Things have been a bit strange around here in that all of us at The One21 are out visiting family. This is usually a Friday thing when I post a bunch of links to various goings on in the Christian music world.  It is an attempt to keep everyone up to date on what is going on, and if you think that we missed anything, hit us up in the Contact Us tab over there…here we go:

Singer/Songwriter Todd Agnew talks about his upcoming Christmas tour here

Brett Dennen and Paste Magazine are running a “Thanks Giving” contest, read and sign up here

The Great Commission gives a slew of updates concerning tours and recording here

The Myriad have recently posted a video concerning drummer Randy Miller here

tobyMac talks remixes here

Former Korn guitarist Brian Welch was interviewed here

Hip-hop artist KJ-52 posted the latest in his series of video devotionals here

Hope For The Dying‘s new CD was reviewed here , and their new tour was announced here

Josh Wilson talks about his online advent calender here

The Almost posted an e-card for their recently released EP No Gift To Bring here

Southern mosh metal monsters Once Nothing talk about the departure of a few of their band members here

Jars Of Clay give a whole bunch of updates here

Jamie Jamgochian talks about her Christmas tour here

A small tour with Haste The Day, Sky Eats Airplane, and Inhale Exhale was announced here

Sleeping At Last talkabout the departure of their drummer here

Two days after I received my high school diploma, I found myself standing at one of the main entrance/waiting areas of the airport in Austin, surrounded by people I didn’t know. I was beginning my first summer as a intern for Wild Week youth camp, a traveling teen evangelism camp that featured Ken Freeman, Paul Vick, Kacy Benson, and the worship music of Among Thorns.  That summer, we were on the road for 11 weeks, we did eight camps in four states, and on average saw between 600-1200 kids per a week.  It was a truly amazing experience for me, one that changed the way that I see Christ, believers, music, and churches (to the point at which I was trying to jump on tour with Among Thorns so I could stay on the road).  Quickly into the trip, I noticed that the other interns were sending kids my way when they found out that bands like Marilyn Manson or Korn were making the music they loved, hoping that I could provide a safe alternative for them; and although I haven’t been able to stay in touch with any of the kids I talked to, I believe I was able to at least get them on the right track.  I was even allowed to play music for the kids as they came into the worship area (it is an awesome thing to hear Souljahz at a volume that could bend your windows), and it was during this summer that I began to notice a key part of youth ministry that is too many times seen as secondary; music.

It has always seemed funny to me that while most people see music as JUST entertainment, they point to it very often as signs of very serious matters in their child’s life, like hanging out with the wrong crowd, bad language, and even sexuality (ex.”You didn’t act like this before you started listening to that crazy music!”). Listening to music that parents don’t understand is often a clue for those parents that rebellious behavior is on the way; or in most cases the music in their minds IS the rebellious behavior.  The fact is that most kids use music as a symbol of their new found ability to choose and be independent; their taste in music, most times in opposition of their parents, is a way for them to quietly tell themselves that they are calling their own shots now

Note: while most teens will say that they wished their parents liked the music that they listen to, most kids would be mortified to come home and find their mom grooving to Kanye, or have their dad turn up Foo Fighters at full tilt while driving them to school.

It is during this time in kid’s lives that teens start to use music as more than just an entertainment choice, but start allowing the sound, feel, and  ideals of the music to shape their personality.  Music influences the way that they dress (or don’t), the friends that they will select, and the other activities that they take part of(skateboarding, art, sports).

Now, I don’t want you to hear that I am saying that music controls kids, or that it is somehow responsible for kids actions.  Deviant behavior is not sparked by music, but sometimes is fueled by it.  While I am not in support of artists such as Marilyn Manson or Eminem;  to blame them for acts committed by some of their listeners is turning a blind eye to all the other factors in their lives that led up to the incidents.  What I AM saying is that in most people’s lives, from the ages of eleven to around their early thirties; music is part of their identity. This is even more intense at younger ages, but during this time music is worn like a badge, a calling card for others to know their personalities.

