece of art that means a lot to you. However, the personal experience is in both ways, so we shouldn't take personally a possible attack to our loved art. Remember that the art doesn't speak for you, but your appreciation of it. "When you judge something, it talks more about yourself than the thing you point at".
"The glorious orgy of consumer capitalism that singlehandedly keeps the dream of music alive for millions"
truly is glorious
stunning and brave
+
That insufferably saccharine music that they add to viral or 'cute' videos. Makes my toes curl like a dead spider.
Oh god same
Do you mean, perhaps, this?
ruclips.net/video/p0BWZFmVV7s/видео.html
y e s .
doo padoobadooba doo
oh no oh no oh no no no no no
lol
7:34 - "Loving and hating implies that you care about it in one direction or another."
This reminds me of Emo Philips' infamous joke...
--
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"
He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"
He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.
Ahhh thanks for that
That joke! I couldn't remember who came up with it lol
"Sloppy wet or unforeseen?"
"Unforeseen."
"Die, heretic!"
Just a little How He Loves humor.
1. Gungor - Sufjan Stevens of CCM
2. The Oh Hellos - CCM but it’s a fantasy novel
3. John Mark McMillan - wrote the biggest CCM hit ever (How He Loves) and then stepped away to make lots of ambient rock CCM
4. Audrey Assad - beautiful piano CCM
(edit for clarity: these ^ are CCM recs, not hates)
I play at church once a week. Some CCM is my favorite music ever. Some CCM is my least favorite ever. The love/hate advice is so true.
Heck, I'm agnostic and I love The Oh Hellos. It's only allegorically Christian though, so I can only notice the religion if I really think about the lyrics.
Gungor is gooooood
How dare you hate TOH this is a crime
Evan Mobley I’m in a church band and we play how he loves so often god I hate it
isn't sufjan stevens the sufjan stevens of contemporary christian music
100% there with you with CCM. Christian Rock feels so shallow, coming from someone who had to grow up in a Christian household
completely agree. grew up in a catholic school and in shows they held they would always have a worship band and it was just really shallow. just the same 4 chords and jesus free me from sin. vvboring
Your acronym threw me off for a second. I thought you initially were referring to "Contemporary Country Music."
Almost every hebrew song i dont like. idk why even if i would try i making a song in hebrew i would still not like it.
@@dodonkedonks4764 Reverend Lovejoy and the electric guitar on "The Simpsons"? (One of Ned Flanders's sons: "Is he killing that guitar, Daddy?" Ned: "Yes, Son.")
powerwolf T-T
I got hire once to show up at a particular address at 6;15 p.m. rehearse until 6:45, play from 7 to 8. Go home. It was Benny Hinn's church and at 8 he decided to go off on a theological tangent we played non-stop until 12:30 a.m. It was the most boring night of my musical life. On the other hand I got to watch this "faith healer" up close for hours.
Controversial take, but 9/11 ruined country music. It all turned into patriot baiting which then evolved into modern bro-country. It turned from "I drive my tractor and stick it to the man" to "I drive my road-only lifted pickup and obey everything the man tells me"
I blame Toby Keith.
So glad for Orville Peck right now.
The patriot baiting sickened me. Still does. Makes me cry when something genuine comes along.
Wait, this take is controversial somewhere?
"I'm gonna shamelessly lift several elements of mainstream hip-hop but stay racist"
"You're not making Christianity better. You're just making rock 'n' roll worse." - Hank Hill
Good luck with that, brother. Or should I say: go with God.
Ha just watched that episode
Hahaha I loved that quote
When you're only known for being a yellow jacket enthusiast.
R we talking bout shaun martin's cuz thts lit
Four Corners was a sick album tho
JESUS IS MAAH LOOOARD
@@jonathanchristoper2043 That song is fire
Well it is quite a unique thing. Most people hate wasps ;)
Thank you for this video, your uncanny valley trigger (CCM) is something I can relate to in so many ways and knowing the why is very eye opening.
to summarise: People hate music they find disingenuous in intent and/or execution.
It seems to me that disingenuous art is way worse than tasteless or stupid art. The melody, rhythm and harmony of disingenuous music still touches us in some way that we resent, and the worst part is that the creator is succeeding in manipulating us.
Edit: maybe there is a cognitive dissonance happening because the musical language is inspiring emotions which we cannot justify.
I like this answer, but will add that as a semi-musician myself, I've always had the feeling from the very beginning that anything I created musically was to be played with reason, with passion. There's a difference between passing someone by and saying "how are you", compared to stopping someone to ask and looking at them intently and asking carefully "how are you?". They are both essentially the same phrase, but one carries meaning, and the other does not.
