The reply to my last email to Brian Mayes, the man behind Christian Music Makeover, was rather shorter than I expected:

Hi James,

Thanks for all of your interest. Check out the site when it launches in
January – I believe all of your questions will be answered.

Merry Christmas.

I was disappointed with this response, to say the least. The interest these blog entries have generated suggests I’m not the only one with deep concerns about this initiative. It may be that as Brian says, the yet-to-be-launched website will answer my questions, but it’s a shame that conversation couldn’t continue.

So I guess with the conversation apparently at an end, this is the appropriate forum to respond to some of the comments in Brian’s last email (quoted in full here).

He may be right that I overstated my argument against reality TV music shows. But at the same time, while Kelly Clarkson has demonstrated a knack for performing an above average pop song, none of the winners mentioned has yet demonstrated that they have anything particularly novel to bring to the music world, anything that seeks (to quote my last email to Brian) “to create for the sake of fostering conversation or producing something beautiful.” All of this, however, missed my original point that the press release that triggered all this refers only to “the physical” and “the spiritual”, not “the artistic”.

My core concern remains that the concept of a ‘spiritual makeover’ smacks of a dangerously thin theology. It may be that the show and its website will better unpack this theology than a short press release can, but that does not free those writing press releases of all responsibility. Spirituality is an intensely personal thing that reaches to the core of a person’s being, something that we explore and express in community. It is not a commodity to be flaunted, or to be “made over” in public. The press release indicated that the producers of this show think otherwise, and I’m beginning to find it hard to find words for how sad that is.

As to watching the show, that’s one thing I know I won’t be doing. I took some time yesterday to listen to Daniel’s Window (they offer some tracks through their site) and had to stop the player midway through each song. The tracks feature on that website are a sure demonstration of the CCM industry’s ability to take a few ideas that worked well when initially tried, mash them together, and coat them in sugar while surgically removing personality. Not recommended.

The previous sections of this conversation are here, here and here.

The Christmas break delayed the continuation of the ‘Christian Music Makeover’ discussion started here and continued here. But Brian responded last night with this email:

Hello James,

Your contention that music-based reality television shows focus only on surface aspects of the industry has no factual basis. “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson is not your average stick-thin bombshell, and Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken hardly fit the superstar mold. “Nashville Star” selected a middle-aged songwriter. Shows like “Star Search”, “FAME” and “America’s Most Talented Kid” have solely focused on talent and musical ability, going so far as to draw fire from the industry for not selecting more marketable talent. And let’s not forget that Christian music finally got it’s own show with “Gifted”, which aired in November on TBN.

The Makeover campaign which launches in January is highly evangelical and seeks to promote health and self-esteem, especially in young women, while tying everything into a spiritual lesson. The group will be under pastoral counsel throughout the campaign, and fans will have the opportunity to be involved with a daily interactive devotional right along with the band.

I would ask you not to rush to judgements and false claims before the details of the campaign have even been released. I understand the basis for your assumptions, and appreciate your concerns. But watch the campaign as it gets underway, and I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

You also claim that “the press release seemed to suggest that spirituality is something that can be ‘judged’ or that audience participation is a good way of ‘improving’ a band’s spirituality.” You go on to state that the “implication was very clear” yet you cite no example. The press release says no such thing. The campaign is not a competition – and there are no judges – or judging for that matter. Again, your assumptions are incorrect.

With all due respect, you are attempting to write a review of a car before having the opportunity to take it for a test drive. And for that, you own your readers an apology.

Thank you for the opportunity to address your concerns.

There is much to respond to here, but I decided that perhaps a next good step would be to get a little clarification on a couple of issues, so responded with the email:

Hi Brian,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I’d like to discuss this a little further if I may. I have a number of observations to make on your detailed response, but to help clarify a few things before we proceed, perhaps it would be useful if you could answer a few questions for me?

Firstly you state that the campaign is “highly evangelical” and I was wondering what exactly that means. Do you mean it is very strongly based on an evangelical worldview, or that it is highly “evangelistic” in the sense of reaching outside of the “Christian” community?

