Christian prog vs secular prog

I don't know of any Christian Prog bands, but I get my spiritual musical kicks from Gamelan or darkpsy.

I live in North Carolina, part of the southern United States' Bible Belt. Many of my friends listen to Christian rock, and none of them care that I am an agnostic, because they put friendship above their personal beliefs. They only extol the virtues of Christian rock bands because they are entertaining musicians! They just like to listen to good rock music, and they happen to be pious as well. More power to 'em, I say.
What's terrible is when Christian rock bands are *only* about Jesus and God. That's the most uninteresting thing in the world to a non-Christian. However, the most popular Christian bands, like Reliant K:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliant_K#Relient_K_as_a_Christian_band
and Switchfoot (man, look at those classy influences):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchfoot#Influences
are actually just rock bands who used Christian rock as an entrance into the music world. Their music is much more subtle than that.

Hi Mike,
I find music great for changing my state and elevating my thinking. We are what we eat and if we fill our heads with uplifting music it can only be good for us and the wider world. A lot of rock is angry young man music and many bands make an art of angst. You mentioned ELP - I remember agreeing with their lyrics "can you believe God made you breathe, why did he lose 6,000,000 Jews?" when I was young. But now I am a Baha'i and I see the world needing the vision that only religion can sustainably provide.

I find Yes's music uplifting (e.g. In the Presence of..) but unfortunately even many who are spiritually driven such as Jon Anderson regard organised religion as a problem.

Another one who I have found inspiring lately is Paul Simon. His "Surprises" has significant input from Eno.  His lyrics are beautiful. He asks "who's going to love you when your looks are gone?" and answers "God will, like he waters the flowers on the window sill". (And if Graceland wasn't progressive, what is?).

May be we need a new category Spiritual Prog? so a lot of music that may not in an inclusive way seek to elevate our thinking can be found more easily.

Tristan Campbell wrote: Here are a couple of prog bands I like that have some Christian influence: Kansas - in particular the album Leftoverture .

I take your point about sound vs content. What is the ranking you have at the bottom of your post?

That's intriguing, SilverSean. Instrumental Christian Prog ftw!(?)

sh*t, atheists never have these problems.  

^^ Neal's the only good one, because he really cares more about the music than the message. He knows people are listening for the music.

Angelo wrote: Guess they had a different interpretation of the lyrics....

the start beauty of those words Angelo  should not be lost in the various tossing about of opinions as if they were fact...

My view is this: if a track has words they are surely as important as the music, otherwise the artist wouldn't have bothered and it would just be an instrumental. (Erm, maybe it's best to just to forget about Yes and any bands with made-up languages – none of which I listen to – for the time being .)

Consequently, if I can understand the lyrics (I've looked up translations of Änglagård and Sinkadus, must do so for the other non-English stuff I listen to) I can't just ignore them and concentrate solely on the music, they are an integral part of the track.

I can sometimes overlook naff or bland lyrics that don't really say anything much at all, but if the words are actually about something there is the possibility that they could really grate on my nerves to the extent that the track – and possibly also the album and even the artist – would be a write-off for me.

I can cope with philosophical lyrics or vaguely ‘spiritual’ stuff, but not overt pro-religion lyrics. For example, I have no problem with Wind Up by Tull, which strikes me as more about religion as an organisation than the content of religion. I would include overtly atheist lyrics, even ‘militant’ atheism, such as the aforementioned The Only Way by ELP, in the philosophical camp (it has nothing to do with religion), plus they're unlikely ever to offend my own (quite militant) atheist views.

I've never been able to stomach Spock's Beard anyway – and I've no idea how similar the music is – but would certainly never go anywhere near any of Neal Morse's music because he is a Christian and vocal about it.

I believe that Dave Cousins is a Catholic, but (and it's been a while since I've listened to the Strawbs) the songs with religious leanings are more generically spiritual or about sectarianism (thinking of The Hangman and the Papist).

I take a lot of political messages the same way: if it starts getting really ideological it turns me off.  (And most political messages in music seem to be left-leaning, what is it about artists? ) I'm finding it hard to think of specific examples. One springs to mind, but it's non-prog: I used to like New Model Army and whilst I have a particular affection for them as a band, their politics tend to be a turn-off for me (although the music is nowhere near to my taste as it was 15 years ago, thanks to prog). Sometimes I find Roger Waters's lyrics a little hard to stomach for their political ideology.

I suppose I don't sit on the fence: if lyrics are openly and strongly of an opposing view to my own views I won't listen to the music; the music itself might be okay, but the lyrics are surely as important and wouldn't be saying anything I had any respect for or wanted to hear.

People use the label opinionated like it's a bad thing

Cheers

Jorvík

P.S. Just thinking about the thread title "Christian prog vs secular prog" – I can't bring to mind any Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist or Jewish prog, but I tend to lump all religion in together. I'd think more in terms of "Religious prog vs secular prog".