It was announced a few weeks ago that big changes were in the works at the Gospel Music Association, the umbrella organization that supports the Christian and Gospel music industry. President John Styll stepped down this month and several paid positions were eliminated earlier in the year.
Then today I read that the GMA is hosting a fundraiser called “Save The GMA!” The event will feature a line up that includes Casting Crowns, Kirk Franklin, Amy Grant, MercyMe, Michael W. Smith, The Booth Brothers, and Natalie Grant, and will be produced by Brown Bannister.
The cost is $1,000 a ticket.

You’ve got to wonder what kind of trouble the GMA is in when they’re hosting a $1,000 a ticket fundraiser. Who are the hoping to attract – industry professionals, who are the victims of slashed budgets and layoffs? Christian music fans, who are responding to the pinch of the economy by buying fewer CDs?
Perhaps, rather than raising funds, it’s time that GMA took some time to define what, exactly, Christian music is – and then figure out how to promote it.
The term “Christian music” encompasses everything from hard core rock to Southern Gospel to dance music. Every genre of music you can think of can be “Christian.”
So what makes it Christian?
A Christian can sing a song about, oh, shopping at the mall or a girlfriend or a road trip, and if the artist claims to be a Christian, then it’s Christian music.
An artist who’s cheated on his wife, for example, and is paying child support of a baby fathered out of wedlock can sing a song about forgiveness, and it’s Christian music
And therein lies the dilemma: what exactly is Christian music? Is it worship? Is it positive, clean pop? Does it have to have a specific message? And does it need to be separated from mainstream music by the Jesus fish label?
Does it really help a band to be categorized as “Christian music” and are listeners really benefiting by choosing their music based on a label rather than its creativity? Is the music any better because it sports a cross on the CD cover? If Christians were able to make music that pushed creative boundaries rather than worrying about whether it would get airplay on Christian radio, wouldn’t everyone benefit?
I’m not sure that the GMA even knows what Christian music is. When Ray Boltz came out of the closet earlier this year, GMA said they didn’t comment on the lifestyles of their members. So why no tracks during GMA about the gay Christian music industry? Or being gay in the Christian music industry?
I can definitely see a need for an umbrella organization that reaches out to Christians in the music industry, kind of a haven in the midst of chaos where an artist can find spiritual sanctuary, support, prayer, where they can recharge and refill and then go back out into the world.
I suppose I can see an organization that helps promote Christian music.
But I don’t know what happens to an organization like GMA, that’s kind of stuck on the middle of a changing music industry, where Christians are finding success in both mainstream and church circles, where the word “Christian music” can’t even be defined any more.
We’ll have to see how GMA continues to respond to the changing economy and the changing face of Christian music.
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