Contemporary Christian music (CCM) emerged in America during the late 1960s and early 1970s, creating a niche genre outside the mainstream music industry. Since then, CCM has become the umbrella for any genre of modern music with lyrics that express the tenets of the Christian faith or draw inspiration from biblical themes.
How Did Contemporary Christian Music Begin?
In the late 1960s, God began a powerful move among young people to awaken their hearts to Christ. This wave of revival, labeled in history as the Jesus Movement and described in movies like Jesus Revolution, sparked an unquenchable fire in the hearts of young music artists. Using their music as a platform to evangelize, these shaggy-haired singers, songwriters, and musicians infiltrated the mainstream music industry with the message of the Gospel.
Before that era, most American churches and most major record labels maintained strict boundaries between sacred (or “gospel music”) and popular music. Some musicians, like Johnny Cash, worked across those boundaries and produced work that appealed to both audiences, but the camps tended to work in separate spheres. But in 1969, Larry Norman, a young rising rock star whose band had opened for Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, and Janis Joplin, dared to challenge the great divide.
Other pop and country music artists had dabbled with evangelistic messages in their songs. Before starting his solo career, Norman belonged to the rock band People!, which released the album We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus and a Lot Less Rock and Roll. After conflicts with his bandmates (and Capitol Records refusing to let People! feature a picture of Christ on their new album cover), Norman was fired from the band. Eventually, he quit Capitol Records to “embark on a solo career” so that he could freely express his convictions.
Norman’s first evangelistic-themed rock album, Upon This Rock, was released in 1969, just as the first swells of the Jesus Movement swept across America’s West Coast. Three years later, his landmark album, Only Visiting This Planet, dropped at the peak of the revival. As his songs spread like wildfire among the hundreds of thousands of young people hungry for more of Jesus, other Christian artists followed Norman’s bold lead, and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) was officially on its way.
Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music by Larry Norman from ragamuffin1 on GodTube.
At its inception, CCM embodied revival’s spiritual fervor. Lyrics conveyed unapologetic warnings about sin, revealed deep biblical truths, and pointed the way to Jesus. Many songs also took a stand against social and political injustices of the day. At the heart of the music was a rare authenticity that garnered mass appeal.
But not everyone appreciated the new hybrid genre, which wrapped sacred themes into folksy, upbeat, or rock-style music. Many conservative churches branded the songs “devil music,” while many record stores refused to sell the albums, fearing that the religious content might offend loyal customers.
CCM’s origin story is long and complex, with hundreds of active participants. For every big-named artist or band you might recognize, dozens of others played roles just as integral—yet struggled to fit into CCM’s evolving mold.
Trailblazers like Ralph Carmichael, Randy Stonehill, Keith Green, Phil Keaggy, Andrae Crouch, Michael Card, and Barry McGuire are revered today by their successors and remembered for their contributions.
Meanwhile, Christians who contributed but didn’t quite fit into the genre, like Sam Phillips, Mark Heard, Michael Been, and T Bone Burnett, are finally getting recognized as modern artists find inspiration from their work and lives.
By the 1980s, the humble origins of CCM had all but disappeared, along with the final ripples of the Jesus Movement, and the billion-dollar Christian music industry was born.
How Did Contemporary Christian Music Facilitate the Modern Worship Movement?
Many evangelical churches cautioned their congregations to remain wary of CCM when it first hit the airwaves and record stores in the late 60s. They were concerned that “worldly music” had adulterated the faith’s sacred truths. But few were concerned that the world’s popular music might breach their sanctuary doors. And rightfully so. Most mainstream CCM artists crafted their songs as evangelistic tools to take the Gospel to the world, not to the church.
At that time, most of these churches practiced corporate musical worship by singing hymns accompanied by piano or organ music. But by the early 70s, some churches began pondering CCM’s positive impact on youth culture and wondered if they might be able to draw some of those young people into the church by altering their style of musical worship.
Church Smith led the way at his small Pentecostal church in California, where the Jesus Movement began. As Jesus hippie Lonnie Frisbee’s ministry brought a new crowd of “Jesus People” to the church, Smith’s congregation put away the hymnals and selected a group of young guitarists and songwriters to lead worship sessions before services. The new worship team composed and performed simple folksy choruses full of biblical truth that spoke to their peers in their language. Soon, other worship teams formed, until there were over 15 rotating groups.
When one of the worship leaders, Karen Lafferty, wrote and performed a song titled “Seek Ye First,” based on Matthew 6:33, congregation members began singing the catchy tune everywhere they went until it finally spread to several other nearby evangelical churches.
Maranatha Singers: Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God and more from graceandglory3 on GodTube.
