A few months ago, my friends and I at The Anima Series launched a little project called the 10x10 Campaign. The idea was to produce a collaborative worship album feature ten different tracks from ten different local Chicago artists. Part of Anima’s mission statement is the give local artists a global platform for Christ, but this project, for me at least, also has it’s roots in something much deeper.

In recent years I’ve had numerous conversations with friends and fellow artists expressing their extreme frustration at the lack of variety on the radio. I personally don’t listen to the radio much, but all I needed to do was turn on KissFM for ten minutes to understand what they were talking about. The majority of the “hits” were set at the exact same tempo, using very simple, if any, chord progressions. I’m not trying to sound like one of those pretentious mainstream music haters, but one cannot deny that popular music today has a very specific sound which it rarely strays from.

I for one was not as concerned with the make-up of the songs, but rather, the content of them. So as I went searching for music with a bit more of a redemptive message, I found the “sound” featured on the “Christian” music market was even more painfully limited. I started to notice this, not only on the radio, but in our churches as well. Right now, as it stands, only three types of music seem to be allowed into the “Christian/worship” label. Gospel, hymns, and contemporary
  worship, and rarely even do all three of these styles show up in the same church, album, or radio station..

Now I am not here to bash any of those three styles. I think they have given birth to some pretty incredible music in fact. But it’s clear to me that “Christian/worship” music has become just as limited in it’s sound as the more “secular/mainstream” alternative. It is interesting to note that music is the only type of medium that is compartmentalized into genre’s based on it’s sound. In every other form of media,(TV, film, literature) genre’s are decided by on content. In music, if it sounds like rap, it’s rap, whether the rapper is talking about sports, drugs, or women. This is the reason for such limited styles among Christian musicians.

Musician Michael Gungor says it incredibly clearly. Gungor believes, and I agree, that worship music, is any type of music created for the glory of God. In this way, worship music should be the only genre of music that is defined not by it’s sound, but by it’s content. The 10x10 album seeks to do just that. By using the extremely diverse talent found in Chicagoland, we hope to join the movement that is seeking to redefine worship music, and begin to broaden people’s scopes on what it means to create for God. I’m not saying that the music of the 10x10 Campaign will be the best music you have ever heard in your life. But you can be sure that it will challenge some of the standards that you have set on what worship music should sound like.

We have just one week left before our fundraising efforts must be completed. We are barely halfway to our goal as we stand right now, so we need your help to make this dream happen. If God places it on your heart, I pray that you would be obedient to that call and give of your resources and invest in the future of Christian music, and art in general. If can paint a more accurate and beautiful picture of Him to the world, then perhaps more people would come to know Him. That is out goal. That is what you’re investing in. Thank you so much! Have an awesome day!


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