Discover

'Jesus music', also known as 'Jesus rock', or 'gospel beat music' in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music which, according to some accounts, originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of the Jesus movement before the Christian music industry had begun to take form. It is at least arguable, however, that the movement began at an earlier date in the United Kingdom where the organisation Musical Gospel Outreach was formed in 1965 to support artists who were using contemporary music to promote the Christian message.

Contents

History

List of notable Jesus music artists

History

Jesus music primarily began in southern California when some hippie street musicians converted to Christianity. These musicians continued playing the same styles of music, though they infused their lyrics with a Christian message. Many bands developed out of this, and some became leaders within the Jesus movement, most notably Barry McGuire, Love Song, Second Chapter of Acts, Larry Norman, Randy Matthews, Andraé Crouch (and the Disciples), The Archers and, later, Keith Green. Contemporaneous with the Jesus movement, from 1967 to 1970, on the East Coast of the United States, the Mind Garage was taking rock music with Christian lyrics into church. In the UK, Malcolm and Alwyn were the most notable agents of the gospel beat.
Much of the music manifested itself in folk music and folk rock (Children of the Day, Paul Clark, John Fischer, Nancy Honeytree, Mark Heard), but it also encompassed soft rock (Phil Keaggy, The Archers , Randy Stonehill, Pat Terry), R&B (Andraé Crouch (and the Disciples)), Soul music, Jazz fusion (Sweet Comfort Band), country rock or California rock (The Way, Daniel Amos, Mustard Seed Faith), hard rock (Norman Greenbaum, Resurrection Band, Agape, Servant, Petra, The All Saved Freak Band) and all forms in between.
American churches largely rejected these artists at the time, unable to see the difference between their music and the music of mainstream, or secular, artists of the day. Many within the church felt that the message was being lost because of the "worldly" musical style. Some Jesus Music artists responded by quoting the 19th century Methodist minister Rowland Hill, "why should the devil have all the good tunes?" Christians have also observed that Jesus music artists were addicted to popular music and couldn't "repent" of it and so started Jesus music or that it's just using Jesus as a marketing scheme.
By 1973, Jesus music was receiving enough attention inside the mainstream media that an entire industry began to emerge. By the mid 1970s, the phrase "contemporary Christian music" had been coined, developing directly out of Jesus music, and Christian music magazines, radio stations and record labels had begun to emerge around the country. Although, many of the early Jesus music artists were quickly snatched up by large record labels, others became very critical of the industry itself, fearing that the focus was on making money and not on the Christian message or the making of good music.
An early hard rock influence was Resurrection Band. Glenn Kaiser, one of the band's founding members is also a pastor, at Jesus People USA. JPUSA is a ministry and commune on the North Side of Chicago. They have been a primary source of some of the counter-culture movement. One of the first influences was Cornerstone magazine. In the early 1980s, they spawned the Cornerstone, the USA's largest Christian alternative music festival with about 25,000 attendees annually. They also founded Grrr Records as an outlet for the community's alternative music acts.
Jim Palosaari was one of Britain's influential Jesus people and the founder of the group JPUSA and Servant's Highway Ministries, grew out of. Palosaari was one of the originators of the Greenbelt festival in England, the largest Christian rock festival in the world.

List of notable Jesus music artists

As of 2007, most of these artists are either retired, are completely independent from the larger industry, or have entered the ministry as pastors or music ministers. Only a handful remain active within the Contemporary Christian music market. Some are still recording but releasing their music independently.
Early "Jesus music" performers included:

★ Agape

★ The All Saved Freak Band

★ The Archers (musical group)

★ Aslan

★ Bethlehem

★ Children of the Day

★ Children of the Light

★ Paul Clark

★ Andraé Crouch (and the Disciples)

★ Daniel Amos

★ John Fischer

★ Gentle Faith

★ Chuck Girard

★ Keith Green

★ Harvest

★ Mark Heard

★ Nancy Honeytree

★ Tom Howard

★ Jubal

★ Jubal's Last Band

★ Phil Keaggy

★ Love Song

★ Malcolm and Alwyn

★ Randy Matthews

★ Barry McGuire

★ Mustard Seed Faith

★ Erick Nelson

★ Larry Norman

★ Petra

★ Resurrection Band

★ The Road Home

★ 2nd Chapter of Acts and a band called David

★ Salvation Air Force

★ Selah

★ Servant

★ Tim Sheppard

★ Randy Stonehill