What is "good" music?

This past weekend, Dr. John Hodges challenged my Introduction To Worship class to think about what constitutes "good" music.  If you hear a band, orchestra, choir, solo artist, or group; or if you hear a great album, cd, or single, then what makes you chase down your friend, family member, or significant other and tell them, "You have to listen to _____!  This is good music!"  What makes music "good"?  Why do we feel compelled to share with someone when we experience "good" music?  I would love to hear your responses.

When Jesus is Worship Leader ( Video Sermon ) - Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson

Sermon points:
1. Jesus gathers us together and brings us to God the Father as His own family
2. Jesus leads us in our praises
3. Jesus preaches to us from God's Word
4. Jesus Christ is present in worship to meet us in all of our needs.

What a powerful sermon about the centrality of Christ in the worship service!  This is a message not only for "worship leaders/song leaders" but also for the average man or woman seeking genuine God-centered worship in your worship services.  As the Contemporary Worship Leader at Grace Bible Church in Dallas, TX, I am profoundly convicted by this sermon; I want to change my title to The Contemporary Worship Follower at Grace Bible Church, where Christ is the Worship Leader.  Please post any thoughts about this sermon, and let's rethink how we do worship services.

The Gangnam Style Effect

Gangnam Style is the most popular dance out right now.  Everyone from celebrities, presidents, prime ministers, and the United Nations have endorsed it.  Korean pop star, Psy, is the mastermind behind this overnight internet success story.  The youtube video is approaching 1 billion views!  So what's the obsession with a video that's in Korean that hardly anybody in the U.S. can understand?  What does the fact that this video is the #1 viewed youtube video in over 30 countries say about the future of music?  

According to Rocket Boom Magazine, Psy's Gangnam Style video earned between $13-15 million U.S. dollars in 4 months.  Lebogang Mukansi, a blogger from BizCommunity.com broke down Psy earnings in his blog:

• As a YouTube partner Psy is expected to earn anything from USD2.5 to USD5 per 1000 views on his YouTube channel. So far, the video has been watched by more than 670 million viewers. Do the maths. At more than 670,000,000 unique views divided by 1000 is 670,000 x USD2.50 (R26.10) = R17,487,000. Yep, that's 17 million big ones from one YouTube video.
• Other income streams include appearance fees of USD60 000 (R522,000) per event for product launches, clubs and company events etc. He also got paid USD4 million (R34.8m) at a rate of USD400,000 per advert and has done 10 adverts in the last three months. Psy.com released information on Psy's earnings that indicate that his concert tickets sales have netted him an additional USD4 million (R34.8m). 
• So is it a hit? Well, Gangnam Style was number onein 18 countries on iTunes, including America, it topped the UK Top 100 and spent two weeks at number one. It also rose to the US Billboard Top 100 singles staying at number two for two weeks in a row and it is still maintains its number one Digital Billboard spot for the last 11 weeks.
• Korean Album sales and digital streaming. Digital sales 2.8 and 2.7 million downloads online streams in South Korea. Sadly all this represents is just under USD300,000, but he made way more from appearance fees and concerts.

So, the question stands, how did Gangnam Style receive worldwide attention in such a short period of time?  Before I answer this question, one must wonder, what is Gangnam Style all about since the video is in Korean.  In an interview with NPR, Psy described Gangnam Style saying, "Gangnam is a territory in Seoul, Korea. I describe it as noble at the daytime and going crazy at the night time. I compare ladies to the territory. So — noble at the daytime, going crazy at the night time — and the lyric says I am the right guy for the lady who is like that."  It doesn't get any shallower than that.  Some suggest that is a sociological critic of the over indulgent lifestyle of the residents in the Gangnam district, located in South Korea.  Even if that was true, the fact that the song is in Korean makes it hard to think beyond the images of the video that clearly portray a man trying to get "the ladies".

Now that we sort of understand the videos deeper esoteric meaning, why the sudden success?  While the video apparently in the beginning had 15 million views before Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber's manager, saw the video and decided to sign Psy to a recording contract.  Braun used his industry influence to get Psy in front of every media outlet and television show out there.  And as a result, the Gangnam Style video went from 15 million to over a 100 million overnight.  In some respect, this Gangnam effect is a case study in genius marketing and branding; and that may be the case, but I would suggest that the Gangnam Style effect is deeper than just marketing, it's about our global culture.  

Because of the ubiquitous nature of the internet, more and more of the world's population is online.  According to Internet World Stats, worldwide internet users are broken down in the following way: Asia 44.8%, Europe 21.5%, North America 11.4%, Latin America/Caribbean 10.4%, Africa 7%, Middle East 3.7%, and Oceania/Australia 1%.  As far as the percentage of each regions' population that uses the internet (internet penetration rates), the stats are: North America 78.6%, Oceania/Australia 67.6%, Europe 63.2%, Latin America/Caribbean 42.9%, Middle East 40.2%, Asia 27.5%, Africa 15.6%.  The average is 34.3%.  Therefore 34.3% of the world's population uses the internet.  

