The fifties were a strict time in America when there was a code of conduct for every situation.  Once rock came into the picture times began to change.  This was the beginning of the youth movement which would evolve in the sixties and seventies in America.  From the 50’s to the 70’s, rock and roll produced social, cultural, and psychological changes in the culture that began to seep into the church’s atmosphere and eventually gained acceptance by many.

This achievement came about because of certain influences.  At a certain point, there were rock musicians of the sixties and seventies who experienced religious conversions and began to sing about it.  This phase of rock culminated into what was known as the Jesus Hippie Movement in the sixties and early seventies.  This movement spread the name of Jesus in a new way throughout America.  This was the turning point that grabbed the church’s attention and gave it a new path to go down, consider, and reflect on the potential of this movement.  This is when Contemporary Christian Music started to take shape from the contemporary sound of Rock and other genres.  Why did some churches begin to accept more liberal up-beat praise and worship sounds, and others react negatively to it commercially and in their worship services?  What were the early stages of this change and who were the people behind it?  This paper will discuss these questions.  Rock and Contemporary Christian Music had a profound impact on the church as the decades from the fifties to the seventies unraveled.  Because of this, America entered the Fourth Great Awakening.

Once this music called rock n roll came about, it was censored by a lot of the white society, and the grandparent generation considered it to be an “evil incarnate.” The first person to label this style of music as Rock and Roll was a “disc jockey” named Alan Freed.¹

Visually, Rock and Roll was all about dancing and a different kind of performance up on stage.  Many Caucasian bands imitated and generated ideas from the black artists.  Before Elvis Presley there were such artists as Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard.  Many genres contributed different sounds to Rock n Roll, such as, Country, Western, and the Blues.  Elvis was the first to put them all together easily in some form or another because of his low octaval voice.

Elvis appeared on the scene in 1955 and became very popular with the younger generation.  Elvis became the Frank Sinatra of his generation.  The young teens, because of Elvis, began to evaluate the way they were brought up, while at the same time wanting to change who they would become.  They used Elvis’ music for personal identify and their new outlook on life.  Even though Elvis became the sparking founder of rock and roll, he still drew on roots from “Gospel, Country and Western, Rhythm and Blues, Blue Grass, and the early Pop music of such singers as Dean Martin and Nat King Cole.”  Elvis had a lasting affect in the American society, but most importantly he brought fame to Rock and Roll.²

Another musician of the 50’s named Carl Perkins wrote music and played an early form of Rock n Roll similar to Elvis.  He once described rock music as “‘It’s slurred notes, it’s bent notes, it’s not hardly a note, it’s somewhere in between, it’s moving around.’” Not surprisingly, Perkins and other rock musicians at that time did not read music at all.³

These effects changed the attitudes of young men and women throughout the country that were considered negative to some, like the parents, and liberating for the younger generation.  Because of this change in attitude, teens and young people everywhere began to revolt against authority.  Another factor was that sexual tension was stronger and sex appeal more open to the public.  Elvis became the symbol of what not to do, or how to act in society based on some of the “‘thou shall nots’.”  Some think that Elvis may very well have indirectly inspired the sexual revolution of the sixties.⁴

Many people, even in the press, were critical of Elvis’ and rock and roll’s influence on society.  In 1957 a woman from Arkansas named Martelle Willis, wrote in the Arkansas Gazette that girls and women who wore provocative clothing offended conservative people such as church members, and adult women, too.  She also said that these females would have been arrested a few decades ago, and put in jail for this kind of expression.  She added that churches turned into “social clubs” and women walked around in public with shorts on, “smoking cigarettes,” while accompanied by young children.  “Such ‘wicked’ behavior had prompted God to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and send the Great Flood, she warned.”⁵

However, there is another side of the coin that helped shape Elvis’ character, but at the same time may have embarrassed the church.  Gospel music probably inspired Elvis for the simple fact that he was a Christian himself.  Once, Elvis put on a concert in a big Coliseum.  After the first set of his concert, two girls in the front row held up a banner that said ‘Elvis is King’. After seeing it, Elvis told them to sit down because he said Jesus Christ was the only King.⁶   The confusion about Elvis lays in the fact that not all people use their faith to express themselves.  The Christian faith is a part of their personal lives and some, even rock n roll musicians of that time, chose not to broadcast it to everyone by their music.  Many people, especially in the Church, would have a problem with following their own desires in life.  One may feel that the only way to do it is by glorifying God all the time in everything one does.  Elvis sang Gospel music so frequently that his manager wanted him to stop, but he refused.⁷

By the end of the fifties, rock artists were changing to other forms of music such as folk.⁸   Rock in the Sixties changed drastically from the sound of Fifties rock.  Some artists of the early sixties were The Temptations, Diana Ross, and Gladys Knight.  Their sound became known as Motown.  During this same time, there were bands from overseas beginning to catch the fever of rock inspired by Elvis and Carl Perkins.  One popular band that mesmerized North America as well as the rest of the world was The Beatles.  Other bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones were part of the “British Invasion.” Compared to the fifties sound, some British bands brought a “louder and angrier” rebellious tone to America.

At the end of the sixties a drug and psychedelic culture flourished.  People known as “Hippies” listened to and followed live bands around America like The Doors, The Grateful Dead, and Jimi Hendrix.  These bands experimented with new ways of recording and playing with abstract sounds.  Songs tended to be very “long” and “complex.” The Beatles did not get bumped from the rock scene just because of the new musical twist in the sixties.  Instead they were able to conform to this type of music and keep their followers by releasing new cutting edge albums such as Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.⁹   However, one March day in 1967 The Beatles’ reputations suddenly changed and diminished for a while.

In the year before the Beatles released Sgt Peppers, Maureen Cleave from the London Evening Standard interviewed John Lennon.  When asked about religion, he said:

America reacted in several ways.  The Beatles’ music was no longer played on many radio stations in America, especially in the south.  Every member’s life was threatened verbally everywhere they went.  Some of the public burned their records, photos, and other materials.  Churches also responded harshly.  A pastor in Cleveland threatened to throw out any member caught listening to Beatles’ music.  The Ku Klux Klan burned crosses with Beatles albums “nailed” to them.¹²   Some also tried to halt a Beatles concert in Memphis even after Lennon tried to makes things right with the Public.  At a press conference in Chicago, Lennon tried to make the argument that he did not mean the Beatles “were greater or better” than Jesus or even comparing the two.  He said he was not trying to put religion down in any way.¹³

Many people accepted Lennon’s apology, but others refused.  Even radio stations were taking a stab at the Beatles.  A station in Texas sponsored yet another bonfire, which burned more Beatles items and albums.¹⁴   International reactions became very widespread especially in Holland and Spain where they stopped playing the Beatles on the air altogether.  In South Africa, Beatle albums were never sold there again.  Once the band broke up, only solo albums from George Harrison and Paul McCartney could be bought, but not Lennon’s.  Sadly, the Beatles only toured one more time after Lennon’s Jesus comment went public, but they all stayed “together for four more years.”¹⁵

Around this time, Rock and Roll’s “psychedelic” sixties influenced many to participate in drug usage, sex, and other immoral activities.  What emerged out of these times could be considered a redeeming face or an awakening of America.  In the summer of 1967, somehow spiritually, America came back to life.

During this time in Los Angeles and San Francisco, hundreds of people suddenly decided to give up the life of free sex, drugs, and occults to find Christianity and in particular, Jesus.  This phenomenon has been referred to as the Jesus Hippie Movement or just the Jesus Movement.  These hippies called themselves “Street Christians, God’s Forever Family, or just Jesus Freaks.”¹⁶   The main point they wanted to get across is that anyone could “overcome” a sense of loneliness or being different by finding “real meaning in life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”¹⁷

Many or the majority of the Jesus People were in their teens or early twenties.  They came from white, middle to middle-upper class families and more often than not, these young people dropped out of school.  Some of them came from “religious backgrounds,” and the others did not.  There were already Jesus People who were Jewish or Catholic, as an example of a few of these religious backgrounds.¹⁸   There were two distinct groups in which, more than likely, came from a non-religious background.  One group is made up of teenagers who were called “‘Jesus-boppers.’”¹⁹  They were the fans of rock music who liked the bands that sang about Jesus with a rock n roll sound.  These bands put on shows and at the end of the concert, gave an invitation to become saved and follow Christ.  In a way this new wave of Jesus rock music could have been considered the debut of Contemporary Christian music starting in the sixties.  The other group was defined as “the former peace activists” who had dropped out of society in the early sixties.  This Jesus movement gave them another opportunity to come back “into the system.”²⁰

