Years before 1991's "Everything Changes" hit the pop charts, this adult contemporary vocalist took her first step towards crossover success with an album about heartbreak, loss & determination.
“…how much of what we see in the contemporary Christian market today is a continued act of survival? Was/is the “purging process” not so much a spiritual matter, but rather one that expels individuals who do not conform to the party line? Is the regurgitation of cliché and regressive political values simply for the sake of economic benefit and cultural power? One can only be told what to think, what to say and how to say it for so long before they either develop Stockholm Syndrome or break free from their abusers.” Great post, Tim. I didn’t listen to Kathy Trocolli much in the 80s because, despite being a victim of church abuse, I was still stuck on the Stockholm Syndrome side of things. Steve Taylor’s music had started to pry me loose in the mid-80s. I wish now I had followed that impulse further and sooner.
Gary, Thank you so much for this comment. Steve Taylor was one of the signposts for so many of us. Maintaining faith and our individualized perspectives is so important and I'm so grateful for artists like him, Mark Heard, Leslie "Sam" Phillips and others who wouldn't let us forget that. However and whenever you followed that impulse, I'm so glad that you did!
I love her voice and I love your discussion of voice, and the way the industry tried to control and define and curtail the power of so many maverick voices, the courage it takes to have a voice.
Indeed. I've been thinking through the ways institutions seek to take control of self-contained voices to appropriate them for their own specific (and often sinister) purposes. So many of the artists I've featured here seem to have to come to similar crossroads--to keep following their own muse (and blasting their own voices) or succumbing to the demands to make bottom-shelf art and dumbing down their work (and simultaneously aiding their audience in stunting their growth as well).
Yessssss Kathy Troccoli! I actually just picked up the vinyl of Stubborn Love at a thrift store a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t realized until digging into some of the early years just how important and successful she had been. I never liked listening to her because my mom liked her and she just seemed more adult contemporary - but I did see her in concert with Mark Lowry 😂
This was really great, especially the Musicline and the Lundy quote - I’m focusing mostly on the 90s, and after they make that switch in the 80s, but I have wondered exactly why that happened. Interesting too because that’s the time when CCM mag also branched out to cover more than music and had a really strong reaction from readers which made them go back to just music, and just Christian music. I’ve also seen people say that the downfall of the tv preachers is what opened up the church to being willing to accept Christian music, and I wonder if that played into it too
it's almost like watching the career of two different artists. Her 80s work and post-80s work are extremely different. I also saw the Mark Lowry tour and mourned how much it had all changed. There are moments I've loved, but the edge of those first three records has never reappeared.
"The crossover conversation, however, would divide the Christian music audience. Lundy also told Billboard, “The audience has forever split. We have artists who have an evangelical slant and we have artists who work strictly within the body of Christ. We didn’t split, the audience did.” Lundy’s observation was truer than he may have realized. The audience did indeed split, but in the wake of the 1987 Jim Bakker scandal, the market withdrew as well and catered, almost exclusively, to listeners within the Christian bubble." (More in essay)
“…how much of what we see in the contemporary Christian market today is a continued act of survival? Was/is the “purging process” not so much a spiritual matter, but rather one that expels individuals who do not conform to the party line? Is the regurgitation of cliché and regressive political values simply for the sake of economic benefit and cultural power? One can only be told what to think, what to say and how to say it for so long before they either develop Stockholm Syndrome or break free from their abusers.” Great post, Tim. I didn’t listen to Kathy Trocolli much in the 80s because, despite being a victim of church abuse, I was still stuck on the Stockholm Syndrome side of things. Steve Taylor’s music had started to pry me loose in the mid-80s. I wish now I had followed that impulse further and sooner.
Gary, Thank you so much for this comment. Steve Taylor was one of the signposts for so many of us. Maintaining faith and our individualized perspectives is so important and I'm so grateful for artists like him, Mark Heard, Leslie "Sam" Phillips and others who wouldn't let us forget that. However and whenever you followed that impulse, I'm so glad that you did!
I love her voice and I love your discussion of voice, and the way the industry tried to control and define and curtail the power of so many maverick voices, the courage it takes to have a voice.
Indeed. I've been thinking through the ways institutions seek to take control of self-contained voices to appropriate them for their own specific (and often sinister) purposes. So many of the artists I've featured here seem to have to come to similar crossroads--to keep following their own muse (and blasting their own voices) or succumbing to the demands to make bottom-shelf art and dumbing down their work (and simultaneously aiding their audience in stunting their growth as well).
Yessssss Kathy Troccoli! I actually just picked up the vinyl of Stubborn Love at a thrift store a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t realized until digging into some of the early years just how important and successful she had been. I never liked listening to her because my mom liked her and she just seemed more adult contemporary - but I did see her in concert with Mark Lowry 😂
This was really great, especially the Musicline and the Lundy quote - I’m focusing mostly on the 90s, and after they make that switch in the 80s, but I have wondered exactly why that happened. Interesting too because that’s the time when CCM mag also branched out to cover more than music and had a really strong reaction from readers which made them go back to just music, and just Christian music. I’ve also seen people say that the downfall of the tv preachers is what opened up the church to being willing to accept Christian music, and I wonder if that played into it too
it's almost like watching the career of two different artists. Her 80s work and post-80s work are extremely different. I also saw the Mark Lowry tour and mourned how much it had all changed. There are moments I've loved, but the edge of those first three records has never reappeared.
Yes. The Bakker scandal was what the gatekeepers used as excuse for the reversal of the crossover pursuit. I talk about this a little more directly in the essay I wrote on "Unguarded." (https://open.substack.com/pub/godsmusicismylife/p/unguarding-amy-grant?r=a1c5r&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post)
"The crossover conversation, however, would divide the Christian music audience. Lundy also told Billboard, “The audience has forever split. We have artists who have an evangelical slant and we have artists who work strictly within the body of Christ. We didn’t split, the audience did.” Lundy’s observation was truer than he may have realized. The audience did indeed split, but in the wake of the 1987 Jim Bakker scandal, the market withdrew as well and catered, almost exclusively, to listeners within the Christian bubble." (More in essay)