rbrucecarter5 said:
Radio, though, is a different story. Limited number of frequencies. Not analogous to the street corner situation where there can be hundreds of styles with every variety and sub-variety of music. Which will survive? Those that play to the largest possible audience. They will get the donations or advertisers, unless somebody pays enough to keep an unpopular format going. But beware when they die ---- Sooo - the point? CCM is popular. High ratings = more potential salvations. So a wise PD will program CCM if they want to stay in business. Perhaps in some rural areas a little country gospel format might get donations from Mr. Haney or Sam Drucker and make a go of it. I don't see it having mass appeal among city dwellers. But if I'm wrong and the audience is there, so much the better. More people reached, that's all any of us should care about.
I was really referring to the fact that the people who run these commercials seem to be assuming the majority go to churches like that.
It's not even the same music that is on Contemporary Christian Radio.
For example, WMIT in Black Mountain, N.C., Billy Graham's station. It's definitely not my taste. But it would compare to AC in secular radio. They have an HD channel called The Edge. My guess is that The Edge sounds like the music in the commercial, which is more like CHR in secular radio.
Most Contemporary Christian stations sound like WMIT. I've seen discussions on this site about the addition of a second station which was apparently more like the commercial. People thought the existing station was too conservative.
As for me, I'll stick with WMUU and BBN for Christian radio, though my preference is secular.
And my church mostly has the old hymns written by Germans, or the "Old" songs that aren't really that old which make us think of camp meeting. Our organist/choir director is a college music professor and very conservative, though she is getting old, and the choir is shrinking, and with the musical taste some of these young people have, I worry about the future. Ironically, we've made an effort to attract students from that college, although another area church had a contemporary service which they gave up because of low attendance. The pastor there is more open to such music, but his members may be set in their ways like so many of ours.
If we have more contemporary songs, they're probably from the "Praise and Worship" genre, which is actually a radio format all its own, and they're mostly done with organ or piano. Sometimes soloists sing along with tapes. Personally, I try not to be at church if I have advance warning of this. I like to visit relatives. Not that their church music is better, but I have the incentive of visiting afterward. At one aunt's church, it's so full I just go in the nursery and there's a speaker in there where I can control the volume. It's usually unoccupied anyway. If I didn't know in time and someone is singing with one of those tapes, an ideal time to sneak out is when people are greeting each other before the prayer. I can sneak back in during the offering. I was opposed to the church adding a better sound system because it's not just the tapes, but also the singers, that are TOO LOUD over speakers.
Getting back to visiting relatives, my father and I visited one aunt about 10 years ago. This may be the last time he and I visited her church together. My father and I went to Sunday School and I kept hearing this loud rock music coming from somewhere. When I entered the sanctuary, there were the instruments making all the noise. I found out in time that it wasn't a contemporary service during Sunday School. This was for the REGULAR SERVICE. How in the heck did old people put up with it? My aunt was 68 or 69. She and my father actually sat through the service. I walked around the nice quiet cemetery and the neighborhood around the church. Nice and relaxing.
I mentioned camp meeting. Maybe those who are posting here don't know what that is. I went to a church 25 years ago that pretty much called off services in August because everyone went to the camp meeting services. They're kind of like revivals, with the old-time music, similar to some of what Southern gospel radio plays, under a "brush arbor", not indoors. This church had more conservative music than some, and I liked it. There was a young people's choir which I guess was a little more on the contemporary side.
10 years ago I went back to that church and the choir members from the old days were pretty much gone, and the choir at that time was singing with a synthesizer. They decided not to replace the organ, and a lot of young people were moving into the area. The church was really going after them. I never would have believed it.
I'm reminded that the church I went to 30 years ago lost its choir director because she was too interested in the contemporary style of worship, and I think I'm correct the differences in attitude ended her marriage. I just thought she was strange. She and one of the church's families who had been so active took off for one of these contemporary style churches. Her husband was my last Sunday School teacher before we moved.
Another church I went to, 20 years ago, was really conservative and attendance had fallen off because it was in the inner city. A new church began and the members helped that church get started. Then they wanted to merge with that church. They have, and they have "blended" worship at 11, contemporary worship at 10 and traditional worship at 8:30. Some of the old set-in-their-ways types didn't go along. That happened after my parents moved to where I live now because my grandparents were getting old. It's their church I go to now.
