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Behind the Eyes, by Amy Grant (Myrrh Records, cd, $16.98). Reviewed by William D. Romanowski, professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College and author of Pop Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life (InterVarsity).

It has been 20 years since Amy Grant first burst onto the contemporary Christian music (CCM) scene. Since then she has garnered five Grammys and 22 Dove Awards, has been named Artist of the Year four times, and has seen her 14 albums sell over 20 million copies worldwide. More than any other CCM artist, this "Michael Jackson of gospel music" has come to embody the ideals and complexities, hopes and frustrations of the evangelical popular music industry.

Grant's newest release, Behind the Eyes, comes as no surprise given the course of her career since Unguarded (1985), the first of her albums to be distributed jointly by CCM label Myrrh in the evangelical market and A&M in the mainstream market. Previous "crossover" projects, however, had made at least some mention of God or Jesus. The complete absence of explicitly Christian lyrical content on Behind the Eyes has renewed a debate in the CCM industry about what constitutes Christian music.

While a reviewer in CCM Magazine (the Rolling Stone of the gospel industry) called Behind the Eyes "definitely faith-revealing," a music buyer for religious stores countered, "It's not a Christian album. A Christian album should be clear on the person of Christ, and these lyrics are not." Trying to avoid confusion (or perhaps deflect criticism) concerning the album, a CCM notice alerted religious radio programmers: "As far as the lyrical content is concerned, there's no evangelical bent, no mention of God. If the music you play has to have either of those two elements, you might not want to play it." Some religious stations, apparently, took the advice.

In interviews, Grant explains that this album is meant as a soundtrack to a phase in her life. And she hopes others will relate to it. "The sense of connection in the human experience is the crux [of this album]," she said. "Am I a Christian? Yes, yes, yes!" But, she adds, "I don't know if Behind the Eyes is a Christian record. Being able to label it Christian or non-Christian is not the point for me. The point was to make available the songs I wrote between 1995 and 1997, and to let them find their own audience."

PARADOX IN THE MAKING
Grant's latest release reveals that the CCM industry is caught in a paradox of its own making. CCM came into being when artists and executives took the traditional themes found in church music (evangelism, worship, and ministry) and placed them in music with a contemporary sound. This model legitimized for the church the use of "secular" popular music styles, whether light rock or heavy metal. Ministry was to be the driving purpose of CCM, and the vehicle of communication was to be a contemporary music style.

While this approach did capture a growing audience and made CCM a notable growth industry, ultimately it resulted in a confusing mixture of ministry as consumerism, evangelism, and entertainment. Given this recipe, the present identity crisis in the CCM community was inevitable.

In the early years, a superficial definition of contemporary Christian music, based on "confessional" lyrics emphasizing aspects of evangelism and worship, held the movement together. While the sound of the music sometimes varied wildly, Christian catch phrases demonstrated a musician's evangelical faith and served as boundary markers for the fledgling Christian music enterprise. As the Gospel Music Association (GMA) became an umbrella organization assimilating the industry's disparate musical styles, this definition became informally institutionalized.

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December 8 1997, Vol. 41, No. 14