Christian Hits of the ’90s and Their Closest Secular Analogues -The Toast

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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.
Christian Hit (as the Fugees): “Lean On Me”

Christian Hit (as Nirvana): “In The Light”

Secular Equivalent: Probably one of those 40-minute long YouTube mashups of every popular hit from a given year.

Christian Band: The W’s
Christian Sound:
Ska meets swing-revival. If Christian from Clueless went through a religious phase before he discovered Billie Holiday and Jason Priestly, he would listen to this.  
Christian Hit:
“The Devil Is Bad”

Secular Equivalent: “Date Rape,” Sublime

Christian Band: Jars of Clay
Christian Sound:
I still have a very soft spot in my heart for these guys. The Christian Guster, I’d have to say. I still have a very soft spot in my heart for Guster, as long as we’re being honest.
Christian Hit:
“Overjoyed”

Secular Equivalent: “Fa Fa,” easy.

Christian Band: Newsboys
Christian Sound: I can never quite get myself to feel very strongly about Newsboys. They don’t sound much like anything to me. Bizarrely, after the lead singer retired in 2009 (after something like 20 years with the band), they hired Michael Tait — formerly of DC Talk — to take over, which is sort of like if the Smashing Pumpkins got back together with Michael Stipe as the new Billy Corgan.
Christian Hit: “Shine”

Secular Equivalent: U2 or REM. Flip a coin, it’s your choice.

Christian Band: POD
Christian Sound: POD was the most popular Christian catchall for the kids who wanted to listen to anything from Tool to Blink-182 to Nine-Inch Nails to Korn but weren’t allowed. This was as heavy as it was allowed to get at your house. Neither of these hits are from the 90s, technically — they’re both immediately post-9/11 in the severest way — but they were so enormous (“Alive” was the most-requested song on TRL for all of September that year) they merit inclusion.
Christian Hit: “Youth Of The Nation”

“Alive”

Secular Equivalent: Linkin Park, I guess? Anything with very sincere yelling.

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