I feel like a lot of these answers provided are by people who feel the music they hate is empty or fake. Maybe even so far as to say tricking you, as they might spot the differences and not be able to describe why they feel it's fake, while the mass majority doesn't realize that it's fake and feels like "oh it's Christmas music, this is what happy music feels like!"
I think it's that disingenuity (disingenuousness?) or "betrayal" that's the common denominator as I'm reading these comments.
During the video, I had trouble figuring out what genre would get my teeth grating and gnashing. By the end, I realize I absolutely detest (most) metalcore as well as anything by the likes of U2. These sorts of music always try to be "bigger" than what they are. Whether it's emotions of "I HATE MYSELF" from metalcore artists to "you're inspirational and yasss you're amazing!!" fluffy stuff from U2, they're like the musical equivalents of "motivational speeches/posts" that you'd find on LinkedIn.
It's like if someone's trying to hit on you but they keep using pick-up lines they read somewhere on some random website. That's what these songs feel like.
Dude, I’m Christian, ever since opening myself to other generes and intricacies that come in making Jazz and other new gamers you’ve helped introduce; has helped me realize how stale contemporary Christian music can be.
Same. I don't hate it, it's just so repetitive. Definitely at the bottom of my genre list
I’m longing for someone to start writing songs that are ‘different’. Here in the uk back in the 80s (probably) we had Christian song writers who def did not follow the 4 chord trick, and I think a couple had some jazz influences. Love playing those again.
Erik Bojay I remember a time when there was more to Christian Music than today. I guess they want to make it easier for both musicians and christians to digest, learn and sing these days.
Jonathan Diaz Yeah, I thought the same. Kanye West’s gospel album is a good example of a completely novel area in contemporary Christian music. It’s just so foreign and novel compared to all the songs we hear in churches over and over again. Listening to the album feels weird and strange, but kind of in a good way, y’know?
Good "Worship" music already exists. It's called Post Rock
Adam: Does a video on "Music you hate"
Also Adam: Trolls the viewers by wearing an Antares Autotune lanyard for the duration of the video
lol what does that even mean
I fucking love autotune bruh
I love cats
@@Decordelights__ I hate auto-tune and I think it ruined what could have been some otherwise excellent music .
... but I am grateful for all the excellent Hip Hop out there that does not have Auto-Tune
Your videos are insanely inspiring both musically and mentally
"The opposite of loving something is being indifferent to it"
I love that quote from Shawn, makes a lot of sense to me
One time, a friend of mine was like "I don't get why people hate Ed Sheeran, he just makes fun pop music"
And I hadn't really listened to Ed Sheeran, so I thought, hey, I enjoy fun pop music and liking things that people hate, so let's Google up some of his tunes
And I swear to God, two bars of anything that man has ever made makes me feel like Satan is puking on my soul. It provokes the most gutwrenchingly visceral sense of absolute loathing that I have ever experienced, and I have _no idea_ why. It just feels like I'm being targeted by some kind of experimental sonic weapon that bypasses any concerns for taste or quality and just deals psychic damage directly.
Oh no! You've reminded me! Now it's in my head again!
Oooh-waah oooh-waah oo-waah oo-wah ooo-waah ooo I'm in love with your bo-o-ody!
Aaaugh! Nooooo!
should get this quote printed on a T-shirt, wear it under a jacket, go to an Ed Sheehan concert, go right to the front, out-woop all the surrounding fans, and then at the right moment pull the jacket off and continue as if nothing has changed
YES! And I feel so ashamed to admit this too because everyone's like "wow you're such a hater dude you just dislike it because it's popular" and MAYBE I DO but not really. I can't really tell why I DESPISE people like 1D or Ed Sheeran meanwhile, although I don't listen to them all the time, don't mind Somebody I Used To Know by Gotye or This Love by Maroon 5, for a few examples. All of them are catchy, pop, quick tunes that people just jam to but there's just something so gross, like having a look around and then back at your icecream and seeing there's now a used tampon on it, every time these quirky e-boys open their mouths.
I FELT THE SAME THING. I believe it's because this music has no soul whatsoever. It's completely empty.
ProjectThunderclaw Thank you for this comment. It’s nice to be reminded that I’m not alone about this.
Whether or not he’s aware of what he’s singing, it really sounds like he isn’t. This is what I think people hate about the lack of authenticity if they detect it. But it’s really disappointing to see this get passed everyone else. “People fall in love in mysteries ways!” Imagine if you wrote that yourself. How accomplished would you feel? Imagine how these shitty throw-away place holders for lyrics are being plainly slopped in, recorded, commercialized, and are producing great success for him!