The real problem is when the music  that attracts young people espouses values that are inconsistent with their beliefs.

It is in this that I see many churches, youth workers and parents unknowingly missing the mark.  To talk and understand a kid’s music tastes is very personal but very liberating for a teen with all these new ideas in their head.  It is a way to reach them, to talk with out the pressure of small talk or the fear of having the kid tune you out, because there is rarely a time when a teen won’t want to tell you about what is playing on their IPOD.  A light comes on behind people’s eyes when they get to talk and discuss their music, especially when they believe that they are talking to someone who is as interested in the subject as they are.  As we engage the youth in our churches, know that this is the simplest way to start a relationship with them. On top of that, if we were able to appear to know as much about their music as they do or just listen to them about their music, then  a lasting ease between leader and youth will remain.

This article is not meant to be received as criticism, because I am certain that were a lot of mistakes I made while doing youth work. What I am simply trying to say is that this element in kid’s lives is vastly important and cannot be ignored.  The key to engaging is education; listen to the music your kids listen to, even if you hate it, do real research on the artists you think are dangerous or misleading to get the real story behind the headlines, and engage your youth about their musical tastes from a perspective of understanding and not criticism (this is where I have always failed the most).

We have been posting a lot on here trying to explain why we (The One21 music) are starting this business.  This is why. When we are able to complete our main website, we intend to be a vital resource for you to understand this music and these artists.. We are bringing all of this music together in one place in hopes that you are able to discover and pass it along.  We are hoping that for your kids, when they are trying to find that place in music that communicates their identity, that they and you, are able to find it through us.

That is our calling.

How big of a role do you think music has in people’s lives, especially in those of teens?

I will try to post these on Mondays from now on, here is what dropped today-

NOV. 25, 2008

 Demon Hunter- 45 Days (CD/DVD)

 Jeremy Camp- Speaking Louder Than Before

 DecembeRadio- Comfort & Joy

 xDeathstarx- The Triumph (Reissue)

 The Almost- No Gift To Bring EP

 Paramore- The Final RIOT! (CD/DVD)

 Becoming The Archetype- Dichotomy

 Jason Truby- Finding The Quiet

 Jonathan Steingard- Under The Canopy

some day in the future, we hope to have links up for these; but for now I would say that the bigger retailers such as Best Buy would have most of these guys. Send us a message if you need help finding anything we post here.

We aren’t going to post ours quite yet (its not even December yet!!); but we want to hear yours!!

TOP 15 Albums of 2008, leave your list in the comments section, and discuss..

It is going to be a strange week for the One21 Music, in that most of the week we will be spending with our families and friends.  Not as many posts will show up this week, but take the time off to browse through some of our other articles we have put up for you.

Things are rolling for us here, and hopefully before you know it we will be giving you some huge updates for our company.  We really want to hear from you, so leave us comments and talk to us about what you think is going on in music.

Enjoy your week, we know we will

Jonathan Steingard is better known as the guitarist for rock band Hawk Nelson.  He is hard at work on his new solo album right now, and decided to put a 3-song EP togeather to hold people over until then.  Its kick back mellow stuff with a lot of substance. Click the link below, save the ZIP file, extract the files, and you have a new CD… for free!!!

DOWNLOAD EP

Every week I am going to try to post a whole bunch of links to kind of keep everybody up to date as to what is happening in the Christ-centered music scene. It will be different every week, so keep checking back.  If you know of any stories we should know about, let us know using the “Contact Us” tab over there…

Syntax Records posted a preview video for The Wages Of Syntax, Vol.2 here

As I Lay Dying, War of Ages, Impending Doom, August Burns Red, Brian Welch, Demon Hunter, Devil Wears Prada, Gwen Stacy, Maylene & TSOD, Oh, Sleeper, Straight Line Stitch and Underoath were all nominated for Headbangers Best Of ’08; you can vote for your favorite here

