The ABC program “Prime Time Live” aired a story on the growing Christian music industry in early December, featuring interviews with gospel music legends Sandi Patty and Amy Grant.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Christian music is the fastest growing segment of the music industry. In 1996, total sales for gospel music were $538 million, a 30 percent increase over 1995, and contemporary Christian music is now more popular than jazz, new age and classical combined.
Patty reflected on the fall from grace which resulted from her extramarital affair and divorce, saying, “I felt very empty …. The more you try to portray everything is perfect, you know the dominoes, when they start falling are going to fall for a long time.” Patty said she believes she is winning back listeners she lost because of the scandal.
Grant discussed the criticism she has faced for producing albums with less explicitly Christian content, saying, “I think the real heart of God is wild and passionate and everything creative. And sometimes I just get to bored and yawning and grossed out at the way we try to package that and sell other people on it.”
The program also quoted Grant’s pastor, Scotty Smith, who said, “Amy, probably more than any other, has suffered at the hands of a lot of agendas floating toward her. There are some people who are troubled over the fact that she is not as lyrically precise as she once was.” Grant’s newest album, Behind the Eyes has no overtly Christian content.
— E.P. News