Later in 1967 and after the outpouring of Jesus people from California, Christian rock somehow spread from there to areas all over the United States, and to the rest of the world.  It was as if suddenly the early fifties had come back to life and hope was returning with values of decency and respect.  Not very much happened within the church, but outside was where followers went to spread the good news.  Beaches, parks, and streets were filled with people playing guitars and using their Bibles to persuade others about Jesus.  They put on concerts everywhere in order to spread Jesus’ name through music, and formed parades which attracted many curious people.  The media got a hold on what was happening in the country and the Jesus Movement was covered in the news all the time.  At the same time, “the fads, the era of buttons and bumper stickers, and Jesus wristwatches” appeared.  Many churches wanted to be a part of the movement and became caught up in the excitement of it.²¹

In technical terms, the best way to describe one thing the Jesus People wanted was that “they were seeking alternative ways of transforming the belief-value system.  They too wanted a new way to express the transcendent spirit of the culture core, to find the universal fraternalism of the primitive Christian church before it became bogged down with doctrines, dogmas, rituals, and institutional restrictions upon the Spirit that moves the world.”²²   Part of the Fourth Great Awakening happened in the sixties.  During this time, people were referring to Jesus as “‘the first hippie.’” Many pictures of Jesus from art portrayed him with long hair, hence the phrase “hippie.”²³

As was said earlier, the root of the Jesus Movement began around the area of San Francisco, California, specifically Costa Mesa.  A name to keep in mind when contemplating the Jesus Hippie Movement is Chuck Smith.  Sometime around 1967, Mr. Smith was the pastor at Calvary Chapel.  His church started out with 25 members in 1967, and two years later had 150 members.  Calvary began a program aimed at helping young people on the streets.  By two years later, 2,000 people were attending Calvary.  Young people poured through the doors.  There were always hundreds of people getting baptized in the ocean.  Reporters from respected newspapers and magazines were knocking on church doors to catch the story.  In 1975, the church membership was 15,000, with 10,000 attending the three morning services.  Calvary reaped more people from the Jesus Movement than any other church.²⁴

Whether these hippies of the Jesus Movement came from Calvary Chapel or elsewhere, each one had their own story about why and how they found Jesus and became caught up in Christianity.  A lot of the people had been regular hippies who were involved with the psychedelic aspect of the sixties music.  They lived the harsh lifestyle of substance abuse for a long time before they found Jesus.  Jess Moody, the author of The Jesus Freaks, embarked on a journey to New Mexico to a place called Sunset Strip where hundreds of Jesus hippies lived to get away from the world, adjust their spirituality, and experience a more honest “trip” than through hard drugs.  He interviewed many of these young hippies to understand why their lives changed.

Moody did not know the name of one young man so he gave him credit as “the One.”  This certain person told how he was “on the strip” one day, when a man handed him a tract and he began to read it.  The man shared his experiences with Moody:

In the summer of 1971, Roberta Needles encountered a group of Jesus People, in Cincinnati, Ohio who lived in what they called a “commune.” It was a house with “5 bedrooms” and had around “30 people living in it.” She said they did not give her any food until she sat and allowed them to preach about Jesus to her.  She was very hungry and at the same time, she smelled dinner cooking in the house.  She never stayed and ate with them because someone came by and warned them that the police were going to stop by.  She did not want to get arrested, so she fled.  She felt that the Jesus People were acting like hypocrites, just from her personal experience.  She was referring to the fact that if these people were so sincere about their cause, they would have given her food without first forcing her to listen to their preaching.²⁶

It is clear that not all people or churches in America thought that the Jesus Movement was the answer for America, but as it grew, music of the Jesus Movement sparked an atmosphere of spirituality and reflection in many people in the United States.  Some Rock musicians came to realize the harsh lives they led similar to the lives of the traditional hippies and their fans.  Many found Jesus and wrote songs about it.  Among some of these artists were Norman Greenbaum, Bob Dylan, Noel Paul Stookey, and Roger McGuinn.

These influential musicians set off a spark in their fans.  One thing was clear-- the Jesus Movement’s mix of rock music with Christianity challenged the Church.  The Church either had to conform to this style of praise music in their worship services or hold to traditional worship music.

Noel Paul Stookey was one example of a secular songwriter and musician became a Christian in the late sixties.  He was in the music group “Peter, Paul, and Mary.”  One of the many songs Paul was known was “The Wedding Song.”  It is still a popular song today its many inspirational lyrics referring to God and God’s relation to the love between a man and a woman.  Some of the lyrics say “The Union of your spirits, here, has caused Him to remain, for whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name, there is Love, there is Love.”  This is clearly about God or Jesus, whichever one prefers.²⁷

Roger Mcguinn also experienced a transformation in his life.  Earlier, in the late fifties until the early sixties, Mcguinn was the lead singer in “The Byrds.”  He changed his name from Jim to Roger later on in life, about the time he found God and “accepted Jesus.” One night Roger consumed “a lot of drugs” and drank a lot of alcohol.  He felt like his chest was caving in on him.

