Plugged In Online - "What Kind of 'Sound' Is Switchfoot Making?"

I'm going to "Fisk" parts of an article by Adam R. Holz for Plugged In Online where some swipes at one of our house bands, Switchfoot are taken. For the complete "Fisking" see below:

Labels are tricky, especially with music. Though most artists want us to believe their music is unique, the recording industry relies on tags such as rock or hip-hop, Christian or secular, to market their material. After all, if we don't know what category something is in, how can we know if we'll like it?!

Which brings us to Switchfoot. The San Diego alt-rockers' (there's your first label) initial three albums enjoyed modest success on Charlie Peacock's re:Think imprint (which was part of EMI's Christian Music Group). Then, their presence on 2002's A Walk to Remember soundtrack marked the beginning of a transition from the CCM world to mainstream accessibility (labels two and three, respectively). That shift was completed when the band jumped to a "major label" (Columbia) for 2003's smash The Beautiful Letdown, which sold a massive 2.5 million copies. Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound, is now capitalizing on that momentum.

Something that most people should understand is that Switchfoot never really wanted to be part of the CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) scene but a buyout of the label they were on (re:Think) was bought out by Sparrow Records. re:Think was a label that was trying to stretch beyond the simple CCM world and try to impact beyond the standard boundries.

On the road to mainstream success, the band has taken pains to distance itself from its CCM roots. Members have consistently downplayed their "Christian band" label, declined interviews with Christian publications and prevented pictures from being taken at Creation Festival (a Christian event). Defending this trajectory, bassist Tim Foreman told an interviewer in 2003, "As a band, we're Christians by faith and not in genre, and I think people have a hard time differentiating between the two."

Their roots are not CCM. Their roots were as just a normal band that was signed to a small label. CCM happened to them but it was not something they sought out. They are Christians but they (or any other CCM band) are as much a "Christian" band as I am a "Christian" software engineer. Their current label does put some restrictions of some media items but it's not a blackout of Christian things but more CCM things. They are a band. They are Christians. They don't want to be pigeon-holed into the CCM world where your audience is just Christians.

Modern-Day Proverbs
Switchfoot certainly has the right to position itself in the marketplace as it sees fit. But Christian fans also have the right to ask what, exactly, Tim Foreman's statement actually means. Is it just a lot of words justifying the band's jump into the secular arena? Or do Switchfoot's newest songs continue to find their lyrical footing in Christian ideas?

Maybe a bit of both is the most accurate answer.

The original intent was to be a band that wasn't supposed to be just a CCM band, but that did happen. Switchfoot has always wanted to reach out to a larger audience. They aren't a worship type band at all but a band that plays what is on their heart.

Switchfoot's music is indeed infused with biblical imagery—but not in a way Christian fans might expect. Where many CCM artists speak lovingly about Jesus, Switchfoot takes a more circuitous route to expressing faith.

It's a difference of being "in-your-face" which appeals to Christians vs. being a bit more less "in-your-face" which means other listeners aren't immediately put off. Sorry folks, but only Christians listen to "Christian" music and nobody else is being touched by it. Switchfoot wants to change the world not just edify other Christians. BTW, there is nothing wrong with "Christian" music as I've been blessed by some of it.

For example, "Happy Is a Yuppie Word" paraphrases Ecclesiastes: "Everything is meaningless/I want more than simple cash can buy." This lyric offers a representation of how the band uses biblical references. Instead of singing directly about Jesus or God, Switchfoot seems more interested in looking carefully at our culture, then using scriptural ideas to critique what they've observed. In this sense, their songs function as modern-day equivalents of the Bible's wisdom literature (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job).

I couldn't agree more.

Frontman Jon Foreman tries to explain it this way: "What is true happiness? Is it a comfortable four-door sedan with tinted windows? Does it mean I have 2.3 children and a beautiful wife and live in a great neighborhood? Everybody has their own version of what happiness means, but may of the things we're going for—and I include myself in this—are absurd. There's a moment in Jewish Scripture in Ecclesiastes where it says, 'Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.' That's the place where our new record starts."

