Christian punk
This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. (March 2009) |
Christian punk | |
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Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Early 1980s, United Kingdom and United States |
Derivative forms |
Christian punk is a form of Christian music and a subgenre of punk rock which contain Christian lyrical content. Much disagreement persists about the boundaries of the subgenre, and the extent that their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies among bands. For example, the Crucified explicitly rejected the classification of "Christian punk" while staying within the Christian music industry.[1]
Given the nature of punk and some of its subgenres, such as hardcore punk, many bands have been rejected by the Christian and CCM industry. Christian punk has been deemed novel in that it "seeks authenticity in two differently organized and orientated cultures: secular punk on the one hand and Evangelical youth culture and CCM on the other". [2] Some bands generally avoid specific mention of God or Jesus; likewise some bands may specifically reject the CCM label or express disdain for that niche of the music industry. For example, Ninety Pound Wuss vocalist Jeff Suffering said about the breakup of the band in 2000, "...[N]obody wanted to continue playing in [the] "Christian" music industry."[3]
It has been noted that "measured purely by record sales, Christian punk dwarfs all other religious contributions to the genre". Certain individual Christian punk bands outsold the entire market for the next-largest religious punk genre, Krishnacore.[4]
History
Christian punk originated in the 1980s
During the 1990s, the underground Christian punk scene grew as bands such as Ghoti Hook, Squad Five-O, the Huntingtons, Slick Shoes, Dogwood, Pocket Change, Officer Negative, Blaster the Rocket Man and Headnoise influenced many of their peers and paved the way for many bands to follow.
In the 21st century, developments in Christian punk have paralleled the broader punk scene. Band such as Relient K, Hawk Nelson, FM Static, Flatfoot 56, Stellar Kart, and This Providence gained popularity with more mainstream audiences.
Fashion
Fashion is similar to normal
Connections to religion
Elements of
Sanctified Noise made it a point to play at secular venues, preach between songs, lead skin heads, punk rockers, runaways & addicts in a salvation prayer after their concerts, and then disciple concert converts at their home church they ran in the club district, no shoes required.
Detractors, however, view punk as anti-religious. Adherence to the practice of Christianity (or any religion, established or not) is, by definition, conformity to rules set forth by someone other than the individual for themself. Because punk is ideologically nihilistic, many view "Christian Punk" as an oxymoron and view it simply as a subgenre of Christian rock and completely separate from punk rock; although Christian punk appropriated punk sound and fashion, no other similarities exist and the two genres have completely isolated origins. Followers of Christian Punk tend to cite punk's individualistic values and argue that punk ideology does not preclude critical and non-dogmatic religious belief.
Some Christian Punks also do not agree with or are very critical of organized religion. They say that real Christianity is not just a religion because it's not supposed to be about rituals and rules; attacking these notions of
Politics
The majority of Christian punk bands do not espouse anarchy or communism;
Other Christian punk bands take more conservative stances.
Record labels
- Alarma Records
- BEC Recordings
- Burnt Toast Vinyl
- Facedown Records
- Five Minute Walk
- Flicker Records
- Flying Tart Records
- Gotee Records
- Mono Vs Stereo
- Rescue Records
- R.E.X. Records
- Tooth & Nail Records
See also
- List of Christian punk bands
- Punk ideology
- Liberation theology
References
- ^ "I'm Not a Christian Punk". The Crucified Page. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30. Retrieved 2006-10-19.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ ISBN 1350020346.
- ^ "Ninety Pound Wuss – Raft of Dead Monkeys: Jeff Suffering". SHZine. June 2000. Archived from the original on 2003-02-17. Retrieved 2006-10-19.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ISBN 1474237347.
- ^ Mehr, Bob. "Giving the God Squad a Fair Shake". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on 2009-03-19. Retrieved 2006-10-19.
- ^ "Psalters Corporation, Parent Company of". Psalters.com. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- ^ "Crashdog's political stances". Busker-kibbutznik.org. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
- ^ Ballydowse's website Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Rock For Life's list of pro-life bands". Rockforlife.org. Archived from the original on 2011-10-25. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
External links
- God Save the Teens: Local Kids Seek a New Kind of Church Through Hardcore and Hip-Hop Archived 2008-06-15 at the Village Voice30 May – 5 June 2001
- Spotlight Ministries: Punk