Idolatry and Common Grace Are Often Quite Near One Another

One of the fascinating (and disturbing) things about popular cultural idols is that they are often (always?) strongly linked to the common grace that we considered in question 3. The reason for this is obvious: Satan is no Creator. He’s a deceiver, a distorter of creation. He cannot create anything new – he can only corrupt the goodness of God’s creation. Think of it this way: idolatry is a trap, and grace fragments serve as bait. It’s genius, really. Satan uses the good things of God’s creation as inducements for rebellion against him. We are tempted by the beauty that is supposed to reflect its Creator, and instead we are mollified by the thing. And thus we are drawn into false worship, and we become trapped. Idolatry uses common grace like a spider uses a porch light: the light attracts the moth so it hardly notices the web until it’s too late and it becomes hopelessly entangled. So keep your antennae attuned for the connections between those shining, beautiful shards of grace and the idolatry at the heart of this imaginative popular cultural world.

- Porterbrook curriculum, module "Culture", Unit 4

Apologies to Miley

Brant Hansen:

Am I making excuses for a 20 year-old? Maybe. Or maybe just explanations. I think, were I a child celebrity, I would have a profound lack of perspective, too. 

Miley's just doing what she likely suspects she needs to do in her business: Shock people. She's grown up watching, say, Britney writhe with a snake on the very same awards show, so it's hard to blame her if she's surprised by the universally negative reaction. She's doing what she thought we wanted. 

The problem, this time, is that our society feels like it knows her, knows her backstory, knows she's someone's daughter, and isn't able to forget it. Other women, like the ones on stage with Miley, the ones no one is complaining about? Well, we can sexualize them, reduce them to toys lacking a story, but this girl? We know her dad! 

Kids don't need more kids. They know plenty of them. Kids need adults, actual adults, adults adult enough to reject a culture that is so bored, so dead, that it can only feel alive if given one more jolt, one more shock. And it's hard to shock, anymore, but Miley hit that mark. 

MTV has largely been about sex since its beginning, and Miley's performance was almost a brilliant parody. It was a beautiful young woman, very scantily-clad, parading in front of millions, and it was... well, repulsive. 

Which brings to mind what Mike Yaconelli once wrote, "The more pagan a society becomes, the more boring its people become." And I, for one, can't help but notice: 

MTV, you're doing the near impossible. You're making sexuality seem boring.

Read the rest.

The History Of Rock ‘N Roll In 100 Guitar Riffs

Very impressive and a great history lesson!



(HT:  Stephen Altrogge)

Nickelback and Creed - A Night With the World's Most Hated Bands

Chuck Klosterman:

The moment you tell people you're seeing Creed and Nickelback in concert — on the same night, at roughly the same time, in two different venues — it suddenly becomes a stunt. Just describing the premise seems schlocky; it's like Def Leppard playing on three different continents in 24 hours, or maybe something David Blaine would attempt if he worked for the Fuse network. The immediate assumption is that this is some type of sonic endurance test, and that no person could possibly enjoy the experience of seeing the most hated (yet popular) rock band of 2001 followed by the most popular (yet hated) rock band of 2012. But this is what I wanted to do: I wanted to see Creed at New York's intimate Beacon Theatre (performing their 1997 album My Own Prison in its entirety), followed by Nickelback in front of 18,000 people at Madison Square Garden.

Last Thursday, this dream was accomplished.

I did not do this because I particularly like or dislike either band. I did it because other people like and dislike them so much.

Read the rest.

Is Rock and Roll Over?

Interesting article here.  I would credit the internet for much of the demise that is outlined in this piece.  It's not all bad.  Just an evolution that was bound to happen at some point.  There will always be great music in the world.  It just might not come with spandex and glitter anymore (thankfully).

Lady Gaga's New Song

Walt Mueller:

I'm anticipating some major push-back from some folks, but I think that the release of this song marks a watershed moment in our understanding of who we are and where we're going as a culture. That's why it needs to be listened to, watched, tracked, and talked about. It cannot be ignored. "Born This Way" offers a mix of truth (God as Creator, inherent value and worth, etc.), and a host of very dangerous ideas that are evidence of our slide into a postmodern world void of the truth factor. Yes, God has made us just the way He wanted to, instilling in us tremendous value and worth. The Scriptures are clear on that. But we are sinful and polluted beings who need to exercise Biblical discernment in our assessments of ourselves, our natures, what we believe, and how we live. Without a deep and sobering understanding of our own sin, we can never fully understand or appreciate the grace we received at the cross. The song puts forth and promotes a way of thinking about, looking at, and living life that's been increasingly embraced in our culture. We are who we are. . . but we need to be who we've been called to be. Lady Gaga is making some powerful statements about the nature of God, the nature of humanity, the nature of sin, and how to live life. The whole world is watching, listening, and believing.

