Previously: WOW 2000. I don't know if I'll ever quite get over the style evolution DC Talk went through in the relatively brief period between 1989 and 1995. In six years they went through more musical eras than most bands do in their entire careers - from golden-age-style hip-hop to rap-rock to grunge. For a secular analogy, try imagining a world where Nirvana released Nevermind, Appetite For Destruction, and Black Sunday, all before Bill…
Previously: WOW 1999. "Hey, uh, Mallory, this seems to be the second power-ranking of a decades-old compilation album of Christian Contemporary hits you've written up in the same week. How many of these are you planning on doing?" Well, the only other one I had besides these two was WOW 1998, so don't worry overmuch. 2000 was an intense year for CCM, and it's largely because that's the year (well; technically it was 1999, but…
Discs One and Two, from best to worst Jars of Clay is the only CCM artist I'd ever willingly defend to a secular audience. The rest I'll cheerfully acknowledge mostly hold a claim on me through nostalgia. Come on, though, "Love Me Good"? That is a damn delight! Michael W. Smith was the Christian George Michael. And (FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE) the Newsboys were absolutely the U2 of Christian Contemporary in the 90s. And…
Christian Band: DC Talk
Christian Sound: Oh, man. It's hard to explain (or overemphasize) the popularity and cultural impact of DC Talk to someone who wasn't at least tangentially connected to evangelical Christian music in the 1990s. Imagine that the Fugees slowly metastasized into Nirvana over a period of several years, but with Bono.
