Over the decades, Christian music has gone through a variety of styles and genres. It has evolved into the large assortment of songs we see today. To define what the “Christian music” genre is can be a difficult task.
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Jay Swartzendruber, editor of 'CCM Magazine,' shares about the new direction of his publication and the innaugural redesign issue to come out on May 1. He also shares his experience with how Christian music has changed over the years, and how God uses that to reach people.
Jay Swartzendruber, editor of CCM Magazine, has had to attempt this feat, and he’s doing it by questioning what his publication stands for. Now in about its 29th year, CCM publishes monthly issues to show fans what is happening with today’s Christian music.
Amid his busy schedule over the magazine’s inaugural redesign issue which will change the face of CCM, Swartzendruber was gracious enough to offer some time to speak with The Christian Post. The editor was able to share about the vision - past and present - for the magazine, and also about the Christian music scene in general.
CP: First of all, can you tell me a little about CCM Magazine and what its goal has been? What are you trying to accomplish through the magazine?
Swartzendruber: CCM was actually started in 1978 under the original name Contemporary Christian Music Magazine. It later changed its name to Contempory Christian Magazine. It started from a magazine just about Christian music and then tried to cover music, entertainment; it was going to be an entertainment and culture magazine for Christians.
Really as it spanned out as time went on, the need and wants really came from people who were music fans and wanted to know about the music and artists. The whole idea shifted to focus on music, and then it went to cover about 90 percent music. The name was then changed to CCM Magazine.
Initially, the name CCM stood for “contemporary Christian music,” and we just assumed everyone just knew it. But by the late 90s, CCM was doing surveys, different things with readers and discovered that the name of the genre Contemporary Christian Music kind of had a smaller box than what the magazine wanted to cover.
Generally, the name represented to readers and music fans, kind of, an adult contemporary pop music – Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman. These great artists were a narrower target than what CCM was trying to cover. We had people like Stryper on the cover of the magazine and others like Petra. It was kind of more rock types and urban artists on the cover of the magazines. But they kind of started to quietly distance themselves from the term “contemporary Christian music,” and the main concern was incorporating the term “modern Christian music” when talking about the Christian music scene of today.
By the time I came on the scene, I had been involved with record labels and public relations for 10 years. When I came to be the editor of CCM Magazine in 2003, when I came on board, there was already a genre established. I had kind of grown up the same way too that “contemporary Christian music” was a dated term, and today’s Christian music has been really different, frankly.
Think about it, the fact that the most popular record label right now is Tooth and Nail Records, and they have been for the last two or three years, and they don’t have any “contemporary Christian” artists on their label. I think what we’re trying to do with the magazine – the evolution that is continuing from the situation I just described, will be the focus. Continue >>
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