But about the sickening essence that I find in his music that I thought was relatable to what you said:
When you have this really cliche, poppy, commercial jingle that tries to relate with these empty, emotional sentiments presented with lyrics like “will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?”, it might make you feel like your soul has food poisoning.
Also the fake almost british accent with their mouth small af thing girls do when they play ukelele
i felt that pain XD
I just heard in my head a girl with a voice that’s trying too hard to be soulful singing “I know” over a chord change. Yeah I know what you mean.
Like that little blonde girl from America’s Got Talent? Her performance went viral. That “singing accent” is so overused and cheesy.
i thought I was the only one to notice
_banaeni_
and _avacaedi_
I dont really hate any genre specifically, but the one thing that I have like a pure, visceral reaction to is any piano cover that also harmonizes the vocals along with it. Some of my favorite songs are ruined in covers where the right hand is doing "A-A-A-A-A-A A-A-A-B-A-A B-B-B-B A-A-A-A" Uugh I cant even.
Paul Davids just pulled off the greatest impression of Dutch carnival music I have ever seen
Adam: "I'm not talking about music that you might find 'kitsch'"
Everyone: responds with music they find kitsch
Yes just yes
what's that?
@@lauramessy Kitsch refers to art that is considered to be in poor taste, but is appreciated in an ironic or knowing way. Some people may feel that way about Philosophy of the World by The Shaggs, for example.
@@ninjapikachu5673 100 gecs
What if I get a visceral disgust response from a genre that I find kitsch (but not other, equally kitsch genres)?
I definitely feel you on this one! As a musician and Christian, I was always conflicted with what songs are popular in the Christian community and was expected to bring to church and what was musical about those songs. And yes I did and still do outright refuse to bring a song that was generic, as in 3/4 chord structures with uninteresting melodies. For me, music is like crack, the more 'chordally', melodically, rhythmically, 'instrumentationally' interesting the better, it's like an addiction. But I will say some of these Contemporary Christians songs are beautiful, musically satisfying to me and as a Christian I believe there is an anointing on a song that I connect with on a spiritual level (unquantifiable you may say). But there is also an art, I found, in playing simply, that if I was not 'forced' to play these basic songs I would not have discovered and I found a musical satisfaction in that, something new. I will also add that contemporary Christian music is played by all levels of musicians and there is a complexity that can be added regardless of your ability.
I hate American country music like Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw (yes I did google these names)
When I was in junior high and high school, I had an hour-long bus ride to and from school, and the bus driver on my route kept the bus' radio tuned to HI-99, "the Wabash Valley's Country Station!" HI-99 being a shamelessly commercial pop country radio station, it played the top few current chart hits over and over, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. This was in the early-to-mid 1990s, when "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and "Achy Breaky Heart" dominated the pop country charts for months at a stretch.
I was forced to hear the same small set of $h!tty stupid songs multiple times per bus ride, twice a day, every school day for five years. I don't enjoy hearing even songs I love multiple times in a row, and I never enjoyed pop country at all. It was psychological torture. I'm still pissed off at my bus driver for putting me through that, and I'm 41 years old.
I consequently loathe both of those songs, and other pop country songs of the era, with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.
41, so that would have been, what, the mid 90s? Was a walkman or a CD player at max volume not an option? I only had to ride the schoolbus (my bus driver played some bullshit pop station all the time) one year in middle school but I had a little iPod shuffle I got at a school raffle, and I gladly sacrificed my eardrums for the sake of my sanity.
@@FGLKyouma I'm 43 now, the comment you're replying to is over a year old. I graduated from high school in 1995 when I was 16. I have a hard time tuning out irritating stimuli, much harder than most people seem to. Any personal stereo I may have had from 1990-1995 was utterly insufficient to drown out the awfulness of that bus ride.
@@bartolomeothesatyr Oh, my bad, didn't even look to see when it was posted. Well, I hope your grudge towards that driver doesn't bug you too often. Have a good one.
I've strongly disliked Bruno Mars for quite a while. I couldn't stand hearing him. And why? Because for a while every single time I turned on the radio, my mum turned on the radio, or I walked in somewhere with a radio, I would hear Bruno Mars. It was like he was the only artist playing on the major radio stations here. It was only after not hearing him for over a year or so that I could slowly begin appreciating some of his music. It's crazy how radio can ruin songs or even entire genres.
I had a similar experience with one of my coworkers who was in control of the music. He played the same 10 hip hop songs over and over. It has put me off the genre ever since
“Love and hate are not opposites. The opposite of loving something is being indifferent to it.” Shawn Crowder, Philosopher
Brooks Tarkington nice quote
I dislike this quote so much. It's just not founded in reality.