Secondly, the press release that triggered all of this contained the section (which I quoted in my original blog entry):

“The transformation is not only designed to emphasize the physical, but the spiritual as well — a complete makeover, from the inside-out.”

Could you perhaps explain to me what this means? What is involved in such a ‘spiritual makeover’ and how is it managed?

I am not sure if I will be able to watch the show as I have a very busy few months coming up and rarely get time to watch television as it is. But this subject is of immense interest (and no little concern) to me, so I really appreciate your time in responding to me.

thanks. James.

There has been a further reply, but rather than make this post ridiculously long, I will continue in yet another!

The previous sections of this conversation are here and here. It continues, here.

As those who read the comments will have spotted, Brian Mayes, the promoter behind ‘Christian Music Makeover‘ commented on my post on the subject and offered to discuss it with me. To that end, I have emailed him the following message. I will endeavour to keep this blog up to date as the conversation unfolds. And do comment if you have any thoughts on the subject.

Thanks for commenting on my blog entry and for offering to discuss this campaign with me.

As you’ll probably have gathered from my blog entry I find the description of the campaign contained in the press release offensive. While it’s true that ‘reality tv’ has been immensely successful, its productions have often been in poor taste, and those of its offspring that seek to promote music have usually been unduly focussed on the surface aspects of the industry (physical appearance, pandering to particular markets) rather than the promotion of anything that strives to be good on any artistic basis.

I am a firm believer in the importance of Christian engagement with popular culture, but I believe that within that engagement we should be seeking to promote that which is excellent (beautiful, true, etc) rather than simply picking up on the marketing techniques utilized by a mainstream media that has managed to largely drain the popular sphere of music that seeks to create for the sake of fostering conversation or producing something beautiful.

My initial concern with the press release was that it made no mention of the band’s music. If someone is seeking a career in the music industry then surely music should be the prime criterion. Popular music is far too controlled by the ability of certain parties to market a particular look or other aesthetic rather than encouraging people to engage with the quality of writing and performance, and it is my hope that as Christians we can work towards rectifying that. I would be interested to hear how you would respond to this and how this promotion will engage with this issue.

Probably more fundamentally I objected to the fact that the press release seemed to suggest that spirituality is something that can be ‘judged’ or that audience participation is a good way of ‘improving’ a band’s spirituality. This implication was very clear, but if it is the result of poor choice of words, please correct me. If not, I must say that I think that this is a very dangerous way to discuss spirituality and a bad message to be communicating to often impressionable fans. Spirituality is an issue that must be worked out in community, but a community of deep relationships rather than one of mass media. How do you intend to ensure the band’s relationship with God is worked out with fear and trembling before God and primarily amongst those who really know them, while they are engaged in this promotion?

Thank you again for agreeing to discuss this with me. Since the discussion began so publicly, I intend to post this letter on my blog and you are welcome to reply by email or on that blog. If you do reply by email and would rather that I not reprint your words verbatim on the blog please let me know that explicitly.

James.

The previous sections of this conversation was here . It continues, here and here.

Apparently the Chicago band Daniel’s Window are going to be involved in a new marketing campaign to help step up their career. It’s probably about the right time (five or so years in) for the CCM community to pick up on the ‘reality tv’ phenomenon, and so they’re going to be allowing fans to interact with some sort of makeover in order to take them to “the masses”.

According to the press release (reprinted at Tollbooth News):

Part Extreme Makover and part Making the Band, The Christian Music Makeover will take a talented pop/rock group and transform them from “average” to “wow” over a 6-month period. The transformation is not only designed to emphasize the physical, but the spiritual as well — a complete makeover, from the inside-out.

There are so many things to be scared of here, though none of them is really a surprise. There is, of course, the fact that there’s no mention of the music in the description of this event. But what I find rather more concerning is that the band’s spirituality is being so clearly described—by their PR people—as ‘average’. In an industry which is all about making you think you should buy a CD because the ‘artists’ are allegedly extra-spiritually-special, isn’t that a bit like a normal record company announcing the release of their top artist’s “mediocre new album”?

This topic sparked some further posts that can be found: here, here and here.