Learning about the Possibility of a #CCM Music Career

Have you ever wondered about the possibility of making a living doing what you love to do, but didn’t know how to go about getting there? That is what I experienced as a teenager. Here is my reflective rendition of the next steps in that journey towards trying to become a CCM artist.

CCM #Music Catalog Subscription: Getting Exposed to New Albums and New Groups

After I discovered this new music, and I had a job working at a furniture and appliance store helping with deliveries, I somehow found out about a subscription service. You would get a postcard informing you about a new album or two. If you didn’t return the postcard by a certain date, or if you did and checked the box that said you wanted the album, they would send it to your mailbox along with an invoice.

I racked up $54 one time, and then got a warning letter saying a collection service was coming to get their money, which scared me. So I sent the money. By then, when they sent the albums they also sent a booklet catalog with other albums and great descriptions of them that made me want to buy them. I know this now as copy. And those guys who write them know exactly what they’re doing.

 

CCM #Magazine Subscription

I liked learning more about artists, music, #concerts, and the industry. John Fischer’s “Consider This” column on the back page was pretty cool, and his self-critical rants about how CCM was getting it wrong made me really think about the issue of being a Christian subculture. I liked to read about the goings-on of those artists in the music industry, about how they got to where they are, about the band members, and the songwriters.

I was also interested in the issues surrounding them, like how a Christian is supposed to be humble yet be on stage with hundreds of screaming fans. Or what people were writing songs now that they didn’t have the problems they used to since they were in their dream career. Yeah…naive.

 

Favorite Artists

Besides Petra, some of my other favorite artists back in the 1980s were White Heart, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Russ Taff (former lead singer of the Imperials), Resurrection Band, Bryan Duncan, and Greg X. Volz (former lead singer of Petra), just to name the main ones.

 

CCM Songbook Purchase: Practicing Songs I Loved

I bought a CCM songbook at a Christian bookstore containing a lot of the songs I loved to hear and sing along with on the radio. Having taken piano lessons, I could read the music well enough to play them. With the lyrics there, I could sing along too.

The first song I learned was “The Trumpet of Jesus” by the Imperials and the next one was “The Champion” by Carman. I also learned a song by Amy Grant and a few others.

 

CCM Concerts Attended

My first major concert was Petra on their “Beat the System” tour in Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, OK. It was a huge stadium indoors, and we were at the top in the “nosebleed” section. I could barely see and had to borrow someone’s binoculars to get a closer look.

Another concert was Farrell & Farrell and Geoff Moore, in the Myriad in one of the larger rooms, but it was a lot smaller audience and we were much closer to the stage.

Next Time

In the next part of this series, I will share with you the next part of my Christian Music Journey, which is writing my first song and hanging out with a songwriter in a high school music traveling group I was in.

Until then, keep on expressing your life through music! Please like and share!

Thanks. Guitar Shane.