After my recent post on why I don’t like Christian music, I don’t want to seem like I’m just picking on Christian music. Because you know what else is stale and boring? Secular pop music.
But is it boring for the same reasons? Well, yeah, partly. Rick Beato, who knows more about music than any ten people I’ve ever seen in my life, does a good job of explaining the state of pop music in the video below. There’s some music theory in there, but it’s pretty easy to get the gist of what he’s saying: some chords, and some chord progressions, just sound more interesting. Complexity is compelling. But music makers eschew complexity because they think simplicity is the path to broad mass appeal. Or because they have a tried-and-true formula, and complexity isn’t a part of it.
It’s just another way that church culture, while separate, still floats in the river of the wider culture. We could talk for a while about that desire for simplicity and broad cultural appeal have done to the church, and oh, we will.