I have to admit that my annoying philosopher's side had an opinion about that too. Loving something and being indifferent to it are certainly different things, but are they really opposites? Aren't there all kinds of relationships you can have to a thing? Also, in the context of the video, it makes sense to view it from the subject's perspective, but from the perspective of the object (the music), I would say that being loved probably would be the opposite of being hated.
Don't study philosophy, folks. You won't ever be fun at parties again.
Anos Anosn, That’s fine.
Socrates Crowder
Gungor’s “Ghosts Upon the Earth” is a hauntingly beautiful album that existed in the CCM sphere after “Beautiful Things.” I’m not sure I still consider it CCM as much as I consider it their transition away from CCM, but may be worth including nonetheless
And after that they got REALLY cool!
@@josephharvey1762 And then they broke up the band!
+1 for Gungor. But I agree that their stuff is a deliberate step away from CCM.
Ethan Windham
King’s Kaleidescope - Becoming Who We Are is a worship album and it’s is incredibly good. Even the cover of “All Creatures” has polyrhythms.
Yes yes yes YES!!!! I've grown up in a Christian household my whole life and I myself am a Christian and I despise contemporary Christian music. You described every problem I have with it especially the hollowness. You would think that with a genre based off of the boundless passion for the creator of the universe would fit into the music but it always feels so lifeless and simplistic as if it were just to make a quick buck and it doesn't help that a vast majority of contemporary Christian artists and band that I've seen in concert don't seem to have much musical background at all and seem to be in this perpetual state of being inspired by the people before them who also don't have musical training. I just can't stand the wasted potential and it's something I've always dreamed about changing.
That being said I'd recommend Casting Crowns. They're, to this day, the only contemporary Christian band I can tolerate at all.
yeah bro I think that the general lack of musical background really contributes to the problem. I feel like no real artists want to make christian music because at this point it has solidified itself as mediocre and no one really likes it who is great at music. Its a shame, and ive thought a lot about the irony you pointed out about the inspiration too.
My feelings for Casting Crowns are exact opposite compared to you, but for more personal reasons. I can not stand Casting Crowns. I was at a Bible Camp one year and the cabin leader asked if the kids in my cabin liked to listen to quiet music during the night and some of them said yes. The cabin leader decided to play one Casting Crowns album every night for the whole week I was there. I grew to despise the sound of the lead vocalists voice and could not listen to them without cringing in disgust after that week.
To each there own of course.
I agree with the whole simplicity of modern worship music. I volunteer my slightly above average drumming skills to the church that I go to every week, however I only play once a month. The people I play with are awesome and very creative, however that does not make the music we play any less boring and repetitive.
I do not hate all Contemporary Christian Music, but some big names in that genre need to maybe step it up a notch. Maybe step up more than one notch.
@@thedrules478 Listen to the song I Am by Theocracy.
@@jo88sip I do not blame you in the slightest for feeling that way. A vast majority of things I dislike or outright hate are due to people either forcing me to partake in something or practically begging me to try something. It's like when RUclips plays the same ad over and over and people who are regularly on the site just end up hating whatever the ad is for.
As far as Christian musicians go, I've played drums for 6 or 7 churches and all of them have given me the same comment. "Less is more." Which would be fine if the comment wasn't given to me for the slightest bit of syncopation. Either I play metronome, or not at all, simply because they're not able to deviate from the orginal sound of the song. Which for me is frustrating as a music major. They make me feel over qualified to play the genre despite me being above average at best.
Similar experience here. I don't think I like any music that would be qualified as "Contemporary Christian Music" in genre terms at least, but there are artists that I love that have Christian lyrics that would be categorized as Hard Rock, or Blues, or Soul, or whatever. I don't like that CCM is a "genre" per se; it's really just bad pop with Christian lyrics. Why should we differentiate?
Anyway, personal picks for just good, Christian-driven music would be the "Odd Soul" album by MUTEMATH (Experimental Alt Rock), the "Turn Around" album by Jonny Lang (Blues Gospel Soul), the "School of Roses" album by Christon Gray (R&B), the "Deep" album by Mark Lettieri (Instrumental Rock Funk Fusion), and then the "Still Feel" song by half.alive.
I can’t think about a genre I hate, but I HATE when I hear that people play for there one good and not for the sake of the music. Especially drummers (I’m a drummer myself). Idk if it makes sense, it’s a bit hard to explain, but when you don’t play for the music, but just use it as a opportunity to shine
Oof. I resonate with this really hard.
I grew up with CCM and even was a proponent of it. But I'm not anymore. My reasons are that I feel it cheapens the experience one has making music collectively, in church (just like you said).
