This groundbreaking work covers both major and minor Christian music artists and those associated with Christian music from the ’60s to the present day, highlighting their influences, their struggles, and their achievements. Powell treats each artist or group with a balanced, intriguing, and fresh look into their background and discography. Every entry summarizes critical response to the group, and provides band member lists, complete discographies, lists of awards, artist website addresses, and biographies of the artists. The fun, easy-to-read writing style provides fans with accessible information on their favorite artists, while also encouraging them to greater appreciation of the stylistic breadth and historical depth of the music they have come to love. The CD-ROM features a searchable version of the complete text for both Windows and Macintosh systems, as well as live links to artist-websites, album information, and music clips.

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Author: Mark Allan Powell
Located in: Columbus, OH
Submitted: July 10, 2002

    Tell us a little about yourself.  I started out thirty years ago as a rock journalist but got caught up in “the Jesus movement revival” of the early ‘70s. My life was transformed and I went on to become an ordained minister and, then, a Bible scholar. I got fairly well known in that world and wrote some 17 books on Bible and theology. But with this book I’ve returned to my roots, to pay tribute to those people who have provided a soundtrack for my life. I’m married and we have four children, four cats, and a turtle.

    What was your motivation behind this project?  Contemporary Christian music is an important part of modern culture but I find that many people do not take it very seriously. My theologian friends tend to dismiss it as “shallow” or “superficial” and my rock critic friends just write it off as bad music. I am a theologian and a rock critic and I am here to say that (by and large) it is neither. I think that there are millions of people in our society– Christians and non-Christians–who would really enjoy this music and find their lives enriched it if they would only discover what is really available.

    What do you hope folks will gain from this project?  This book is for any Christian who likes popular music. Fans of what gets called “contemporary Christian music” will find a great resource here to learn more about their favorite artists and to discover other artists who they might have overlooked. But there are also a lot of Christians in this world who enjoy popular music but, for a variety of reasons, have never gotten into the ccm scene. I think this book will enable them to find out what is available, to get past some stereotypes, and to decide for themselves whether there might be more to contemporary Christian music than they thought.

    Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists?  In terms of Christian theology, I have been most influenced by the writings of Martin Luther, and by such authors writers as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Henri Nouwen, Frederick Buechner, and C. S. Lewis. But this book is about contemporary Christian music, and a number of Christian music artists have inspired me as well. A list of my personal favorites would include Andrae Crouch, Kim Hill, Daniel Amos, Amy Grant, Mark Heard, Phil Keaggy, Love Song, P.O.D., The Seventy Sevens, and Starflyer 59.

    Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know:  I love Jesus and I love rock and roll. If you love either of those two things, this book might be for you. And if you love them both–well, then, it can’t miss.

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