His approach to lyrics is quite evident—if you know what you're looking for. The chorus in "Stars" echoes Psalm 8:3. And "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" lifts a line from Psalm 22:1, asking, "Oh Lord, why did you forsake me?" More countercultural messages saturate "Easier Than Love" (which confronts casual sex) and "Lonely Nation" (which challenges our love affair with consumerism with the lines, "Just numb and amused. ... And we are slaves to what we want").

If a listener wants to get a "Christian" view from the lyrics it works but if a listener isn't a Christian the lyrics can still inspire. Again, the intended audience isn't just Christians. I just wonder why people have to always find certain code words to make a song seem worthwhile.

"The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" is more than Psalm 22:1 but is part of a CS Lewis apologetic about how the fact of evil helps prove that there must be good which eventually points to the existence of God. It's all in "Mere Christianity". "Easier Than Love" is more that just about casual sex but about how culture has trivialized it. "Lonely Nation" is more about how so many people are lonely in America despite all the technology that "brings us together".

A Potentially Fatal Flaw
After pouring over this disc, I can find only one song that doesn't somehow follow this subtly instructive path. It's "The Fatal Wound," on which Foreman threatens, "I am the crisis/I am the bitter end/I'm gonna gun this town." Several songs have melancholy moments, but this one takes thing farther, seeming to suggest suicide and perhaps murder: "I am the razor edge/ ... Son of sorrow, staring down forever with an aching view/Disenchanted, let's go down together with the fatal wound/This is the real thing/no rubber bullets now/This is the final bow."

Unfortunately, not even Foreman's own comments about "Fatal Wound" shed any helpful light on the track's meaning. "This song was one of those tunes you just spit out and try to figure out what it means after you're through—a rather dangerous way to go but [a] very honest, almost free-association type of thing," he says, arguing that it is ultimately about hope and that it has something to do with Jesus: "It means a few things to me, but overall it's a song of hope. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone [a reference to 1 Peter 1:7]."

Where is the evidence of what Foreman calls hope? A redemptive lyrical turning point would counterbalance "Fatal Wound's" apparent intimations of violence to self and others. But I can't find it.

The author has really missed out on the song. This is a song that is worth digging into which I did here. It should be obvious to anyone who's a Christian who the "Son of sorrow" would be. I don't see any suicide issues at all. It does speak of his knowledge of his sin. UPDATE: It's not "I'm gonna gun this town" but "I'm gonna gun this down".

Lost in Translation?
As an English major in college years ago, I learned to look for biblical allusions in Shakespeare, Milton, Dante and others. Without an understanding of Scripture, it was impossible to make sense of those writers. Listening to Switchfoot's latest album felt like that to me. The band reflects Scripture without beating listeners over the head with God language. Thus, recognizing Switchfoot's spiritual themes requires careful observation and a knowledge of the Bible.

Why does it require "recognizing Switchfoot's spiritual themes". Can't people just enjoy the music at face value. If they need to go deeper then that's cool. Switchfoot lyrics are for the thoughful and not the folks who just want easy answers.

I applaud the band for this thoughtful approach to songwriting ("The Fatal Wound" excepted). Yet I also wonder how many of these submerged spiritual allusions will be missed by its new secular audience, which may know little about God's Word. As Switchfoot moves more deeply into the mainstream, I hope their scripturally inspired insights will get the attention of unbelieving listeners. But I fear their usually sound messages may be reduced to nothing of consequence as they get lost in translation.

I think some people think that people should be getting saved by Christian bands. It is not the case. Music can inspire or make you think but I really don't think salvation comes through music. Thinking people will dig deeper whether they are Christians or not. People who just want to rock out can enjoy it also. I truly believe that Switchfoot is reaching far more people at various levels than any CCM artist. CCM artists mostly have just Christian fans while Switchfoot has a broader audience and is planting all sorts of ideas into all kinds of peoples heads.

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Posted by Tim at November 8, 2005 08:44 PM