TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Music Discussion
-- Electronic music in a Church?
Pages (4): [1] 2 3 4 »

Electronic music in a Church?

Hey all I wanted to get your opinions on something... Recently, I was given the opportunity to run a weekly event at a local church. To give you a little background the church is quite large, several thousand attendees each Sunday and they have quite an impressive audio/video setup. I myself have been a Christian my entire life. Even though I do hold some slightly different views on some matters my core belief system is the same. In my life there are 5 top things that are above all else the most important things to me.

1. God
2. Family / Relationships
3. Electronic Music
4. Technology
5. Business

Over the last 10 years or so I've constantly tried to find a way to combine these otherwise different aspects in way that complements each one of their categories. To give you a little background on me in the late 90's I was heavily involved in the Detroit rave scene. Mostly, on the administrative end. I worked with different production companies and vendors to help aid in throwing some of the larger parties Detroit had seen. After the DEA started cracking down on the party scene and every single one of my friends got arrested (but me) I decided it was time to figure out something new. Over the last couple of years I've thrown a couple of parties at private venues and one or two churches. Each event pulled in a couple of hundred of people but I lost a ton of money every time. Now, I've been presented with an opportunity to run a weekly event with almost no overhead cost to my company where there would be a (nearly) guaranteed number of people attending...somewhere between 500-700. My goal is to bring this form of music that we love so much to an entirely different audience, one that has NO CLUE what real music sounds like.

Most of the kids in this area have been grown in a bubble never setting foot outside of their MTV, POP culture, world and I'm trying to get a feel for how receptive they will be to techno in general. Now, REGARDLESS of your own personal religious convictions, whatever they may be, I ask for your honest objective opinions to my situation. You don't have to agree with the way I believe, that�s not the point of this post.

The point is that I want to see how you all feel about trying to expand the music reaching a demographic of kids/adults that have never heard it before...

Congratulations, you've just won the prize for the worst formed sentence in the history of mankind.

sorry not following...?

But srsly, I don't think many people will read your post. Split up the text a tad.

gotcha (-:

I'm just wondering who's going to be the first to throw out a Faithless quote.

quote:

Originally posted by Sykonee I'm just wondering who's going to be the first to throw out a Faithless quote.

you mean like "God is a DJ"? lol

its going to be hard to introduce people to music that way. Im telling you flat out if you just play trance at a church everyone is probably going to leave. you'd have to start up with some christian rock breakbeats and work it into like cj bolland the prophet


well i dunno i just try to introduce my friends to hybrid genres first (Somtething they are familiar with) then get them into the more underground stuff

do church and rave complement each other

quote:

...one that has NO CLUE what real music sounds like.

...ain't that pretty much subjective ?

quote:

Originally posted by Nrg2Nfinit its going to be hard to introduce people to music that way. Im telling you flat out if you just play trance at a church everyone is probably going to leave. you'd have to start up with some christian rock breakbeats and work it into like cj bolland the prophet well i dunno i just try to introduce my friends to hybrid genres first (Somtething they are familiar with) then get them into the more underground stuff

GREAT INPUT! I will definitely keep that in mind. A year or so ago I started to put together a compilation that I was calling Sonlight Trancemissions comprised mostly of tracks that I would consider "church friendly". I got busy and kinda put that project on the side to work on my other mixes (now available) but I think I'll put sometime into reviving the project this weekend. I'm gonna try to find some non trance too...

Thanks for the FEEDBACK...oh and very nice avatar (-:

quote:

Originally posted by Omega_M do church and rave complement each other ...ain't that pretty much subjective ?

I think that they can complement each other. Minus the drugs of course. If a party is supposed to be all about the music why can't it be in a church setting if the church is open minded enough to allow dancing and rave/club style lighting, video, and sound...it just seems to me that the entire electronic music scene has devoloped a very negative reputation due to the way that the music is presented and also due to the fact that if you want to hear good techno you pretty much have to goto a club/bar. Which I have no problem with at all...I just think its time to create a more positive face to the industry.

yes. this is the perfect way to introduce someone to electronic music, and to be known as a respectable family man.

quote:

Originally posted by paranoik0 yes. this is the perfect way to introduce someone to electronic music, and to be known as a respectable family man.

I agree.

I don't.

http://www.christianraves.com/

quote:

Originally posted by paranoik0 I don't.

that's cool. you're definitely entitled to your opinion...

quote:

Originally posted by Lephaid http://www.christianraves.com/

nice ill check them out. thanks for the link.

imo the church serves a different purpose. if all you want to do is dance to flashy lights and loud EDM music , why not stick to a place which serves the purpose ? clubs. i dont get the point of doing all this in a church. like what's the benefit to the community ? what does it preach/teach ? Surely a church (or any place of worship for that matter) is much more than just a place for having fun. i dont mean to be offensive but i think its not a great idea. its just that you want to club these things together because they matter to you.

you need to think in a broader perspective taking into account things like community benefit etc when trying to use a place like church for EDM parties.

quote:

Originally posted by paranoik0 I don't.

bwahaha.


but regarding what you're trying to do, respek man. i'm a christian as well, and the order of the importance of things runs pretty similar to mine.
my thoughts on everything:
1) generally seems to be going with the goal of just getting more people interested in electronic music...i've tried so hard, and succeeded about 20% of the time. this is something that takes time. i understand your passion for the music, hell, i was just listening to breezer and envisioning starting a nightclub in galveston. then i remember i'm still a student, don't have the reputation/cash to do it. but that doesn't stop me from trying. i've already started a club in college that organizes events. the point is that it's not going to happen all at once.

