CCM Industry = Ripoff Artists?

I just heard a new song this morning on my local Christian music station... "Alive" by Rebecca St. James. Although the words and melody are of course different, as soon as I heard the little pukka-pukka-pukka drums at the beginning of the song, I recognized the arrangement as a ripoff of the very popular Kelly Clarkson song "Since U Been Gone" from the album she released last year. Hear for yourself: currently you can listen to a clip of "Alive" by playing with the "Jukebox" near the top of the page on Rebecca's Web site, and you can listen to a clip of "Since U Been Gone" on Amazon's page about the Breakaway CD.

So the question is: how come the CCM industry feels like they have to carbon-copy what the mainstream industry is doing? Where's the individuality of the artist? This isn't a new technique for RSJ, either... the year after Jagged Little Pill came out, Rebecca spent a year or two sounding just like Alanis Morissette. Don't get me wrong... I have GREAT respect for Rebecca personally and as a Christian and minister, but you know... you just hate to see somebody copying something as closely as all that. Christianity should be at least as creative as the outside world, if not more.

Narnia Sountrack deserves a reshuffle

For months I eagerly awaited the Spetember 27 release date of the Christian "Inspired By" CD related to the upcoming movie version of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. When it came out I loved a couple of the songs, but something just didn't quite do it for me... until I reordered the playlist in my MP3 player software! Some of the songs just belong together, or in different spots. For example:

- Track 3, "Open Up Your Eyes", and Track 9, "Turkish Delight", both relate to Edmund's seduction by the White Witch, using a candy called turkish delight which she had enchanted to entice him to do whatever she wanted him to do. Since those events occur early in the story, they make better sense if they are together, and near the beginning of the playlist.

- Track 2, "Remembering You" (the Steven Curtis Chapman track you might have heard on your local CCM station in the past few days) makes a LOT better sense at the END of the disc, where you are remembering what has happened, rather than at the beginning.

- What's up with that worthless track by Delirious? ? I mean, I actually like Delirious? quite a bit, but chanting "We're getting stronger every day..." over and over doesn't have too much of a connection with the story, does not qualify (to my thinking) as worship music (which is supposed to be Delirious?'s trademark), and just plain doesn't make too much sense.

Here's my ordering of the songs (deleting the unfortunate Delirious? track entirely):

1. Waiting For The World To Fall (Jars of Clay)
2. New World (TobyMac)
3. Turkish Delight (David Crowder Band)
4. Open Up Your Eyes (Jeremy Camp)
5. I Will Believe (Nochole Nordeman)
6. Hero (Bethany Dillon)
7. Lion (Rebecca St. James)
8. More Than It Seems (Kutless)
9. You're The One (Chris Tomlin)
10. Remembering You (Steven Curtis Chapman)

When I listened to them in that order, it was like the whole thing opened up to me and became a much more enjoyable experience. It's like someone gathered a near-perfect batch of songs, then someone who had no idea what was going on rearranged them in the wrong order.

I need to burn myself a CD with the songs that way...

Petra is calling it quits

Here's one for all the people who haven't listened to Petra since the No Doubt CD! They're hanging it up this year (yes, they have been recording and touring steadily since 1972!), and they have recorded a live CD which will come out in November, and be released on DVD early next year. Here's my review of the concert that was taped for the CD, and here's much more information about the whole thing.

If you want to preorder the CD, you can order it from Christian Book Distributors or Amazon via the links on this page.

Does God hate divorce? (ESV vs. some other translations)

Interesting post today in the ESV blog.

The coon in Proverbs 16

I've never been on a 'coon hunt, but I found one this morning... and I was in my bathrobe! I was reading Proverbs 16, and ran across a word which the ESV had repeated, contrary to the way I had seen it translated before:

Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established. -Proverbs 16:3

The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. -Proverbs 16:9

It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness. -Proverbs 16:12

A quick lookup in Strong's confirms that these three verses do indeed use the same word, which is actually transliterated "koon" in Strong's (I just said "coon" 'cause I knew it would make ya look!) and rendered "established/es" in the ESV. It would appear to be another example of the ESV translator/editors trying to represent things that could be seen as textual parallels to reflect that in English; the RSV (upon which the ESV was based) uses "directs" in verse 9.

It is interesting to think of all three of these verses in the sense of something being "established" or "set up." We don't normally think in terms of our "steps" being set up and established like a monument for all time, but since we know that time doesn't really mean the same thing to God that it means to us... He sees the end, the beginning, all of it at once... every step we take does stand as kind of a memorial to God. Each one is there before we take it, and each one remains after we are gone. Now THAT's a sobering thought!

ESV: Our fathers, their yoke, and their faith

A few interesting spots I ran across while reading my ESV as my pastor preached from the NIV.

Acts 15:10-11: KJV - ESV - NIV

I seem to remember verse 11 being a point of contention anyway, because some translations say that we "are" saved (NIV, for example) while others say we "will be" saved (KJV, ESV, others). But the thing that actually caught my eye was that my pastor said that the "even as they" referred to the "fathers", not the "disciples." Many of the translations in my e-Sword leave it ambiguous, but the ESV by saying "will" has made it less ambiguous than the KJV and even the NIV (in the ESV it pretty explicitly refers to the disciples, not the fathers), which would seem to go against their stated goal of being ambiguous where the text is ambiguous. Or maybe it's not that ambiguous in the original and all those other translations got it wrong.

Romans 1:17: KJV - ESV - NIV

Most translations say "from faith to faith" in this verse. Seems like the ESV, RSV, and NRSV are in lonely territory with their use of "for" there: ESV "from faith for faith" RSV & etc. "through faith for faith." Seems like the "to" would indicate a timing concept or a sort of travel metaphor, and the "for" indicates a reason that something is done. (Notice, however, that both the ESV and the NIV have the more traditional rendering in a footnote.)

I wish I could get inside the translators' heads and find out why they settled on what they did in these kinds of cases. They may be right, but to find out WHY they did certain things would be fascinating!

Between two opinions

My Bible reading today included the account of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in I Kings 18. I noticed that in the ESV, Elijah asks the people why they are "limping" between two opinions (verse 21), versus "halting" (KJV) or "wavering" (NIV). I believe I understand why this was the selected translation for the word (which, apparently, according to Strong's, can mean any of the three, and also "hopping" or "dancing")... the same word is used in verse 26 to describe what the prophets of Baal were doing around their altar. The KJV and the NIV do not bring this parallel out, and the ESV translators have followed the rendering from the RSV. But I have to wonder... is it really the best translation? Maybe "hopping" or "jumping" or "dancing"? All of those words would have been OK in verse 21 ("dancing" would have been especially vivid in English, assuming that is a fairly accurate usage of the Hebrew word).

I suppose it depends on exactly what kind of dance the prophets of Baal were doing. It could easily be, I suppose, that they were doing a limping kind of dance. Or maybe they jumped around until they sprained an ankle. :)