A good friend said this.
Through history music has been made for various reasons
-To motivate people to war
-As an emphasis on a country, patriotic music
- As a tool for rebellion to someone or something
-As a comfort, as in background music to help pass the day or to play at a resturaunt.
-As a way to express love or hate.
-Music specifically for children. Music they understand and relate to.
-Music for relaxation
-Music as a minstry tool
-Music as a worship medium
-Music that tells a story i.e. folk music or similar
-Music intended for evil purposes
-Music intended to uplift and edify
-Music for sexual innuendos, intended to excite or put the mind in a sexual gutter
- Music as a brainwashing tool, to try and change our minds or make bad seem good.
-Music as an emotion builder in movies
Worship can happen with or without music. There is inward, outward and upward worship music.
Outward worship music is made for an audience, presumably to edify them and encourage worship in some churches. The danger can be in placing too much focus on the music instead of God. Inward worship can be a song we sing to ourselves privately to God in worship which can also be upward worship. Both public and private worship should always focus on giving worship and praise to God, so both can be upward.
Music is a tool that needs great care in it's use if the intention is worhip. If the music is deliberately distracting, it isn't the Lord behind it, but the devil.
Like food, there are many preferences people have when it comes to music, even worship music. Some of the compromises to please everyone, or at least attempt it, in churches lead to a sort of music that doesn't really commit. To me it feels like a compromise. One reason people leave churches unfortunately.
IMHO If you're looking to make rock music, then commit to it instead of an in between iffy sounding sort of thing. Don't hold back because rock music doesn't hold back. Rock music is generally aggressive and maybe better suited to a younger audience? I was just working on a speed metal track. 172 bpm, that's fast and why they call it speed metal. Just doesn't fit for worship IMO. And I've decided I don't like speed metal, at least what I've heard. Much too primal for me.
I see the different kinds of music like the various tools in a tool chest. There is one for pretty much every application. The highest use for music is worship , if it doesn't become a distraction, since worship is all about focus on God. The best worship is the worship where I get lost in worship. The music that can lead us into worship, like a calling card. Not a routine we settle into every Sunday. There is a fine line between the real stuff and the fillers. Has to do with the Spirit's leading.
Good messages can be put into non worship music, and "worship like" music can have misleading or even bad messages in it.
I am hooked up with Spotify which has loads of different kinds of Christian music all the way from the old stuff to the most recent stuff. Almost all of it is edifying in some way. Maybe some of this is just the nostalgia in me, but when I played the hymns channel something in me went ahhhhhh. These were tunes we sang in my old church when I was 6. You can hear and understand the words and the music isn't half bad either. Who has ever faulted the song "Amazing Grace" and other similar? The record companies are in the decision making process of most current Christian music and it is often associated with a church like Bethel or Red Rocks. Not sure what their criteria is, and most likely it changes with the vision, but not everyone making these decisions is a believer. In fact the scales may even swing over to more non believers if it's a big record label who also produces other kinds of non Christian music.
Much like the falling away of many churches from our scriptural roots, Christian music is also drifting in some cases, so I think we need to be careful when selecting some of it.
