It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time before contemporary Christian rock stations on the radio. The history of the genre also has an unexpectedly tempestuous past, particularly if you consider the fact that the musicians in that world were largely singing about their love of Jesus. Nevertheless, the skeptical beginnings of the music inspired by God make for a surprisingly entertaining documentary on the subject.
Enter The Jesus Music, the documentary that reminds us that 53 million Americans are listening to Christian music several times a week but self-professed musicphiles cannot name many Christian contemporary musicians. So why exactly is Christian music somewhat ignored in the music scene when it is a multimillion-dollar business? The documentary somewhat digs into exactly that.
The film, directed by brothers Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin (who owe much credit to Amy Grant; directing some of her music videos helped launch their careers) was inspired by the pandemic, according to the team. When they couldn’t shoot anything else, they had time to dig into the music that long inspired them.
Jon also mentioned Grant was a few months away from open-heart surgery when they shot. The team filmed all of her segments through a window in her house to protect her as there were still many unknowns about the pandemic during their shoots.
"She was so raw and vulnerable," Jon said.
"The whole way we were shooting, it was an artist off of their pedestal."
Throughout the documentary, Grant digs into moments she says she had never spoken about before, including how she felt unfairly attacked for personal choices during her career — particularly her divorce. KCRW film critic Joe Morgenstern even claimed evangelical Christians invented cancel culture after watching the documentary and hearing Grant’s very personal accounts of some of the pain she went through during her career. It’s hard to deny that Christian music’s biggest champion was also often dealt some of the hardest blows from the very churches she was often championing.
But the Erwin brothers also stress they were drawn to the story because of the music itself and that which was born out of it: in their words, "identifying the fictions and flaws of humanity."
"Early artists were so universally relatable," Jon said.
"When people in the '70s burned out on drugs, they became hippies that declared themselves 'freaks,'" Andrew recalled.
"People were going through a spiritual awakening, and they began to sing about it in their music. The church didn’t know what to do with them because it was so new. We really wanted to highlight these trailblazers who were just beginning to find their voices."
Jon stressed that the musicians of the time did not really set out to change the world.
"They so desperately just wanted their voices to be heard. There was nowhere else to hear this music except on the stages of a church that would have them. They were singing out of passion and grit. These early musicians really willed an industry into existence, and that’s really inspiring and a universally relatable story, whether you are a Christian music fan or not," he said.
Andrew continued: "The most surprising thing to us are the storylines we uncovered, and the struggle and strain on both sides of the establishment. Like Jimmy Swaggart." (Swaggart is a pastor featured in the film who set out to criticize a lot of Christian music.)
"We didn’t know if we’d get him to do the interview." (Swaggart is not interviewed in the film.)
Andrew and Jon were very excited when they scored an interview with Michael Sweet, lead singer of the band STRYPER, who had major mainstream success, but Sweet heavily voiced how much Swaggart’s denunciation of Christian music affected him after the TV evangelist originally helped him find his faith.
"Getting that interview was spectacular," Andrew said. "To have a blatantly Christian band on MTV at the start of it all really made STRYPER a unique breed."
The documentary does a good job of showing the flip side of the effectiveness of embracing the movement.
Andrew says, "Billy Graham made history two different times and showed this music has value. First with Explo ‘72 and putting all these incredible artists onstage at once from Larry Norman to Andraé Crouch to Johnny Cash and he did this at the height of a time of racial tension ..." (Explo ‘72 has been dubbed the Christian Woodstock, attracting crowds in the hundreds of thousands).
"Then he did it again with DC TALK. By blessing the music, he made it cool and legitimized it."
Graham spoke at a concert with DC TALK in Toronto in 1995, and it is considered the largest Christian music concert in Canadian history. Both concerts are chronicled in the documentary as milestone moments for the genre.
Both Erwins are proud of the authenticity of interviews they achieved throughout the documentary.
Jon: "This is a category of music where people don’t get into depth about failures, flaws and struggles, and I think the artists really wanted to, and so many of them shared many stories they never told anyone before this. Hearing these stories makes the music all that more meaningful," he said.
"It’s bizarre to think today that this music was born in controversy ... but people are often afraid of anything disruptive and new. A lot of times when a new generation comes along and wants to do something new, the establishment is afraid of it when not many understand it. People thought Chuck Smith was crazy to put these groups on the stage."
Smith founded the Calvary Chapel movement in Costa Mesa, California and is credited with helping give early Christian rock a platform.
"It was really risky," Jon emphasized.
"There was a lot of fear because it was new, but even if you go back to the hymns that Martin Luther would write, those were controversial, too ... whenever you are doing something new, you will face opposition, but these musicians proved it was worth it."
The documentary covers more than 40 years of music, but the brothers are still partial to some music they grew up with. Andrew said for him, "Jesus Freak" by DC TALK is still a seminal moment.
"It had that NIRVANA sound and it took that term ‘Jesus Freak’ and brought it back as something rebellious. That song for me was pivotal ... to go back with TobyMac and sit down where they recorded it and interview him about the history of the band, and speak with Michael Tait and Kevin Max, it was very personal to me."
Jon still recalls going to the Michael W. Smith worship tour after 9/11.
"It was the first time I had heard that type of worship music, and I was swept away. It was new and it was incredible."
The brothers hope audiences will seek out the movie in theaters to have something on par with a concert-going experience.
"I think when people experience a lot of these songs there’s a rush of hope, and we need hope today," Jon said.
"This music brings hope, and that’s what I want people to feel in the theater."