Heavy metal in church

Hard-core for Christ: Churches cater to 'gutter punks' across U.S. |Dallas Morning News, 3/25/07: "'In every metro area in America, there is at least one church that appeals to heavy metal fans,' said Dave Travis, executive vice president of Leadership Network, a Dallas-based church-growth think tank.

'It's a subculture,' he said. 'As each new generation of believers gets excited about their faith, they invent new churches for their lifestyle. American Christians are very entrepreneurial in reaching young people.'

The Sundance Channel is paying attention to this trend as well. It recently aired the six-part documentary titled One Punk Under God , about Jay Bakker (son of Jim Bakker) and his struggle to plant a church for outcasts in New York.

Mr. Thumma, a sociologist of religion, said that Deliverance Bible Church is part of a vast movement of individualism in American Christian churches that started several decades ago. He said U.S. Christians have a tendency to adapt their spiritual experiences to their lifestyles, whether they're gay, bikers or gutter punks.

'These congregations that have arisen around subgroups in evangelism – and what probably started with the 'Jesus people' in the late '70s to early '80s – have gotten more diverse, doing it in their own idioms and their own ways,' Mr. Thumma said."

church
third places

Nostalgia builds a community around hardcore

This article talks about 30 and 40-somethings turning out for hardcore shows and how the genre is becoming more popular now than when it first came out.

Out of the Box: Punk's Not Dead: "Aside from the noise, the defining feature of hardcore was its noncommercial nature. Bands and their fans largely organized their own concerts, zines and record labels because, as Paul Rachman, director of American Hardcore, said, 'There's no record companies, no managers, no lawyers [and] I can't hear it on the radio, I can't buy it in the record store.'

"The hardcore scene thus emerged as a virtually brand-free zone."

Shifts from New York to elsewhere

Here's an article from two years ago talking about the decline in importance of the NYC music scene -- and the rise in other scenes around the country.

Gotham Gazette: Has The Music Scene Died In New York?:

"When Bob Dylan moved to New York to make it as a singer-songwriter, he was acknowledging something that he helped define – the city was where pioneering musicians had to be. But if Dylan were starting out today, would he stay in Minnesota?

"For decades, the city nurtured the alternative music scene and the artists who bloomed – and crashed – here, in famed locales like CBGBs, the punk club on the Lower East Side, and the corridors of the Chelsea Hotel. The names of past heroes rattle off the pierced tongues of the cognoscenti: It was here that Iggy Pop held court, here that John Cale, after studying with Aaron Copeland, settled down on Ludlow Street and formed the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed. Patti Smith dropped out of teacher’s college in New Jersey and got her start reading poetry here at St. Mark’s Church. And it is here, of course, where Dylan sets his new bestselling book Chronicles Vol. 1.

"Neither the music scene nor the music industry has completely disappeared from the city. The major music publications Rolling Stone, Spin, Punk Magazine and newcomer Blender Magazine are all based here. The major bands still routinely perform in the many music venues here. For the past 24 years, the College Music Journal Network has sponsored its annual Music Marathon in the city, unleashing 10,000 artists, professionals, fans, and even some public officials onto daytime panels and nighttime concerts at over 50 clubs and local concert halls.

"But, even panelists at the latest Music Marathon itself made it clear they do not think New York is what it used to be, thanks in part to changes in the music industry as a whole."