2) church...i don't feel like it's the best place to put this music in. i just don't see many regular church going people (especially young people who go to sunday school) starting to get interested in this type of music. granted, you and me are two, but out of how many in our churches?

but maybe i'm wrong. maybe doing this in a completely different way will allow a strong input of new people. if you can do it at no overhead cost and weekly, i say do it. but don't be disappointed if only 20 people show, or if you get complaints about it. you'll have to switch it up.

my biggest motto is don't give up. follow that, and you will no doubt have success.

electronic music in a church = avalon NYC

quote:

Originally posted by Omega_M imo the church serves a different purpose. if all you want to do is dance to flashy lights and loud EDM music , why not stick to a place which serves the purpose ? clubs. i dont get the point of doing all this in a church. like what's the benefit to the community ? what does it preach/teach ? Surely a church (or any place of worship for that matter) is much more than just a place for having fun. i dont mean to be offensive but i think its not a great idea. its just that you want to club these things together because they matter to you. you need to think in a broader perspective taking into account things like community benefit etc when trying to use a place like church for EDM parties.

maybe I should have stated that this actually isn't for a Sunday morning service. this is a youth / 20 something night set aside each week ( i think either Friday or sat ) for this event. The reason main reason I want to bring it to this setting is that I love to dance. And I truly believe that dancing is a form or worship. I personally don't like signing worship songs all that much but I do it simply for the fact that it in my opinion it praises God. I want to be able to worship with my FEET and not just my mouth. It is in fact Biblical to dance. In Psalms it states that David danced before the Lord in praise... this is in essence what I'm trying to bring to the church. Not replacing the already existing order of things...I'm simply trying to expand the churches boundaries and make it think outside the box for a change. The church I attend is very open minded to different forms of music and they are trying to come up with a way to bring in youth. The city in which the church is located has a high school (where I attended years ago) with 11,000 kids...that is one of the main reasons I'm considering it for this area...

my younger brother actually manages a Christian Rock Club that from what I understand is doing ok. I�ve spun there a couple of times and the feedback from the crowd was surprisingly good...just not enough ppl attended....

Well its all about context really.

From an objective point of view, many churches are amazing venues to stage live music as the acoustics are fucking fantastic. Churches are designed to project sound very well and the natural reverberation in church spaces can sound quite pleasant.

On the downside, the whole issue of raves in the house of god wont sit well with some people.

I remember Homelands a few years back. There was a kid's playground which was cleared out and towards the end of the day you got groups of people tripping and playing on the merry-go-rounds and swings. It was surreal. You could see pills lying around on the floor and in the sandpits and bits of bud all over the place where thousands of stoners were getting in last joints before pissing off home. It was all great fun and I never met anyone there that was threatening but I just couldnt shake the feeling of the kids coming back to play the next day and eating all the disco candy that was lying around. It doesnt sit well with christian ideals of responsibility and not letting young children eat pills and get heart palpitations in front of their worried parents.

For me trance has always had a meditative quality to it, which is kind of connected to drug use (not saying its needed to enjoy the music because it isnt) but alot of trance/psy parties tend to swing that way. Isnt this antagonistic to a number of Christian beliefs?

I know that this kind of thing and religion in general can be very personal, but if you want to run christian themed parties I would do so in your own rented space as I have little doubt some people will object to you using a church, even with drug use prohibited. Just the mental image of a rave in a church would send god fearing shivers down some spines...

I am a Christian and i don't think our Church approves such a thing.

This is ...uhmmm.... blasphemy.

quote:

from christianraves.com House of Inspiration Every 3rd and 4th Thurs morning 1:15-6:00AM(EST) Playing Gospel House, Holy Hip Hop, Rhythm and Praise and Christian Dance music. Host: DJ Flame & Frankie Vibe Email: [email protected]

Nah it wouldn't work if you made it a rave type of culture with a ton of people dancing, dark lights, and the music pumping. That type of venue is all about losing control and yourself to the music, something that is in direct opposition to most organized religions.

However, I do feel that a lounge/coffee shop type of youth group(not in church) get together would work with edm playing. That would allow people to talk about the music, listen to the music, but at the same time allow for a youth group type of sermon to happen.

If you want to try it though you have to be realistic about it, adding a bible verse during a breakdown isn't creating "Christian Trance." Most EDM is about worshipping the music, not to spread the message of the gospels.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.