A somewhat recent development in Rock is the advent of Christian Rock, or Rock music with Christian themes. In the early days of Rock and Roll, Rock was looked down on by many in the Christian community and was often referred to as the devils music, many Churches urged parents to sign pledges to keep their children from listening to Rock. Later, in the 70’s and 80’s, there was an emergence of bands like the 2nd Chapter of Acts and Petra, which combined Christian themes, ideas, and worship into Rock songs. Today, there are many different Christian Rock bands playing a variety of styles of subgenres of Rock. Contemporary Christian Rock describes a somewhat wide variety of musical style. This subgenre is often more associated with heavy Rock and metal, but is also often reflective of worship styles of slightly more traditional Christian music. There are several characteristics that help define this genre:
The primary instruments are a drums(trap set), guitar, and base. These three instruments are used in almost every Contemporary Christian Rock song, and while there are occasional exceptions to having all three at once, all bands have a guitarist, bassist and a drummer.
Small ensembles. Like traditional Rock, bluegrass, and country, Christian Contemporary Rock is primarily made of small bands of sizes between 3 and 6 members. The bands usually start as non-professionals who might or might not be associated with a church and involved with worship.
Emphasis on singing. Contemporary Christian Rock is defined by singing, the instrumentals themselves are not different from many other genres of rock, the words are often the biggest difference, and is what defines this subgenre.
Use of technology. Like other rock subgenres, most Contemporary Christian Rock musicians take advantage of recording studio technology and use electronic instruments to manipulate notes and sounds in ways that otherwise would be impossible.
Emotional Emphasis. The songs of Contemporary Christian Rock draw heavily on emotion. The sounds of the song and the vocals are keyed to create certain emotions in the listener, for entertainment purposes and as a better way of communicating the purpose of the song.
Purposeful lyrics. The words of the songs are the most important part of this subgenre and, as stated earlier, is what really separates this subgenre from others. While other rock subgenres songs have meaning behind their words, the words are often used as just another instrument and are not the point to the songs. In Contemporary Christian Rock, the words are always important.
Listening guide for Red’s “Fight Inside”
0:00 Instrumental introduction, drums and several synthesizers start the song slowly.
0:16 the first use of the instrumental which is used as a cadence between verses. This is a heavier, deeper portion of the songs that will indicate the change between verses.
0:35 the vocal starts despite the very heavy instruments that would normally drown the voice of the lead singer, the voice is clearly the lead, marking the prominence of vocals and lyrics in the song
0:50 the theme fight inside is first introduced.
1:07 first use of the repeated melody of the song .This melody is repeated several times in the song and even contains the words for which the song is named.
1:23 Heavy guitar cadence.
1:32 vocals start again.
1:48 main melody is repeated again.
2:20 new instrumental starts, a different sound is used here to mark a change in the song, and that the songs is begging to near conclusion.
2:31 new vocals are introduced, only a few words are sung here, repeated several times.
3:02 Main melody starts a final time.
3:34 change in instrumentals and vocals mark the beginning of the ending of the song.