What IS a Christian Song, Anyway?

What IS a Christian song?

Is it a song recorded by Christians? Is it a song that references God or Jesus? Is it a song with a positive and uplifting message? Is it a song about love and kindness?

What if the song is from a secular artist who is not widely associated with Christianity? What if it's from an artist who has some songs you'd never play because that content doesn't match the values of the radio station - but this particular song couldn't be more "on brand"? What if it's positive and uplifting but doesn't mention faith or God explicitly? What if it celebrates love and kindness but there's no reference to religion?

Do you think we have a good sense of the answers to these questions? I don't. Not at all. And taking the lead of our label friends means subcontracting those hard decisions to folks who have their own agenda which may not match yours or that of your audience.

The labels want things in neat genre classifications that all of radio can agree on (even though listeners couldn't care less). While I realize that songs become hits when our industry agrees to play them together so they chart, I also realize that YOU can find hidden gems on TikTok and Instagram as effectively as an A&R rep that's looking at the same social media data you have access to.

Meanwhile WE tend to want titles that sound much like all the other things we now and have ever played. Venturing outside that comfort zone feels risky (and perhaps it is). But there's another risk: Sameness, staleness, the chance we miss a rising audience trend that simply goes unrecognized, chasing those would-be listeners to Spotify for the songs they can't find on radio.

Here's what I'm getting at: If the values of your brand (e.g., positive, uplifting, spiritual, etc.) are represented in a catchy tune with hit potential, then why doesn't that catchy tune belong on your radio station even if it's not a "Christian" song from a "Christian artist" sanctioned by a "Christian label"?

Sure some secular artists have "brand images" contrary to ours. But most secular artists have no image whatsoever. They're lucky to be familiar at all. And the less familiar the artist is, the more it's all about the strength of the songs.

I recently compared the top songs on Christian AC radio with Spotify's top Christian titles for February 2025 and I saw lots and lots of differences.

Maybe some of those Spotify titles are not "AC," I suppose. But then what does that mean? Are we guilty of making our own box smaller than it needs to be?

Maybe they don't test well. But among whom? Among the folks who have listened to us for a generation or the folks who are 30 years old and are listening to us for the very first time?

Maybe they're not remotely current (Lauren Daigle, I'm talking to you), but then what are we to take away from that? What do we do when a song from 2018 is one of Spotify's top 25 Christian tunes in February, 2025?

Look, I'm a research person not a music person. So you can call me crazy. But it seems to me that William Goldman's classic Hollywood rule that "nobody knows anything" applies to the music business in spades.

So think about why the music we play is the only music we play. And why we make decisions about this song or that song. And whether or not the boundaries of our station are really set by our listeners or by our minds as we overthink the problem of what fits and what doesn't.

It was Beyoncé in her "Album of the Year" acceptance speech at the Grammy's who said "I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists."

Not just as artists, Beyoncé. But as music directors and programmers, too.

Mark Ramsey Media does audience research for Christian Media - Perceptual research, digital studies, donor studies, music studies, etc. Learn more here. Call Mark at 858-414-4191 or email markramsey@mac.com.

And if you want a strategy to solicit major donors to pay for your research, look here and download this Listener Impact Study solicitation for donors from WAKW-FM.