Paramore won mtvU’s Woodie Of The Year, a video and details can be found here

Dreamy rockers Sleeping At Last checked in to give a whole bunch of updates here

P.O.D. are headed out to South Africa, read some details here

Family Force 5 have a new video “Radiator”, watch it here

The Fray have a new song playing here

Strike First Records signed punk band The Rekoning, read about it here

Anberlin have posted a list of the places you can get tickets fro the upcoming tour here

Rebecca St. James gives a huge update on a lot of stuff here

Facedown Records is having a huge CD sale here 

I don’t know how we missed this, but Paramore was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week preforming their new song “Decode”. Very solid performance, very solid song.  The song comes from the Twilight Soundtrack, which is out now, and the band said in a recent interview that they are starting to put stuff together for a new CD, due some time in 2009.

Jason Upton
Genre: worship
Styles: eclectic, progressive, independent
Label: Key Of David
Website/myspace: Jason Upton
Christian label: yes
Category: The Spiritual whats this?

Known for his unorthodox worship songs and unwillingness to conform to any standard set forth by the Christian culture; Jason Upton is a worship leader that truly seeks God’s heart.  He has been singing in churches since he was 15, but didn’t begin to lead worship until after receiving his Masters in Divinity. During this time, Jason and his wife began to feel God giving them songs to share with the world.  Since then, Jason has devoted himself to truly seeking God through worship.  He has released over ten albums since 2000, many live, unrehearsed, and with no post-production. The experience created by the music is completely authentic, and the songs are passionate and emotional.

To say that Jason’s music is just worship really degrades the musicianship involved for his songs. Unlike a lot of worship music out there, Jason’s songs are layered, progressive, and constantly changing. He never really performs a song the same way twice, and the lyrics alter from time to time based on what God has for him to say. There is a true beauty in his songs that are not derived from guitar effects of multi-layered vocal tracks; but from a man that can truly communicate his passion through his voice, and most times his instrument of choice, his piano.  If Jason wasn’t a worship leader, he would most likely be giving the likes of Dave Matthews and Iron & Wine a run for their money.

here is Jason preforming “Lion Of Judah” :

Here he is preforming “Freedom” much earlier in his career (to a very spirited congregation):

This is truly an artist that we can’t describe the way he needs to be described. I was lucky enough to tour with Jason very briefly at the beginning stages of his career; and he changed my perception on what worship music could be. I have never met a man more willing to completely follow God in worship, nor one who at the same time could blow me away as a musician.  Jason’s lyrics are nothing short of prophetic, and his services are nothing short of life changing. It is THE only musical experience I have ever attended, worship, secular, entertainment, and so forth; where the audience refused to leave after the performer had walked off stage.  Jason Upton is truly a blessed guy.

You can find Jason Upton’s amazing music digitally on

You can also get his CDs on Amazon: Key Of David(2000), Faith(2001), Jacob’s Dream(2002), Dying Star(2002), Remember(2003), Trusting the Angels(2004), Great River Road(2005), Open up the Earth(2005), Beautiful People(2007), Between Earth & Sky(2007), 1200 Ft Below Sealevel(2008)

Christ, in the 21^st Century, speaks to the post modern world in ever more expansive ways.  Christian music in the mainstream and underground pop, rock, r&b, hip hop, jazz and country circles reaches the believing and yet to believe world.  It is time to embrace and celebrate this music.

Ever since I was a teenager, there has been this bizarre debate among the Christians in my life as to what Christians should listen to.  Some thought that all secular music was out, others thought certain bands were okay even if their music wasn’t Christ-centered. Others thought that music was objective, and that if there wasn’t anything offensive in the music, then it was okay.  Many people agreed, however, that Christians should listen to only Christian music because, as a whole, the secular music scene seems to represent a culture in opposition to Christian values.  Even as we got in to the vast realm of Christian music, however, there were many people who were very quick to point out what WASN’T Christian music.