But I'm a fan of knowing that which I hate, so good work on your exposing yourself to the stuff that's out there. I'm a worship leader for a ministry conference (Revoice) and I owe it to myself and the folks who come to the conference to know what's actually good and where I can transcend or even transgress my own tastes to allow others an experience of God and each other.
Art. It's fraught. Love the videos. Keep up the good work.
I'm a Christian who played in a worship band a few years ago and I completely agree with your hatred for CCM, especially Bethel music and Hillsong. They are not just melodically and lyrically shallow but theologically shallow.
I was wondering if Hillsong qualify. I've heard at least one song by them that I like.
I've sung in church choirs and my dad was a church organist in his youth. My dad played a lot of Bach for me, both recordings and on the piano. But that's only a part of my musical background so maybe I've escaped the uncanny valley there.
My dad expressed a lot of hatred for pop music and I picked up on that as a kid. But as I've gotten older, I've found appreciation for more and more genres.
Mark The Mimic I agree with that about Hillsong, but let’s not forget praise and worship music is different than contemporary Christian
My issue with Hillsong United specifically is that once "Oceans" got huge, they walked away from their roots for a little while in an attempt to be Christian Coldplay. Their newest album, People, is a return to form and really reminds me of their older catalog. I love, love, love "Highlands (Song of Ascent)" which is very poetic and rich theologically - a sad rarity these days.
soundcloud.com/shilohriver/jesus-lover-of-my-soul
@@Ackbar96 I saw it move from "Christan Journey" to "Christian U2" to "Christian Coldplay" and most recently "Christian Mumford and Sons" and yeah.
During the intro I thought
"Country.
Oh, well I don't HATE country I guess I just dislike it"
Thanks for the self reflection
I’m not a fan of country but Mike and the moonpies are pretty good
I was listening to Orville Peck, and that made me realize that it isn't Country music I dislike, just most of it's "musicians"
I dislike most new Country music but "Country and Western" is where it's at. Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, etc.
+
This was so long ago, yet so relevant. I sit up on the platform at church week after week and trudge through the music that you described. It frustrates about 30% of the worshippers, mostly because it came in with a rush for it to take over and completely uproot and discard all the other flavors of worship song.
Personally, I separate the “Contemporary Christian Music” genre from the “Praise & Worship” genre. I hate CCM but love P&W. CCM being more radio-y songs, P&W being the songs that would be sung congregationally.
Someone to listen to that I think you’d like is called the Trey Hill Band! Some interesting stuff going on there. Hopefully you’re still taking suggestions lol
Finally someone who gets it
That's hilarious because I feel exactly the opposite! I'm fine with hearing Christian pop, but I was raised in a traditional liturgy church service, and every time I hear a Contemporary church liturgy it feels incredibly bland and flavorless by comparison. Especially when they add in the bongos 😭
I do NOT like choir songs but this one strikes a deep chord with me. I just spent a good 20 minutes trying to find it again.
ruclips.net/video/2dWKoXyNDGc/видео.html
I hate it all but I hate P&W a little less
Listen to Kings Kaleidoscope. It's a beautifully composed blend of genres. Some of it is exactly the kind of contemporary christian music you're describing.
yehh!
I agree, Kong’s Koleidescope would be great!
I like them too. Although strictly not really CCM, they're more on the alternative side genre-wise.
Definitely Kings Kaleidoscope
Seriously though, Imagine Dragons is just corporate music with lyrics.
@@theAristocrap Coldplay and Tool actually made more than one decent album though
... and Hans Zimmer is just movie music with sound design and cut'n paste.
I used to really like Imagine Dragons up to their second album, but since the third album I cant stand their music.
Night Visions was actually a decent pop rock/alt rock album, and Smoke+Mirrors had several songs that were at least fun and energetic, if not exactly the most creative things out there. Everything after those two albums, though? Yeah, formulaic, emotionless tripe.
There’s literally no other band I hate more. Why they’re so popular and inescapable on the radio is still beyond me. The instrumentation lacks personality, song structure is repetitive as hell, melodramatic for no reason, and the singer is always trying so hard to sing in a register he clearly isn’t made to sing so he’s just constantly yell-singing. Ugh. Get it away from me
3:28 Oh Paul, I'm totally with ya.
As a fellow Dutchman, the two types of music that I absolutely can't stand are;
1 Dutch carnival music. Whenever I hear it, it creates this fear of being a child in the midst of drunk adults in "de tent" in the Brabant village I grew up in. The songs have this very minor, fast, scary kind of horror feel to them that absolutely terrified me as a kid. Ok, it's just "s*x met die kale" which gave me PTSD, the rest I can still kinda handle depending on how "go and be drunk" the lyrics and song are. Still, if you put up "shirt uit en zwaaien" around me, any song by Snollebollekes, or overal any song that forces me into a "polonaise" (and even if the song doesn't but the people do), I'll turn into a fetal position and cry on a floor (that I'm afraid is gonna be) sticky of beer.
