COMPANY TOWN : Rock of Ages : Contemporary Christian Music Soars in Popularity

By SCOTT COLLINS

Jan. 16, 1996 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith has six gold records. His latest has sold more than 250,000 copies since its September release. But success hasn’t gone to his head.

For one thing, he has his religion. “I’ve always felt my relationship with Christ is the most important thing in my life,” Smith says from the Nashville recording studio where he’s at work on another project.

But there’s another humbling fact: Despite his bankability, the 38-year-old pop star remains unknown to the vast majority of Americans. His record label--one of the biggest in Christian rock--is working hard to change that. Executives there and at other labels hope that recent mergers with bigger music companies and recent improvements in tracking sales will help push Christian music into the mainstream.

Virtually nonexistent as a commercial force 15 years ago, Christian rock has emerged as one of the fastest-growing musical genres in the U.S. Led by top-selling artists such as Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman and Amy Grant, the format currently accounts for about 3.7% of domestic album sales--roughly equivalent to the share controlled by classical music and well ahead of jazz--and is growing by up to 20% per year, according to industry estimates. Arena-style concerts, such as the recent Young Messiah Farewell Tour at The Pond in Anaheim, frequently sell out.

“There’s an incredible potential for the music,” says Bruce Koblish, president of the Gospel Music Assn., an industry trade group. “Mainstream society still doesn’t know who we are. It’s sort of a subculture. But it’s very appealing to a Christian individual and the millions of people who have conservative or traditional views.”

While that core audience keeps the faith, however, Christian rock faces a tougher challenge winning over doubters in the mainstream. Record company executives report lukewarm reactions from major retailers, who play a key role in promoting new music. More important, the religious content of the lyrics may curb its reach outside the traditional base of Christian bookstores.

And if an artist tries too hard to cross over to the mainstream, he or she risks rejection by hard-core fans. Grant discovered this during the 1980s, when some Christian music stations accused her of selling out to the top 40 and refused to play her records.

“I think to the extent the message [of Christian rock] is explicit, it limits mass appeal,” says John Styll, publisher and executive editor of Contemporary Christian Music magazine, a Nashville-based monthly devoted to Christian music. “I don’t think top-40 radio is going to propagate the Christian message.”

Christian rockers say their music is the only kind defined strictly by lyrical content; the melodies and arrangements often sound much like the mellow pop recorded by Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey and other mainstream stars. But song topics are not confined to praising Jesus.

On his latest record, “I’ll Lead You Home,” which raised eyebrows among music observers when it debuted earlier this year at No. 16 on the Billboard top 200, Smith includes one number that sets the Lord’s Prayer to music. But he and co-songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick also offer “Breakdown,” a song about social fragmentation and the loss of what might be called traditional values.

Unlike most pop stars, Christian rockers use family values as a selling point. One Christian music magazine published a photo spread showing Smith with his wife of 14 years and their five children at home in Franklin, Tenn., near Nashville.

“It’s hard to be humble when you have [fans] elevating you,” Smith says, “but going home and changing a greasy diaper sure helps.”

Ironically, this all-American brand of pop has received a good deal of attention from foreign conglomerates. In the last two years, EMI Music, a division of London-based Thorn/EMI, has purchased two top-selling Christian rock labels, Sparrow and Star Song. And last July, Arista, a division of Germany’s Bertelsmann Music Group, bought the remaining half of Reunion Records, Smith’s label, after purchasing 50% of the independent company in 1993.

The three labels together account for well over half of Christian rock’s market share, according to industry experts.

EMI has focused its efforts on trying to bring Christian rock into the mainstream by targeting promotional efforts at major retailers such as Tower Records and Musicland, according to spokesman Michael Gross.

“We saw a lot of growth potential here,” Gross says, adding that the company helped country music break through on the national charts.

“Christian music is where country music was a few years ago,” he adds, perhaps engaging in a bit of marketing hyperbole.

One key development: SoundScan, the New York-based company that provides computerized tracking of record sales at retail outlets, this year began tallying business at 250 Christian bookstores across the nation. The move was seen as an important factor in the surprising strength of Smith’s record on the Billboard charts.

But Christian rock must overcome some formidable obstacles. Even the more established labels might be too dependent on one or two top-selling crossover acts.

“It’s very tough in this market,” acknowledges Terry Hemmings, president and CEO of Reunion, where Smith accounts for about a third of the $12 million to $15 million in annual revenue. “There’s a core audience who will buy about 250,000 Christian music records. There’s only a few artists who can move beyond that.”

Retailers can also prove resistant. Many record stores offer “price and positioning” deals in which labels pay retailers large fees to have certain titles discounted and promoted in store windows or other prominent locations. This can often help boost sales of new titles, industry experts say.

But Hemmings says his label has had trouble getting big retailers to even consider Christian artists for price-and-positioning deals.

“It’s difficult to get support [for Christian rock] at mainstream retail,” he says. “It’s not a big turnover item for most retailers.”

But Russ Solomon, president of Tower, counters that distributors may not be working hard enough to promote Christian records.

“Retail stores will do damn near anything the distributor wants them to do,” he says. “If [distributors] ask for [better rack space] and put money in it, they’re going to get it.”

Such bottom-line talk is anathema to some Christian artists, who consider their music an extension of their spirituality. But Smith, for one, doesn’t have a problem with marketing--which may explain his success.

“I don’t feel bad about it,” he says. “This is a business. I sell records.”

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Religious Fervor

Christian rock music, virtually unheard-of 10 years ago, has become a major force in the record industry. Conglomerates such as EMI and BMG have acquired small Christian labels and are making a push for the mainstream buyer.

U.S. Album Market

1995 U.S. album sales by genre:

R&B;: 13.1%

Country: 12.3%

Rap: 6.7%

Heavy metal: 5.0%

Classical: 3.9%

Christian rock: 3.7%

Jazz: 2.4%

Other (mainly pop): 52.9%

Christian Market

Projected 1996 market share for Christian albums: