Where Should Catholic Music Go From Here?

[the Apologist]

[quote name='Delivery Boy' post='1324660' date='Jul 11 2007, 04:51 PM']that makes me sick to my stomach dude....for real...that leaves a real bad taste in my mouth for the people who told you that.....its a joke.......and why were you kicked off of ewtn ??? thats messed up........[/quote]

it was not a nice nor pretty thing and they gave me no reason for doing it. They just sent me home with $5 and a good bye. That's ok... But the constant people who did not grow up on rap are usually the ones that tell me that it is "evil music".

Now some say that rap is confrontational. Yes it is, but that depends on the style. There are styles that are story telling and playful, which i like to use, i.e. Common, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco. There are plenty more light hearted songs out there that these people, who don't even like rap, know about. They seem to judge all rap to be like Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent. But those who really like hip hop and listen to it know that there is much more to rap than just the ganster stuff.

The problem is that there are many in the Church that won't give it the time of day. Closed minded.

[thejUiCER]

One idea we seen work really well in regards to having a concert/show is instead of charging $5/$10 for admission and hoping people buy your cd. Simply have the cost of admission include your latest cd. So everybody from the show walks away with a copy of your cd. A lot of CCM artist have done it. "Grits" did it for their album release of Dicotomy B and there was nearly 5k people that showed up and walked away with a signed copy of their cd. We really need to be smart at marketing.

If anyone has any inputs on how we (spirit juice) could improve to better serve/promote Catholic Music, please let us know.

[abercius24]

[quote name='the jUiCER' post='1327396' date='Jul 13 2007, 05:50 PM']One idea we seen work really well in regards to having a concert/show is instead of charging $5/$10 for admission and hoping people buy your cd. Simply have the cost of admission include your latest cd. So everybody from the show walks away with a copy of your cd. A lot of CCM artist have done it. "Grits" did it for their album release of Dicotomy B and there was nearly 5k people that showed up and walked away with a signed copy of their cd. We really need to be smart at marketing.

If anyone has any inputs on how we (spirit juice) could improve to better serve/promote Catholic Music, please let us know.[/quote]

That is a such a great idea! That rocks!

[melporcristo]

[quote name='the jUiCER' post='1327396' date='Jul 13 2007, 02:50 PM']One idea we seen work really well in regards to having a concert/show is instead of charging $5/$10 for admission and hoping people buy your cd. Simply have the cost of admission include your latest cd. So everybody from the show walks away with a copy of your cd. A lot of CCM artist have done it. "Grits" did it for their album release of Dicotomy B and there was nearly 5k people that showed up and walked away with a signed copy of their cd. We really need to be smart at marketing.

If anyone has any inputs on how we (spirit juice) could improve to better serve/promote Catholic Music, please let us know.[/quote]
I totally agree with the smart marketing aspect.
One thing I learned from the amazing producer of Bella was that we as Catholics should know how to do things WELL -- not just half well. If we are good at what we do in music then people will begin to notice, but we need to know how to do it right.

I also would like to see Catholic artists networking together -- I mean, I'd love to see LIFETEEN support Phatmass' music, Phatmass supporing Matt Maher's music, etc. We're all in it together, none of this division stuff.

[melporcristo]

[quote name='gurlie4godsd' post='1310100' date='Jul 2 2007, 06:09 PM']Catholic Ska would be lovely....anyone?[/quote]
to be the front woman of a ska band was my lifelong dream ...
It would awesome to see Catholic Ska, but it would mean a great deal of creativity and definately some passion because ska has integrated into so many other genres at this point.

[Didymus]

[quote name='melporcristo' post='1327543' date='Jul 13 2007, 09:49 PM']I also would like to see Catholic artists networking together -- I mean, I'd love to see LIFETEEN support Phatmass' music, Phatmass supporing Matt Maher's music, etc. We're all in it together, none of this division stuff.[/quote]

totally.

ok maybe I'm just getting cranky cuz it's gettin late, but seriously. Why don't we see more of this? why are there so many divisions? ya cant really deny it. Why is it that there are like 3 or 4 different Catholic music communities on myspace that don't seem to have much of an interaction with each other at all? It's like they all know each other exist but only in so far as they are on each other's friend list. No wonder the Catholic music world seems so small, paritcularly the non-hiphop portion. No one's gettin together! It's like they don't even lend some sort of encouragement or support to each other! Is pride really that big of a deal? what's up with that? it's bed time. i dunno if this even made sense. goodnoght night

[abercius24]

Looks like we have 30 votes, which makes this poll statistically viable (95% accuracy). Right on!

These are very surprising results. I am particularly amazed at how many people prefer Rock/Metal/Alternative (R/M/A) over Rap and Techno, especially given that this is a Rap website. Traditional, Polyphonic/Chant, and Liturgical Adoration are right underneath R/M/A, as well. The "move away" votes are very indicative, too. Again, very few votes against Traditional, Polyphonic/Chant, and Liturgical Adoration. This is something I have suspected for a long time, and something our late John Paul II encouraged greatly. Techno got dis'd all the way around. Hmm.

Looks like the majority of people also believe that Catholic music should be music that reflects Catholic lifestyle in general, not just songs addressed directly to God. I think this is important because some Catholics and almost all Fundamentalists believe that a song cannot be Christian if it isn't lyrically written in a prayer form. I would be the first to say that prayer is one of the most important aspects of a Christian's life, but I will also say that it is not the total sum. There are many other aspects of Christian life that Christian music has yet to explore. How about the beauty and value of Christian marriage? How about struggling through suffering so terrible than you can't focus on prayer and can only hold on to hope? I think this door can be a significant direction Catholic music can take to grow and possibly surpass the influence of non-Catholic Christian music.

There is a lot more to be drawn out of these statistics, but its best if everyone reviews them and offers their opinions. Please, have at it!

By the way, this is the kind of marketing research we have been missing. This unveiling of the unknown is what a good Catholic marketeer can provide. I really want to encourage anyone who may be thinking about doing such work. It is extremely important, and you could easily become every Catholic musician's best friend!

Edited July 17, 2007 by abercius24

[abercius24]

[quote name='Didymus' post='1327917' date='Jul 14 2007, 01:18 AM']totally.

ok maybe I'm just getting cranky cuz it's gettin late, but seriously. Why don't we see more of this? why are there so many divisions? ya cant really deny it. Why is it that there are like 3 or 4 different Catholic music communities on myspace that don't seem to have much of an interaction with each other at all? It's like they all know each other exist but only in so far as they are on each other's friend list. No wonder the Catholic music world seems so small, paritcularly the non-hiphop portion. No one's gettin together! It's like they don't even lend some sort of encouragement or support to each other! Is pride really that big of a deal? what's up with that? it's bed time. i dunno if this even made sense. goodnoght night[/quote]

I hear you on this. I've been thinking about this all weekend, and I gotta say its pride. Everybody is afraid of wasting their time helping each other out. All it takes is one person to burn you and you get wary of everybody else thereafter. Again, I think people are afraid to fail and as a result, they won't dare to try something new. I think that's the definition of stagnation, though, isn't it? We choose to react that way and let our momentum slow, then we're choosing to be stagnant. I don't know about some people, but I refuse to be stagnant. Standing water breeds mosquitoes and mud -- that's all the good we get from stagnation.

[melporcristo]

JMJT

I used to have conversations with Matt Smith about this topic all the time. (Matt was the webmaster of LIFETEEN and whose a big LT spokesperson.)
I just wish I would see more ACTION on behalf of every Catholic culture website/publication/media.
I really felt that at my school, Franciscan University, the Steubenville conferences were the closest to uniting a lot of artists.

Edited July 18, 2007 by melporcristo

[abercius24]

[quote name='melporcristo' post='1333049' date='Jul 17 2007, 10:08 PM']JMJT

I used to have conversations with Matt Smith about this topic all the time. (Matt was the webmaster of LIFETEEN and whose a big LT spokesperson.)
I just wish I would see more ACTION on behalf of every Catholic culture website/publication/media.
I really felt that at my school, Franciscan University, the Steubenville conferences were the closest to uniting a lot of artists.[/quote]

Any particular strategies you witnessed from Steubenville that you can share?

[Era Might]

[quote name='abercius24' post='1331470' date='Jul 16 2007, 09:56 PM']These are very surprising results. I am particularly amazed at how many people prefer Rock/Metal/Alternative (R/M/A) over Rap and Techno, especially given that this is a Rap website.[/quote]
I just want to say for the record that I'm glad this is a rap website, because I never would have come here if it wasn't. I didn't join the phorum probably until a year after I got the album, and mostly posted in the muzik phorum at first. Now they can't get rid of me. :

I'm not into rock at all, so if this were a rock website, I wouldn't really have had any reason to join.