He talked to a jazz musician somewhere and prayed with him about Jesus.  Later that month he took Jesus into his life and felt changed.  He felt that God wanted him to stay put and continue his music career where he was.  One of his top songs about Jesus was called “Jesus is Just Alright.”  One time Roger was asked what song he would play if God told him it was his last.  He said he would sing “‘Turn, Turn, Turn’” on the Rickenbacker 12-string very loud.  This song was a hit by The Byrds.  Roger felt blessed that he worked with wonderful musicians and that his purpose in life was for the Lord.²⁸

A third example of a singer and musician who became a Christian and wrote a very popular song about Jesus and heaven was Norman Greenbaum.  He was a part of the band called “Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band.”  Their hit song was called “Spirit in the Sky,” which was No. 3 on the Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1969 and can still be heard.  Churches everywhere around the United States formed Christian bands that included “Spirit in the Sky” into their set lists.²⁹

One line from “Spirit in the Sky” says “When I Die, and they lay me to rest/Gonna go to the place that’s the best/When they lay me down to die/Going up to the spirit in the sky.”  There’s also the line, “I’ve got a friend in Jesus.”  These are examples of inspirational lyrics Greenbaum used to express his new beliefs.  The song made many appearances in movies and ads.  Greenbaum still receives royalties for this song and it continues to provide him with a comfortable life.³⁰

The last example of a very well-known musician from the sixties, who eventually became a Christian briefly, was Bob Dylan.  Dylan made an album in the late seventies called Slow Train about his journey into the Christian Faith.  A song on the album called “Slow Train Coming” invites people from “the streets” and “the bars” to repent to Jesus “who was crucified” for them, and to follow him.  The album focuses on how man desires luxuries and materials “as though they were life itself.”  Not just this song, but others made reference to the Old Testament and images of the scripture.

Paul Stookey and Bob Dylan knew each other very well and were both trying to find truth in their lives.  In 1960, they met in Greenwich Village in a coffee house.  Dylan was involved in a horrible motorcycle accident in 1968 and, in the process of recovery, he asked Stookey to come to his house with another friend.  Dylan asked the two about the universe and life, and wanted Stookey to read from the Bible.  Dylan went to the Holy Land in 1968 and then came back.  About ten years later, in 1979, Stookey heard “a rumor” that Dylan became a Christian.  The only thing that made Stookey realize that it had to be true was when he heard Dylan’s new album Slow Train.³¹

From this and all other efforts of music came Contemporary Christian Music (CCM).  How, who, and why were the first words to new questions asked in order to finally understand the conflict, influence, and challenge the church faced and still faces today because of the musical seed sown in the sixties.  People could finally see who was behind this new change from Rock to Christian Rock and how it came about.

For a long time, Rock music and Religion have gone head to head and still have a love and hate relationship.  Rock and Roll has been on trial and accused of scrambling and interfering with the moral of young people in the United States.  However, Christians were uneasy
but accepting of music with “religious themes” in the fifties, sixties, from Elvis’ “‘Crying in the Chapel’” to The Byrds’ “‘Turn, Turn, Turn.’”  As time went on, the pop charts stopped airing these kinds of songs.  Christian musicians were tired of being “locked out of the secular music industry,” so they decided to start their own, called Contemporary Christian Music.  It uses a Gospel message with different forms of rock music.  The first wave of this was in the late sixties during the Jesus Movement.³²

One group to come out boldly with Christian music was the band called “People.”  The title of their album was “We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus and a Lot Less Rock and Roll.”  This music was considered in some way counter-cultured because it rejected the ideas and values of society.  However, it can be argued that these people were also a subculture because they were using rock even as they sang against it and its values in their message.³³

Contemporary Christian Music could be said to have began in the early sixties, when Thurlow Spurr became a “spokesman” for the Youth for Christ organization.  He had a band that played and ministered to these young people.  His band name was “The Spurrlows” and because they became popular they toured on the road and left the YFC scene to sing the traditional songs as well as hymns.  They eventually formed a contemporary sound that turned into Christian rock.  On tour to different churches, they played both contemporary and secular music.  After the Spurrlows, many other Christian bands formed and followed suit and toured as well.³⁴