I remember going to see Newsboys, a Christian alternative rock band, early in my Christian life. It was the Take Me To Your Leader tour; a show rated as one of the most successful tours that year in both the Christian and secular markets.  I had barely listened to the band before I saw them, but walked away very impressed. I was dismayed when I returned to the church with my youth group to find that my excitement was not shared by most of the leaders. There were concerns that the concert was just a glorified rock show, the music was too heavy, and that in some way the youth group had been lead astray by the whole experience.  In fact, the biggest concern was the manner in which drummer Peter Furler smiled at the crowd (apparently it looked “evil”).  I thought we had just seen a really good show, and that it was made better by the fact that the singer talked extensively about his faith.

My journey through to find a clear definition of Christian music continued as I got older.  I was often confused when Christian radio embraces of clearly secular artist who happened to create a song that had some sort of spiritual meaning.   Coldplay, Foo Fighters, and Hoobastank have all had songs appear frequently in sermons and services I have attended, further changing my perception on what the genial public considered to be “Christian” music. It has been hard to wrap my head around Christian’s rejection of that loud band who talked about Christ on stage in favor of that secular artist who made a song with appeal to the Christian body.  As a result, I have always had a different view on what “Christian music” is.

People will always be entitled their opinions, but it has always been so ironic to me that we as a body have never been able to truly define what qualifies the music we listen to as Christ-centered.  Most people point to lyrics as the soul definer; but even artist who call themselves Christians don’t always write purely worship-like lyrics for their songs.  This also leaves lyrics up for major scrutiny when dealing with controversial topics such as sex, theology, or abuse. These topics are ones that need to be addressed from a Christian worldview, so in this we are limiting our artists.  Saying that Christian music is SOLELY defined by the lyrics excludes all poetic expression beyond pure worship music.  This also doesn’t allow for genres, such as electronica, classical, jazz and progg, in which lyrics are rare to be considered..

One of the other qualifiers for the general public’s definition of Christian music is simply that the members are Christians.   This is a difficult standard we attempt to enforce when we look deep into an artist’s heart to critique their relationship with Christ.  At what point does discernment become judgment? Does every member of a band need to a Christian for the band to make Christian music?  Is a solo artist required to employ only Christians?  Further, and on the other side of the argument, this would mean that anybody who believes in Christ would have their music be considered “Christian”. Alice Cooper became a strong believer later in his life, and while he has released some recordings that extol his faith , his body of work is defiantly not what most people could consider music you could use to glorify God( just imagine a pastor using “School’s Out” as the background music for his sermon).  In both cases, the focus is put on the people, rather than the music itself.

This post may seem to be a bit negative or angry, and I want assure you that it is not intended to.  My hope is that now that we have highlighted some of the usual standards that have been confusing in the past.  I will never say that our definition on this topic is the last word, nor do I believe that the definitions mentioned above should be dismissed. The definitions above have been around for so long because there is a lot of merit to them. There is just too much that they exclude or leave up for debate for them to prevail as the binding definition for what makes music Christian.  We are simply living in a much different world, one where Christians express themselves through so many avenues that Christ can be seen in almost every form of artistic expression. Our post-modern world allows for a very different definition of what makes music Christian; so we our building One21music on a humble definition of post modern Christian music.

Post Modern Christian Music for us is: Music, of all genres, written from a foundation of hope and faith in Jesus Christ, that God uses to touch people’s hearts.

Under this description, Chris Tomlin strums his guitar alongside Bob Dylan and Josh Garrels;  August Burns Red scream their songs of healing and renewal as Sixpence  None The Richer soothes your heart  with their poppy, sweet stories in song.  mewithoutYou, U2, and Andy Hunter lead their own worship services to their very different audiences.  God’s children sing, speak, strum, bang, whisper, scream, and dance like David with the music He has put in their hearts; and in turn these artist believers bless us as we, the listener, wait for the next song that God will use to change our life.  And maybe, as these artists express their faith in the music of their walk, Christ’s message of hope, love and grace will be heard.

Is this how you see the body of Christian music? Is there a different way in your life that you would define Christian music?