(For some reason, I'm fine with "Welkom in de feesttent" which is exactly about that experience but doesn't fall into this "scary carnival genre" for some reason....)
2 Dutch rap music, but only when my sister puts it up. So I grew up white, very white. I have carnival-ptsd from when I was a child, shows I grew up in the southern Dutch countryside like I good ignorant white boy.
Yeah, and then my sister and her friends decide to all go and listen to boys from bad Amsterdam neighbourhoods singing on how they became rich. Look, I have nothing against the boys, but having to listen to that while my sister sings along to it, it gives me shivers. It just doesn't feel correct. It doesn't feel like a white girl from the Dutch countryside should listen to a Dutch-Moroccan guy sing on how he had to deal drugs to feed his mother when he was younger. Something just doesn't feel right there. But I still don't know what.
Please, please listen to King’s Kaleidoscope’s “Becoming Who We Are.” One of the best worship albums ever recorded. The musicianship and songwriting is out of this world. Hope you enjoy it, Adam.
Yes.
I played in a praise band for years as a teenager. In that time, there was precisely one song that didn't make me want to die when I played it: "King of Glory" by Jesus Culture.
Maybe I was just biased toward CCM creators who were actually willing and "brave enough" to use diminished chords.
Didn't expect a recommendation for CCM I hadn't heard before but this is actually really interesting (listening now). I think the reason I actually love Elevation and don't just kinda tolerate them like the other big worship groups is they actually attempt to make their progressions somewhat interesting while still making the songs playable to the average person playing the song. One of my favorites is the Minor 6 add 2 which they use occasionally, but putting the 2 and 3 of the chord next to each other. It's a surprisingly dissonant sound for a typically cheesy and happy genre.
Celia Dawn GOD LISTENS TO FUCKING SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYER!
@@charlesrocks okay
Isn't it normal if a song about Heaven makes you want to die? :0)
@@guillll Well, in a-- in a way... like I get ya. You know what? Go to Heaven now.
For me it's 2010-era Mainroom EDM. You know, with the build, the snare rush, the highpass filtered synths and rising tones, bass drop, etc. Cyanide.
Same, and I like actual underground EDM
amen
Wait a minute... I know the guy who waves at 2:04, he came to give a lecture like a year ago at my school (in another class, but he's not a teacher)
Seems like people just hate music that sounds fake or phony.
yea disingenuous could sum it up. I guess when something is just overdone to where it's practically beating a dead horse lol like others mentioned the ukulele type songs with the "edgy cool hipster" vocal style. Yeesh lol
I don't really understand what you guys mean by "fake" music. Can be shit, but what makes it fake?
@@davekent6023 I think we can subjectively identify music as "fake" if we are exposed to a genre of music and can tell when it's not quite true to that genre as we know it. I mean, I like taco bell, but maybe someone who's eaten "real" mexican food will be turned off by it, even if it's not inherently distasteful. Likewise, I've been getting into hip hop, and I like a few songs, but maybe someone who grew up with a certain variant of hip hop will be more repulsed by some hip hop that is different from what they'd identify with.
I guess people are sometimes turned off by when they think they are being manipulated. But it is hard to know if you are being manipulated, until you know the strategies. Some tactics are more obvious than others, and it takes experience. IDK
@@ethanwest3393 I guess that has more to do with the overall image of the artist and the marketing around them than the music itself. Not going to look through the video again to get the original quote, but at least the OP and some others in the comments seem to be talking about the music specifically. I don't think music itself can sound "fake" or "phony".
Yeah, for the most part I'd say 'it sounds fake because you don't like it', but sure, I think there could be a reasonable scenario where you have some understanding of a genre or the history of a genre, and hear something that just comes across as like the third iteration of the telephone game of that genre or something - the components are there, but not the understanding of why those component _should_ be there, and the result is that the music sound like less than the sum of its parts.
It's a bit like when someone does a cover of another artist's cover of a song, instead of an interesting interpretation of the original song. They're missing a major step in there.
Rhett Shull said it all man. I feel physically ill hearing modern "Country."
If I want some real country, I'll turn on either some twangy George Jones or Dolly Parton, or some mid 90s stuff like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. Today's country is like classic rock.
Janis Joplin?
If i want real country i'm either going for carrie underwood or taylor swift's old stuff. Garth brooks or trace adkins every once in a while to break up the monotonous routine.
I love "First Aid Kit" which you could consider modern Country.