In 1971 Chuck Smith personally financed the production of Calvary Chapel’s first album. The record’s overwhelming success led to subsequent albums and provided the means and opportunity for Chuck to create the Christian music label Maranatha! Music Inc., also distributed sheet music and songbooks to churches across North America to help them form worship teams of their own.
By the late 1970s, other music publishers joined Maranatha! in the campaign to equip churches for the new style of worship; some even provided training workshops to facilitate the transition further. Today at the click of a button, Lifeway Worship offers a catalog of over 3,000 songs, and Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) offers over 300,000 songs to aid worship leaders worldwide.
In the 1980s, as worship music became more common in Evangelical churches, mainstream contemporary Christian artists got on the bandwagon and began composing songs for corporate worship. Soon Praise and Worship music became a subgenre of CCM. Today over half the evangelical churches in the U.S. use some amount of CCM in their weekly worship services.
How Did Contemporary Christian Music Change After the Jesus Movement?
In CCM’s early days, many Christian artists were independently produced, which made distribution difficult and made earning a living with their music next to impossible. But they continued their craft as a calling, motivated by the desire to take the message of Jesus to the world. As the Jesus Movement faded into the backdrop of the early 1980s, the mainstream music industry began to recognize the sales potential of Christian music, and more opportunities emerged for artists to break into the industry.
The industrialization of CCM was a blessing and a curse. While it opened doors for contemporary Christian music to reach a broader audience, it also necessitated marketing formulas to ensure the retention of that audience. Many artists who had found their faith and their voice during the Jesus Movement no longer fit into the branding confines of the new and improved CCM.
In 1988, Leslie Phillips, one of CCM’s bestselling female artists before the change, left her label and rebranded herself as Sam Phillips to continue creating her spiritually raw and practically honest music. She and others like Rich Mullins became disenfranchised with the music industry as “audiences became less patient with music asking questions or critiquing hypocrisy.”
While some Christian artists retreated from CCM’s limelight during this season of change, others like Amy Grant, Sandy Patti, and Michael W. Smith found their stride, amassed huge audiences, and made names for themselves in the Christian music world that have stood the test of time.
10 of Today’s Top Contemporary Christian Music Artists
1. Casting Crowns: Crosswalk contributor Laura Harris explains lead vocalist Mark Hall started this seven-member band. On their journey “to create singable truths that point others to Jesus,” the band has produced twelve albums that have won multiple awards and sold millions. They are one of only two bands in CCM history to have their first two albums hit platinum.
2. Lauren Daigle: “Lauren Daigle is a multiplatinum-selling artist who has taken the Christian and mainstream music world by storm. Her soulful voice and joy-filled countenance draw fans from around the globe.”
3. Phil Wickham: This Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter has a powerful testimony and songs with deep, heartfelt lyrics that have earned him multiple awards and his place as a leader in the modern worship movement.
4. Katy Nichole: Katy is a new rising CCM star who got an unusual big break. In 2021 she recorded a 46-second TikTok video that went viral and received over 80 million views. Her debut single was released a year later and shot straight to the top of Billboard’s Christian Songs charts.
5. TobyMac: Besides being a singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer who has sold millions of copies and won seven Grammy Awards, TobyMac is one of the most admired superstars in the industry because of his generous support of young, upcoming Christian music artists.
6. MercyMe: Crosswalk contributor Valerie Fentress explains how “since their start in the 1990s, this Christian music group has had 13 consecutive top 5 singles on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, with 7 of them reaching No. 1. MercyMe has won 8 Dove Awards and has had many Grammy Award nominations.”
7. Chris Tomlin: He’s toured for over 25 years, sold over 7 million records, and Time magazine calls him “the most often sung artist anywhere.” He is also one of CCM’s most celebrated and successful artists of all time.
8. Steven Curtis Chapman: He still has it! This artist has been in CCM for over three decades. He’s won 5 Grammy awards and 59 Dove awards, among his countless other awards. Last year Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) awarded him for his fiftieth number one radio hit. He was the first Christian music artist ever to receive this prestigious BMI Icon award. You’d think he’d be tired by now. But no. His newest album, Still, was instantly successful in 2022.
9. Skillet: This Grammy-nominated Christian rock crossover band has sold over 12 million albums. Their music has over 12 billion streams, and they have been billed as one of the most accomplished rock bands in the 21st century.
10. Anne Wilson: With songs that echo the soulful twang of her country roots, this talented young CCM star recorded her first album. It shot to the top of the charts and won her best female artist of the Year in the 2022 K-LOVE fan awards.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/ shuang paul wang