Let's analyze the facts here.  If Asians represent 44.8% of total internet users and only 27.5% of Asian countries actually have access to the internet and almost 80% of Americans have access to the internet, then don't you see why an Asian internet sensation with an American marketing team makes sense for ratings and viewership.  I think the Gangnam Style effect is only the beginning of European and American marketing companies  and corporations partnering with Asian countries, primarily to make record high sales.  I mean look at Facebook.  About 60% of Facebook users are Western (North America, South America, and Europe).  Facebook hasn't even reached its full potential with 800 million active users.  Just imagine the influence of the buying power of U.S. and European dollars and the huge untapped market segment of Asians (nearly 4 billion people...which is about 57% of the world's population).  The Gangnam Style effect will be a way of life in a globalized economy.

Chris Broussard speaks on Christians influencing culture

The Composer

Jennifer Main - The Composer

I come to thee

I come to you

I come like David in Psalm 22,

Yet I am in two…

Torn between that which I want and that which I do

The apostle said it best, I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I detest

O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death!

I breathe fallen air;

 A corrupted sphere

Marred by a nature of fear

That has coalesced with despair

Some say, “It’s not fair!”

But what is fair?

When man was created for someone higher, yet chose something lower

Yes, I’m talking about the forbidden fruit

The root of our freedom to chose

Freedom to lose

When winning seems overrated, like scoring another point when the game is already won.

Freedom comes with a price.

One man died so that we could have life

Just as one man died and brought upon strife

Yeah, life’s not worth living when you’re living for yourself

Man was made to love someone higher than himself

That’s why the Creator, God, put man on a shelf

To reflect His glory, the glory of Himself

What wealth of wisdom to be put on display

The complexity of man, only a shadow of His ways

His rays, enlightening the sun to shine on the moon so that the very sight of light at night might cause us to long for home…

Yes, man was made for something higher

Someone greater

Some event later in time

When the composer would visit his words and make them all rhyme

Matt Chandler on Hip Hop (@mattchandler74 @rapzilla)

What is behind the fear of young black men in America?

When you think about young black men in America, what picture do you see?  Do you see a group of thugs with no father figure or do you see potential leaders?  Most of us, if we're honest, do not think about young black men in America as potential leaders.  We default to viewing young black men through the lens of stereotypes, mainstream rappers, criminals on the news, and our own internal fears.

What is behind the fear of young black men in America?  Before I answer this question, I think we need to ask a preliminary question.  And that question is this: what is behind fear?  I believe when people feel threatened or in danger, one reacts in fear.  The fight or flight response kicks in.  Fear also comes from the lack of perceived control on subjective reality.  We fear what we can't control.  Let's be real, if we see a group of young black men with braided hair, dreadlocks, and sagging pants, then we get a little uneasy.  All the negative associations people have placed on young black men come flooding into our minds and we become afraid.  We are not use to being in the company of young black men who look "thuggish".  I for one, as a black male, have experienced this type of fear.  Depending on the neighborhood I'm in, if I see a group of black guys who are dressed like Lil Wayne (top picture to the right) stare me down, then I get uneasy.  I usually look the young men in their faces, lift my chin in the air, and say, "What's up?"  More often than not, I get a similar response in return.  Now if you are not black, you might say, "That's easy for you, Andrew, all black guys do that to each other!"  Well, you're right!  It's like saying "What's up?" is the universal black brotherhood greeting...but I digress.

Back to issue at hand, I believe that we fear young black men because we have many internal fears, for example, fearing loss of control, fearing danger, feeling threatened, fearing any symbol of strong masculinity, maybe you were robbed by a young black man, maybe you were bullied by a young black man, maybe you're afraid of what they will think of you...the list can go on and on.  We succumb to fear because deep down we know that we are not in control.  We seek to manipulate our reality as much as possible to appear in control.  We live in certain neighborhoods, wear certain clothes, go to certain schools, hold certain jobs, and marry certain people because we want to control our environment as much as possible.  When our controlled experiment doesn't work, fear takes its place.  But fear was there all along, motivating us to maintain a level of reality to keep us from constant worrying.

We fear black males because we can't control them.  We can't tell them what to dress, how to behave, how to talk, and which side of the sidewalk to walk on.  We are powerless to change a young black man who exudes a level of confidence that seems stifling at times.  What if that young black man is afraid of you?  What if he's wandering, why are they looking at me like that?  Why do I feel out of place when I'm surrounded by a bunch of people who are not from my neighborhood?  Why do I feel like I'm sub-human?  You see, fear is not a monologue, but a dialogue between both parties.  One party may be able to hide it better than the other.  The truth is we are all afraid of something.  The question is how do we react when we're afraid?  1 John 4:18 says, "Perfect love cast out fear."  Jesus Christ loved us so much that he decided to face the ultimate fear and that is, to be a man clothed in sin in the hands of a holy God.  Jesus removed the barrier of hostility away from us so that we can approach God the Father in love every time we are afraid and ask Him to remove our fears just like His Son removed our sins.