Later, Contemporary Christian Music began to shape up and was professionally recorded in the late seventies compared to its early days of mostly live music.  There are many musicians and their music out there now and more to choose from.  Even secular radio stations started playing “Jesus music” on Sunday mornings.  Gospel albums were “showing up” all the time on the Grammy and Dove awards.³⁵

Contemporary Christian Music has two primary goals.  One, it critiques society’s “values and norms.”  It points out modern society’s internal “contradictions”.  The second goal of Contemporary Christian Music is to call on the church to resist society’s temptations and ideals, while keeping its eyes on a more “Biblically-based role for the Church in society.”   These two goals challenge society to recognize its flaws.  It also helps the church stay strong by leading as an example.³⁶

Previously before these challenges made by CCM, the churches were reacting negatively to youth’s love of Christian Rock.  There was a growing split between the traditional church and the young people.  They did not like the way the youth wore their hair or their clothes.³⁷

CCM challenged the Church by calling it out on worldly issues frequently ignored every Sunday.  The people involved with CCM wanted to be a part of the Church, but were tired of the Church not doing what the book of Matthew says in chapter 5, verse 13; to always be the ‘Salt of the Earth.’  This music tries to keep the church in balance by looking at issues such as racial discrimination, the arms race, the disabled, and “the poor and justice for the Third World.”  Christian musicians have criticized televangelists for their activities with the church and the way they spread the Gospel.  The musicians think the church has let down society by refraining from reaching out to it in a spiritual way.  This is caused by the Church’s preoccupation with its own schedule.  The Church’s own pride has kept it from “questioning” itself in many ways and forms, and ultimately making itself irrelevant to society.³⁸

More contemporary praise and worship music began to come into the church and was used in regular services.  This alone has started a music war in the Church, by asking whether or not this type of music was and still is the correct way to worship and praise God.  One may argue from a more conservative church member’s point of view that worship music has gotten so diverse that if one were to go to five different churches of the same denomination, each would have a different musical style.³⁹   It would either be more traditionally or contemporarily oriented.

In traditional worship, hymns are sung.  In contemporary worship, there are vast array of ways to express music.  There might be a praise choir or a band singing songs freshly written.  One viewpoint that many have had with this issue is whether or not contemporary music is the proper method of worship based on “theological reflection.”⁴⁰  In other words, is this what God wanted and would allow in worship? Does the Bible have a lot to say about it?  Various Christian writers have tried to find passages or scripture in the Bible to justify one, or if both, as theologically correct.  These attempts have still not settled matters in the church.

Some see Contemporary Christian Music as a shallow commercial product, which means it is sold and pleases millions of people without showing them that the Christian life is a tough task and path to follow.  There are people who claim to have been “wrecked” because of this type of music.  It may not help Christians in tough times, but it is only “short-lived.”⁴¹   Some also argue that this music does not give us the proper message or instructions for our life the way old traditional hymns do or can.  CCM has passages from the Bible from time to time, but is still seen negatively because of the style the music bringing the words.  The problem for some is the light, bouncy, and entertaining sound that can portray the Christian path as one based on fun and “good times.” A good example of this idea is “Christian ‘party’ music.” The Christian life is not a party yet, but maybe it can be when people get to heaven.⁴²

These heated battles about music in the church came about because a few men from the fifties changed the face of music and found Rock and Roll.  It sparked mass enthusiasm as well as shame among religious folk.  Americans went through a time of immorality as the sixties went on.  Because of the immoral way of life of many, the Jesus people may have saved America for a precious time, opening the eyes of the church and many lost souls.  They swept America with a broom of love for Jesus and people, which made many question their motives and methods at times.  Their method of music and rock started a new form of music.  From this time came musicians who mixed their music with new songs about love and Jesus.

Many Christian musicians used this new Contemporary Christian Music to speak to the Church, and at times failed.  One can see that many pros and cons remain when discussing the subject of Contemporary Christian Music.  Is it good to bring it in the Church?  Should it be written for commercial purposes?  Are these artists sending out a message in tune with Christianity and its way of life? Christian rock will continue to be an issue, even today as it was thirty years ago.

Could one say then that Rock music has been through a share of both bad and good times and has evolved into different forms of music since its beginning roots?  Yes, it has and it will continue, and whether or not the entire Church jumps on board with contemporary worship and praise music, permanently or not, is still undecided.  Today there are churches worshipping both ways.  The traditionalists are still singing hymns, and the contemporaries are praising with all types of instruments and music, while allowing their children to buy Contemporary Christian Music at the stores for their own growth and entertainment.