I don't think it's a matter of Christian artists running out of ideas. It's a matter of Christian music being targetted toward one demographic - women ages 24-49 (roughly). That means you get a lot of Christian AC. I'm a 45 year old man who grew up a Christian, worked in Christian radio in the 1980s and loved much of what I was hearing then. I can't stand most of what comes out now. One reason for that is that the music is not tailored for me. Back in the late 70s, early 80s, artists could do pretty much what they wanted within reason because CCM was a new form and people were encouraged to experiment. Now it's much more of a business. I bet there's still some very interesting CCM being made, but you won't hear much of it on the radio. This phenomenon is not new, either. In 1981, Petra released "Never Say Die", and album that rocked -- except for two songs, "The Coloring Song" and "For Annie." Both are good songs, but totally unlike the rest of the album. They got airplay, the hard stuff did not. If your only impression of Petra was those two songs, you would think they were a mellow AC band. Today I think record labels pigeonhole most of the artists into the AC peg and allow very little creative expression otherwise.
Paradoxically, as a member of a church worship team I find much of the new worship music coming out far superior to much of what I grew up with in the 70s and 80s. Lincoln Brewster, David Crowder, Darrell Mansfield, Paul Baloche and others are putting out some really interesting stuff for worship purposes. I can listen to that all day because a lot of it is written for a mass audience as opposed to soccer moms, and musically, it is often far more challenging than CCM.