Check out Colter wall for some good modern country that goes back to its roots.
I hate the song “Christmas Shoes” with a burning passion
That might be the absolute worst christian song I’ve ever heard. It’s like the worst of both cheesy Christmas music and CCM combined.
Who doesn't?
Heard that song for the first time just a few weeks ago and hated every second of it.
Damn that was awful. Felt like chicken soup for the soul a musical sickness.
Put that song on RUclips. Turn up the playback speed one tick every time you shift between a chorus and a verse or vice versa.
Witness soul-pop emerge from its ponderous ballad noise.
"I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" will always drive me to immediate anger. It is completely intolerable.
well that's not part of this phenomenon. it's just an obnoxious, ear-grating song.
The guy talking about music that builds to nothing… that spoke to me.
My most intense interaction with music is dancing and I just love electronic music. Good electronic music knows how to really build up the tension, to fill me with energy, and then get that energy to explode into something complex and energetic.
And then there's music that gets the buildup right and then… does a drop and goes right back to the same goddamn rhythm it started with and it's so incredibly frustrating.
Yeah man, bad drops are the worst
yup. totally feel the same
The album Zeal by Kings Kaleidoscope and I’ll Be the Branches by Chris Renzema are awesome!
Riley Hirshey dude!! Chris Renzema is amazing such a good album and KK is also great.
Kings Kaleidoscope is awesome...
“Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power and love
Our God is an awesome God”
x Repeat ad nauseum
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Gabriel Blanco i *heard* this comment and it is painful
One can’t read this without internally singing it, and I hate you for this!
Gabriel Blanco Shout out to my old black church.
Rich Mullins didn't like this song either, and he wrote it. But he wrote some terrific songs too. Check out "The Color Green" for instance.
My most visceral reactions towards music are usually moral gripes with the message of a song or genre. I know now that a lot of the musical quality arguments I made in the past about music (many of which I no longer subscribe to) stemmed from this type of objection. It also has weird properties. I tend to give a moral pass to music that I'm used to. Music I heard when I was young, or that I associate with a positive role model who I saw listen to a song, etc, which has lyrics I'm still not comfortable with, I might still listen to because I want the musical quality of it, yet I won't justify similar things in music which is more foreign to me.
No one:
Adam Neely in the thumbnail: 👺
😂
lmao
came for his facial expression, stayed for the content
Ur profile picture goes with this comment
The music I can’t stand and makes me want to punch something is the cheap ukulele music from like diy and craft videos or like those “yummy” cooking videos on Instagram it’s just sounds so algorithmic like you chose a key and a computer just spit out a 30 second clip of music that theoretically sounds good together but in reality just ends up sounding so lifeless and gross and empty
Andrew Carlson lol the ukulele chords start playing and then that 6th grade bell kit comes in
This plus they're always mixed painfully loud with zero dynamic range. And then if you throw whistles and claps into the mix...
Argh you beat me to it. I’ll leave my comment up anyhow.
@nice try167 I wouldn't really call the Uke the worst sounding string instrument, It's just overused. In the hands of a good musician it can be used tastefully
“Bro Country.” It really is the worst.
Signals Music Studio has an amazing video dedicated to bro country
I remember joking that one day Country and Rap would be combined into CRap music.
They went with Hick-Hop instead. I'm not sure that's any better.
cjxgraphics 😂
You can't put banjo over a TOOL riff and call it country.
Pop country with snap track is worse
For some reason my brain passionately hates all the stimuluses it's forced to absorb. And since the entire world forces me to listen to pop...
That's a great point omg
-Kings Kaleidoscope and all Kings(MHM) “Zeal” “Joy has Dawned”
-Kingdom of Priests “Prelude”
-David Dunn “It is Well (Portrait)”
-Josh Garrels “Closer Than a Brother”
@@rossneir771 Agreed. I think I've listened to the entirety of Zeal like... 50 times?
@Joseph W. Thanks for the recommendation on Kings K. Not heard them before.
ruclips.net/video/5ldbggv2zaQ/видео.html
This video is mesmerizing.
I know the week is over, but I also recommend Do It Again, So Will I and Living Hope.
To my surprise I quite liked Josh Garrels. The sickly, sentimentality of Kingdom of Priests made me want to tear me eyes out.
It's probably too late, but Jonathan Mark McMillan
My favorite contemporary Christian music- A Love Supreme?
Ayyy
@Liam Whiting Ear worm! Who knew?
Adam: "I'm looking for contemporary christian music."