Read the rest and read more about this song.

The New Rock-Star Paradigm

The Wall Street Journal:

For a decade, analysts have been hyperventilating about the demise of the music industry. But music isn't going away. We're just moving out of the brief period—a flash in history's pan—when an artist could expect to make a living selling records alone. Music is as old as humanity itself, and just as difficult to define. It's an ephemeral, temporal and subjective experience.

For several decades, though, from about World War II until sometime in the last 10 years, the recording industry managed to successfully and profitably pin it down to a stable, if circular, definition: Music was recordings of music. Records not only made it possible for musicians to connect with listeners anywhere, at any time, but offered a discrete package for commoditization. It was the perfect bottling of lightning: A powerful experience could be packaged in plastic and then bought and sold like any other commercial product.

Then came the Internet, and in less than a decade, that system fell. With uncontrollable and infinite duplication and distribution of recordings, selling records suddenly became a lot like selling apples to people who live in orchards. In 1999, global record sales totaled $26.9 billion; in 2009, that figure, including digital purchases, which now represent 25% of sales (nearly 50% in the U.S.), is down to $17 billion. For eight of the last 10 years, the decline in revenue from record sales has gotten steeper, which is to say the business is imploding with increasing vigor.

Read the rest.

On The VMAs

Walt Mueller reflects on last night's VMAs.  He believes that the VMAs give a perfect view into the heart of the environment that most of our kids grow up within.  This is probably worth reflecting upon but as I wrote a few days ago.  Don't assume you know anyone because you know the general culture.  Go and actually talk to those kids that watch the VMA and build a relationship with them.  They might fit the trends of the culture or my might not.  Either way, they all need Jesus.

Is streaming the future of music?

From BBC News:

With free, legal access to almost any music at any time, streaming services like Spotify and We7 are a dream for many music fans.

Some believe streaming will overtake downloading to become the most popular form of digital music.

But there are still big questions over whether such services can make money - and whether record labels will let them work.

Read the rest.

Thoughts on Pop-Culture

I appreciated these thoughts from Fred Sanders:

The big question here is not, “Should Christians strive to stay current with culture?” The big question seems to be, “When is it okay for old Christians to quit keeping up with all the latest schlock?” I’m just a half-plug of Star chewing tobacco bit past twoscore, but I’m already logey and reeling under all the mediocre culture I consumed in the dreadful eighties. It was mostly forgettable, but I didn’t succeed in forgetting it. I can already recite the first eight seasons of the Simpsons (when it was still good); do I need to make room and lower my shock-standards for The Family Guy? I can pontificate on the emceeing styles of three different Family Feud hosts; do I need to make it a priority to see who the stars are dancing with? Don’t get me started on comic books: Having survived the zine revolution, the Secret Wars, and the Crisis on Infinite Earths, what’s a fanboy approaching middle age supposed to read? And where do they even sell comics these days, because I’m sure not going into that spooky store.

I speak not as a Christian, but as an up-and-coming fogey. I rarely meet the young Christian who needs to be exhorted to engage their culture. They seem to consume what everybody consumes, and are in general agreement with the zeitgeist that a steady stream of entertainment is the Fifth Freedom that our forefathers fought for. What I need is a reliable guide to the four good movies that come out every year, so I can see those and ignore the rest.

If there’s some gospel reason why I should scour through this and this and this to find something worth paying attention to, I’m ready to hear and obey. I’m even trying to keep the channel relatively clear so I can get the message when it arrives.

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At the crusty old age of 33, I can relate to what he is saying here in terms of music. I just don't have much of an appetite for pop music anymore. I used to consume it like a famished grizzly in a trout stream. There are certainly exceptions, but I find that my musical tastes have completely transitions to music like classical and jazz that embodies, in my view, much more transcendence. I can promise you that we won't be listening to The Black Eyed Peas in 50 years, but Miles Davis' landmark recording, Kind of Blue will still be going strong. I think I'll take the later. I know, I know. I am crusty. I have four kids, drive a mini-van and go to bed at 9:30 sometimes. Deal with it.

Sign me up for the nursing home.