[abercius24]

[quote name='Era Might' post='1333082' date='Jul 17 2007, 10:30 PM']I just want to say for the record that I'm glad this is a rap website, because I never would have come here if it wasn't. I didn't join the phorum probably until a year after I got the album, and mostly posted in the muzik phorum at first. Now they can't get rid of me. :

I'm not into rock at all, so if this were a rock website, I wouldn't really have had any reason to join.[/quote]

I hope I'm not coming off as though I'm saying this poll proves rock is better than rap. That can't be drawn from these numbers, and it would be a pretty biased statement. Rap was not low in the poll, anyways.

I would say that this poll indicates that there is an opportunity for Catholic musicians to fill a wanting need for rock music. People may be more satisfied with the work that has been done for Rap music (thanks to great groups like Phatmass) and want to see the same thing happen with Rock. Perhaps rockers are more attracted to polls about Catholic music than rappers? We wouldn't know that kind of detail without another poll. All we can say is that there are a lot of people who want to see more Catholic Rock. Perhaps this may be an indication for some of the Emcees and DJ's to incorporate more rock-like beats into their music? That would be a logical strategy from these numbers. That will probably be something Agony Rose will do with our Techno music since it scored really low on the polls. But not being of the Rap culture, I'm not about to tell you rappers what you should do. You guys have already impressed me.

Edited July 18, 2007 by abercius24

[abercius24]

[abercius24]

[quote name='Didymus' post='1327917' date='Jul 14 2007, 01:18 AM']totally.

ok maybe I'm just getting cranky cuz it's gettin late, but seriously. Why don't we see more of this? why are there so many divisions? ya cant really deny it. Why is it that there are like 3 or 4 different Catholic music communities on myspace that don't seem to have much of an interaction with each other at all? It's like they all know each other exist but only in so far as they are on each other's friend list. No wonder the Catholic music world seems so small, paritcularly the non-hiphop portion. No one's gettin together! It's like they don't even lend some sort of encouragement or support to each other! Is pride really that big of a deal? what's up with that? it's bed time. i dunno if this even made sense. goodnoght night[/quote]

Been thinking about this some more. Another problem that is quite clear considering many of the people I've worked with -- and honestly considering some of my own behaviors: We Catholics are very over-senstitive.

This is a spiritual problem St. Therese of Liseaux talked about extensively in her book. It was the big thing she found herself having to overcome. She tells a story of a time in the convent when she shared a great idea with another sister. She later heard that sister telling the same idea to someone else in a way that sounded like it was her own idea. St. Therese at first felt indignation because the other sister didn't give her credit. Then it occured to her, the Holy Spirit Himself gave her the idea, and through her gave it to the other sister. And since God has given to us the duty of stewardship, we all have claim to the blessings God gives to mankind, and therefore, we should not feel selfish about them.

I also have found that over-sensitivity is one the greatest things that break up a band. It's also the one thing that makes a band so difficult to hold together. Everyone has their own ideas and they want credit for them. Only a few -- if not just one -- ends up getting the credit in the end. But is such a reality a reason to not allow good things to happen in Catholic music? No. We all suffer with that position. It's better that a few of us suffer a little indignation if we can give the Church a greater blessing on the whole. A wise friend of mine once told me that a man can achieve great success in life if he simply allows others to take the credit. If we build a congenial culture for all of us to work in, it creates a supportive environment for all of us to find inspiration and opportunity. We gotta stop being selfish about all this. It's God's work and it will remain that way after we die. Why do we make such a big deal about short-term ownership of these things? Give it your all, and give it to God. Let God bless His people through you.

So come on, let's have it! I want to see success stories, but more importantly I want to see stories of failure. Let's share what works and what doesn't. And let's give a little extra here. Don't be afraid someone's gonna take your idea and get credit for it. And let's not get offended by little things. It's more important that your idea comes to fruition. Let's make things happen, my friends!

Edited July 20, 2007 by abercius24

[thejUiCER]

[quote name='abercius24' post='1331470' date='Jul 16 2007, 09:56 PM']Looks like we have 30 votes, which makes this poll statistically viable (95% accuracy). Right on! .....
Techno got dis'd all the way around. Hmm.[/quote]


well i dunno how statitcally viable i would count it i mean yea techno had 11 votes but other weren't far behind there were 6 votes for Rap and Rock... thats only a 5 person difference.

If there was a way for a mass of people to take this survey something like 10-20k then that would really be good. 30 people is pretty insignificant. It would be great to have this survey at NCYC or just posted on other websites, forums, myspaces, etc. to really get an idea of what the population likes/dislikes.

I think "surveymonkey" has some sort of free online survey to setup.

maybe spirit juice should set that up???