The Sub.Standard

This Week In Jesus: The Dovies Edition

April 26 . 2008 – 3.19 pm

Everybody knows Jesus loves Him some music. This week, the Dove Awards was broadcast live for the first time in several years, on the new and promising Gospel Music Channel, and Jesus was all OVER it, dude! I wonder what He thinks about the second-rate wannabe-GRAMMYs telecast. If you ask me, I think that He’d be disappointed that it wasn’t a little more fun and a little less intentionally-fractured-to-appeal-to-too-broad-of-an-audience (this week’s TWIJ sponsored by Hy-phen.com).

The Dove Awards are a perfect microcosmic example of what’s generally wrong with CCM as a whole - too few individuals dominating too big of an industry. In Christian music proper, it’s Salem, who dominates radio and print media. For the Doves, it’s the Gospel Music Association (GMA).

…Click to continue reading “This Week In Jesus: The Dovies Edition”

By i got your pop right here | Posted in Dove Awards, Life, Music, Politics, TV, This Week In Jesus | Comments (0)

Idol 4/10: Wha? Huh? American Idol Elite 8 rock a straight-up worship song

April 10 . 2008 – 9.25 pm

I don’t know which was more surprising to me tonight - Michael Johns’ out-of-nowhere elimination, or the fact that tonight’s group number was a straight-up, hardcore, lift-your-hands and praise Him, honest-to-God WORSHIP song.

So there I was, minding my own business watching Idol’s results show, marvelling at how horrid a dancer Brooke White is (the Ford commercial reminded me), and thinking how I love me some Chris Brown (BNLT), when Ryan announced, “With ‘Shout To the Lord,’ it’s your top 8, ladies and gentlemen.” I thought, “Huh, that’s weird, I’m not familiar with any tune by that name, other than the somewhat old-school praise and worship number that my church used to sing. But it couldn’t be that. This must be some sort of obscure R&B tune I’m not familiar with…or maybe I heard Seacrest wrong and he actually said something about a Spout and a Sword.” But no, the final eight start to sing, and I hear this first verse:

My Jesus, my Savior, Lord there is none like You.
All of my days, I want to praise
The wonders of your mighty love.

Then the chorus:

…Click to continue reading “Idol 4/10: Wha? Huh? American Idol Elite 8 rock a straight-up worship song”

By i got your pop right here | Posted in Music, TV | Comments (4)

This Week In Jesus: Mistaken Identity Edition

April 5 . 2008 – 12.49 pm

This was a great week for Jesus fans, and we owe most of the credit to one fabulous man and one blubber-inducing woman. Matt Lauer and Oprah hit us with a one-two punch, both giving the twist-of-faith story of Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak some serious play. Lauer’s 2-hour Dateline episode aired Friday, followed by Wednesday’s Oprah show. You probably don’t recognize the two girls’ names, but you might remember their story - an amazing one that started with a particularly heinous accident involving nine Taylor University students and faculty. One family rejoiced that their daughter was not declared one of the five dead, and one family buried theirs. The Van Ryns cared for the young woman they were told was their daughter for five weeks before realizing that it was in fact Whitney Cerak. What happened next is truly inspiring.

…Click to continue reading “This Week In Jesus: Mistaken Identity Edition”

By i got your pop right here | Posted in Life, Music, TV, This Week In Jesus | Comments (1)