Music Mondays: When CCM gets serious

CCM often feels perfectly packaged. Artists need to fit a certain image and sing about certain topics in order to maximize their popularity. This is probably true of the entire music industry, but when your audience is Christian you are dealing with a whole different set of expectations and standards. 

Maybe sprinkle in a little bit of honesty and transparency about the difficulties of life but not too much. CCM often drift towards that safe space and really always has. 

Every once in a while though, someone breaks the mold. The first major exception like this that I can remember was this song:

"What If I Stumble?" was the track after dc Talk's megahit "Jesus Freak" on the album of the same name and the contrast of tones what startling and made me and many like me sit up and take notice. dc Talk was hugely popular in Christian circles before this album but their fame hit another stratosphere after it. And in the middle of all of this, they had the temerity/vision/arrogance/humility to include a song about doubt, vulnerability, and frailty.  

Self-awareness, transparency, and weakness are not common subjects in CCM. "What If I Stumble?" broke the mold. And that's what the songs in this series are all about.