The Future of Christian Music

Music is something that every person can relate to and enjoy. If you go into the deepest depths of the world and find the most secluded group of people, you will still find them creating music. It’s a part of the human race. It is something that gives us hope and allows us to be creative despite the world’s state of being.

This is especially important when the current music industry is in such an amorphous state. With access to free (but illegal) downloadable music and now free (legal) music via streaming in the last decade, the industry has had to redefine itself entirely. With so many people having access to software to create music, It is no longer viable to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to create an album. It may not even be economically justified to release an entire album. With the ability to freely stream, people can select which songs are their favorite, and only listen to them rather than having to listen to the whole album. Needless to say, there have been a lot of changes, and artists are still trying to figure out how it is going to affect them in the long run.

The most important thing to remember is that there will always be a demand for music, and the supply will always find a way to make their money. While the current state of the industry has taken a hit, it will eventually figure itself out.

With that being said, let’s move forward to the main idea of today’s blog, the Christian music industry, and particularly the future artists that it is giving birth to. The Christian industry really gained its popularity (outside of the worship or gospel genres) in the early 90s with bands like Stryper, DC Talk, O.C. Supertones, Newsboys, and Audio Adrenaline. With these bands creating the idea of Christian music for entertainment and enjoyment, a new wave of artists were born in the early 2000s (Kutless, Relient K, Hawk Nelson, etc.). Finally, later in that decade, the industry gave birth to hundreds of artists that we now listen to today. Not only is there Christian music, but there is multiple bands in each genre of music.

Now, this sounds awesome. So much new music and such a great group of musicians to choose from. Here’s the issue that must be addressed, who are the next bands to take the place of these giants we all know? If you attend any of the largest Christian tours or music festivals, the headlines are still these old artists (Toby Mac, Skillet, Newsboys, etc.). Yes, these artists are incredible, but there is only so long before they will have to set down the mic, and who will take their place? There are many incredible artists out there today that accompany these artists (For King & Country, Lecrae, Needtobreathe, etc.), but can they gain the same status as the artists that created the genre?

I’m not saying these artists aren’t amazing, the point I’m making is, twenty years ago, there were only a few Christian artists, and everyone knew who they were. Now, with hundreds or even thousands, will there be some artists that rise to that same level?

It seems most likely that, as the next generation of an audience grows up, they will have multiple artists to listen to. This requires the Christian music industry to change. No longer will there be the few bands that everyone knows as Christian music, but listeners will have the ability to find artists in the genre they like and listen to those. This is an area that the music industry as a whole needs to update to, and is something I’ve been pushing for the last ten years. Applications like iTunes and Spotify still classify all Christian music in the Christian/Gospel genre, yet there are Christian artists in every genre, so this classification hardly makes sense.

If you take a look at my last article, I gave insight into who is the top Christian artist of each genre currently. Classifying the music as Christian Reggae or Christian hardcore or Christian folk is a much better way, and should be the update needed for the future of the industry.

So, am I saying there won’t be popular artists in the industry? Certainly not. There will still be artists that everyone knows, just not quite as widespread as before. Here are a few up and coming artists that are likely to be the face of the industry in the next five years:

Hollyn

JGivens

Needtobreathe

Jordan Feliz

These artists show the most potential (in my mind) to be the most well-known for the next five years. If you agree, disagree, or have other artists you think will be popular soon, please let us all know in the comments below.

So, where do we go from here? First, we must recognize that the music industry is really changing right now. Second, we must embrace the changes, especially to the Christian music industry, and lift up the artists we enjoy the most. Lastly, we need to wait and see what the future holds, and hope that it only brings more talented musicians that we can love and songs we can have a passionate connection with. Thanks for reading and be sure to follow for more information about the Christian artists of the future!