My brain: D O R I M E
A M E N O
@@lisrql A M E N O
nyx L A T I M E
@@finerz321 L A T I R E M O
@@AokiiChan D O R I M E
your channel rocks bro! appreciate you! not trying to mindlessly agree with everything but I appreciate that you touch on questions and issues that have not been explored. These are definitely thoughts that got through my head and I am happy they are being explored
NEEDTOBREATHE has some CCM I genuinely like - Lost, The Heat, Washed by the Water, Brother, Testify, Keep Your Eyes Open.
Once on acid I was watching a Monk concert. In a solo of his, my body was purified and got rid of a very bad pizza I ate earlier. Thanks for the vomit Thelonious. There you are, love and hate in one sentence.
I'm going to regret it, but I can't stop myself from googling "Dutch carnival music".
googling it now...
It's basically marching band type music with lyrics about either something extremely inane (so you can still sing it while on the cusp of being blackout drunk) or about the holiday itself.
only dutch carnival music that’s listenable is jordaan folk music from amsterdam
In case anyone is wondering here's a few of them:
Staat een paard in de gang (there's a horse in the hallway) (really an older carnaval song)
ruclips.net/video/4ozVntId3c4/видео.html
Alie Exprezz
ruclips.net/video/aRq6ttlugGk/видео.html
Liever Te Dik In De Kist dan Weer Een Feestje Gemist (better to fat in the coffin than to mis a party (but it rhymes in Dutch))
ruclips.net/video/eg8YHJmmLfc/видео.html
Links, rechts (left, right)
ruclips.net/video/pFEDBewcfks/видео.html
Hé Jacqueline, waar is de Vaseline (hey Jacqueline, wheres the vaseline)
ruclips.net/video/2W7vExP3BpA/видео.html
(I am in no way responsible for the damage done to you by any of this music, I also don't endorse this music nor condone it)
G E K O L O N I S E E D
Great idea to explore this. There's no easy answer to be had, but we all feel strongly about it. It's a mystery.
I am convinced that any “Imagine Dragons Fan” is a sleeper agent.
why
Makes too much sense
Jose L. sick pfp man
I actually really dislike ID too, especially demons. I'm gonna try the thing Adam is doing now with them.
Why tho? Haha
If we could combine the repetitive Contemporary Christian chord progressions with the words “dashboard, mini skirt, beer can and small town”, we may have found our Mecca...or at least mine. 😬
Contemporary Christian and Bro Country are cut from the same cloth.
How about if you mix those two PLUS Dutch carnival music?
(for an example of said monstrosities, click here: ruclips.net/video/ICpn1uxPGBk/видео.html)
Have you seen Bo Burnham's "country song" :D
Agreed! It fits exactly the southern Utah ranching towns where I spent most of my childhood.
@@McMxxCiV I was weak; I only made it to the second chorus.
Actually, that guy has a good point, it’s so disappointing when a song builds to the chorus just to then just squander it. It’s such a let down :(
I was reminded of Tori Kelly's "Nobody Love", which is a song I *LOVE* *LOVE* *LOVE,* but the chorus is a bit of a placeholder.
You would _love_ big room house
that’s what makes it good. it’s something new
i hate music where theres a small part thats beautiful, perfect and very satisfying and the rest of the song is extremely mediocre or worse yet the rest of the song is trash, makes me wanna scream that they didnt release the music project file so that it can be used for the good part and it at best just needs to awkwardly be clipped out or attempted to be recreated
(if someone's seen this comment already, im reposting it here in case it gets seen more here)
It is far easier to construct a good build-up then it is to also deliver a sufficient drop. This is especially true for electronic music, even more so since edm-tier dubstep growls are more or less off the table.
Good one... so you really putting yourself outthere now! Incidentally, I have the same 'uncanny valley' reaction to the same type of music that you speak of.. Good luck! WORSHIP ON!
Falling In Reverse has a song that starts with a verse that goes:
"White boy on the beat rocking gucci sneaks"
And I've never hated anything in the world more.
poetic
ok white boy
@@judahdsouza9196 are you talking to me?
Ronnie Radke is a clown.
i couldnt process what you wrote so i looked it up and now im bleaching my ears
"Loving and hating something means you care about it in one direction or another."
Damn that was deep..!
lmaooo paul’s impression of dutch carnival music was very accurate
This had me laughing, Paul perfectly summed up my hate towards it lmaoooo
He describes what sounds like Polka music - drinking (check), loud brass (check), annoying (check)
@@mk1st Which is a shame, because geniune good polka music is hard to find :(
i only just got reccomended this today and it is making me feel really stressed seeing you wander around a public place with all these bare faces and knowing that in a month covid is going to be run through everything
“Tonight (I’m F*cking You)” by Enrique Iglesias is a song that pisses me off its close to being on my gym playlist