Michael W. Smith was my gateway drug. Growing up Classical Pentecostal in small-town Ontario, Christian music was the music of the faithful. I was in grade nine when my friend Lee ran up behind me and put his Sony Walkman headphones on my ears. “You’ve gotta hear this!” The album was Tourniquet’s Stop the Bleeding. From then on, I was hooked. My high-school life consisted of exploring heavy alternative Christian music. I had no idea the marketing and political forces driving Contemporary Christian Music (CCM).

God Gave Rock and Roll to You tells the story of how CCM developed from a sheet music publishing company in the early 1900s to the juggernaut that ruled North American Christendom in the 1980s and 90s.

Ever since I participated in the “CCM Survey,” a data-gathering survey for this book, I eagerly awaited its publication. Leah Payne’s work does not disappoint. While I was excited to read about some of my favourite musicians, I was more impressed by how Payne situated the entire CCM movement in American politics. In this, God Gave Rock and Roll to You reminded me of Kristen Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne. Both are full of broad-yet-precise cultural analysis.

There is a dark side to CCM—musicians were instrumentalized by record companies beholden to Christian Bookstore networks. It’s no wonder that many artists chafed under such a restrictive system. One of my own favourite bands—King’s X—simply left rather than commit to perfecting their Christian image.

If you grew up listening to CCM, you should read this book.

Payne, Leah. God Gave Rock and Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music. Oxford UP, 2024.