User Reviews

Not a bad documentary, however, it's also missing several items, including any mention of Third Day, among others. Hops around a bit as well. Worth watching.

I absolutely love The Jesus Music documentary. I grew up during the 80s with Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Sandi Patti, DC Talk, etc. So it was interesting to learn about the 70s Jesus Movement and it was fun to see so many of my favorite CCM artists. Listening to Michael, Amy, Russ Taff, Bill Gaither talk about the good 'ol days was like having a long overdue conversation with old friends.

I didn't know about Stryper being so influenced by Jimmy Swaggart. Very interesting.

Having said that, I have to ask, what's the deal with not even mentioning Twila Paris? She was the first CCM artist I knew! Twila toured with Michael, Amy, Larnelle Harris, 4HIM, etc. During the Young Messiah Tour of the 90s. Twila Paris' hit song 'God is in Control' was hugely popular, and she doesn't even get mentioned??

Also, what about Carman? He broke records, and he's barely mentioned!?! I understand Michael and Amy are the King and Queen of CCM, but it was like Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin have some problem with giving Carman his due, a sad decision given that Carman had just passed away a year or so ago.

What about 4HIM? Point of Grace? These groups were hugely popular and they didn't even get one second of screen time, yet we get lots and lots of DC Talk and Kirk Franklin. Not cool.

What about Petra? Petra got a passing glance while Stryper got LOTS of screen time?! Also not cool.

Other than that, The Jesus Music is a fun, nostalgic journey through contemporary Christian music which made me fall in love with the music AND Jesus all over again.

I started listing to CCM in the late 70's, so I experienced much of this in real time. In the 90's to early 2000's got to be an insider for a while in a band myself. I was a long subscriber of CCM magazine, so I have a wealth of useless CCM knowledge in my head. When I started seeing the trailer for this movie I was both excited and skeptical. "No way they are going to get it right," I thought after seeing the artists who would be the presenters.

After watching it, I was pleasantly surprised. They started exactly right and I loved the time they spent with those pioneering artists like Love Song and Larry Norman. Rez Band was one of my favorites, so comments from Glenn Kaiser scored points. Petra probably got too little screen time as a brief mention as an 80's band. Petra actually started in 1970 near the beginning, so not enough love there I thought. Giving some time to Steve Taylor was absolutely a win for alternative, though they could have thrown a bone to groups like Daniel Amos, 77's, Adam Again, The Choir, whose influence in their genre was monumental. No mention of White Heart is criminal. They owned the 80's Christian rock scene.

It is true, they could never mention every artist that meant something to someone in two hours. There are just too many to cover. Maybe they could have squeezed a few more in if they hadn't spent so much time with Kirk Franklin and Lecrae talking about there were no black artists for them to follow since Andrae Crouch. Off the top of my head names like Leon Patillo, Larnelle Harris, Bebe and Cece, The Winans, Anointed, Take 6, Mary Mary, John P. Kee to name a few. And Lecrae is miles away from being the first black Christian rapper embraced by the CCM community (Michel Peace, PID, ETW, SFC, Gospel Gangstaz, T-Bone, Dynamic Twins, JC & the Boyz, DOC, JC Crew, Mike E, The Rapsures, GRITS, Verb, all came before Lecrae). It was a bit of a slap to these artists to be dismissed as having not existed.

I was a Stryper fan through the 80's and never knew about their tie to Jimmy Swaggart. Found that interesting. There were many other Christian metal bands that would have been nice to see a nod to, like White Cross. Geoff Moore and the Distance? David and the Giants? John and Dino Elefante were big influencers in the industry.

All that said, I still give 9 stars. Only docked 1 star for the racism section. I would have like to seen more, but it would have been a trilogy to rival Lord of the Rings to include everyone I felt worthy. Good job and maybe we can have a part 2, the ones we forgot :)

While it was very much a reminiscent documentary many of the bass I enjoyed 80s-90s were featured. Im thrilled they got Michael Sweet of Stryper on this. I think they hit the race issue but neglected a huge contribution of the Winans family, they were a big part of music also Pop Staples.

I know they had limited time to get it all in. It would be great to see a Rock Documentary on Christian music that would hit up Petra, Whitecross, Guardian, Stryper and all the other hard hitters to now bands like Skillet.

I liked the honesty about how the "church" people were their opposition. I also like how Bill Gaither pointed out you won't find any perfect artist. Humanity is fallen and just because they are Christian in the public eye doesn't make them perfect. It probably makes it even harder to be good with so much temptation in front of them from all angles. This then returns us to the story of Grace, GOD's GRACE.

Great film on the history of a Christian music that made significant changes from the last 40 years.

In the film one notices that there is a subversive message of how Amy Grant was treated poorly after her divorce and pop music hits.

Strangely she is portrayed as the catalyst that helped Christian music become popular.

It's sad to make it seem that without her career that music made by Lauren Daigle or for King and County who have successfully produced music for a secular and Christian audience could not do this absent of the sacrifices by Grant.

I for one do not want to hold her past against her and hope for her to continue making music whatever arena she feels comfortable.

The title says the words "the Jesus music", and has the names of bands/groups on the front of the cover. In advertising for a movie which poster, the names listed as credits on the front, are covered or are represented properly. This was not that kind of movie.

I came into watching this movie with high hopes. Finally, they made a documentary for the Christian music that was so precious across the decades of my life. Finally, I would be able to revisit some of the good stuff from my past. Stuff that I listen to still to this day. There is no mainstream music that is better.

What really stuck out that caused me to start seeing that my hopes were going to be let down, was that they had Lauren Daigle giving commentary, because this movie was supposed to be about the Jesus music. That means that you have those who were a part of those decades, and not a kid who didn't live it.

It's kinda of like asking somebody's wife who hasn't seen Star Wars with their husband, what it was like in the 70's, in that theater where or first was shown. Or kids now a days who go see Beatles cover bands, and they think that, after they have seen the Beatles impersonators, that now they are authorities on the Beatles. But they never lived in the time of the Beatles, and the wife still hasn't seen Star Wars. It's like that with Lauren Daigle speaking in a documentary about the Jesus music .

Anyways, there is too much missing. If they just wanted to make a motivational film that glimpsed a couple bands from the past, then don't make a title and an advertisement about an entire documentary but then you only make 1/4 percent of a documentary. Also, don't put any names of the bands and people on the front, of you aren't going to cover them.

The Christian music was bursting at the seems with so much awesome music, and yet, "let's leave all of that stuff out". That's inexcusable, producers Mrs. Grant and Mr. Smith

AND, it was cringe worthy to see that there was a part of the movie that played the "mainly a white audience" card. It seems like you just can't escape the block heads who see racism everywhere. I thought that in Jesus Christ there is none of that. But I guess Kirk Franklin wants to resurrect it.

Hopefully, Mr. Franklin will let the resurrected Jesus Christ(whom he professes faith in) be the only one that Mr. Franklin resurrects as his Lord and Savior, instead of crt.