Chuck Girard, who became one of the pioneers of Christian rock as Love Song’s lead singer in the 1970s after having hits as a ...

Singer-songwriter Chuck Girard, one of the pioneers of contemporary Christian rock and the lead singer of the band Love Song ...

With the signature clean production and contemplative, easy pace of Christian rock, artist Jeremy Camp’s 2006 track “Let It Fade” invited listeners to be saved, to find new life.

The problem is, of course, that the rebellion and the establishment are never so well defined. Look at Larry Norman, whose 1969 debut album is sometimes called the first Christian rock record.

The Newsboys are a Christian rock band formed in Australia in 1985. The band consisted of Peter Furler, George Perdikis, John James, Sean Taylor and Corey Pryor at the start.

Which makes the critical indifference paid to Christian rock and pop music all the more puzzling. What is commonly called Christian Contemporary Music, or CCM, was born and grew up in the late ...

The first time I saw them, at a Christian rock festival in Bushnell, Ill., I was struck by how much their emotional live show reminded me of punk gigs that I used to see when I was high school.

Christian rock is as old as rock 'n' roll itself. Amy Grant, and the duo For King and Country, Joel and Luke Smallbone, talk about performing in a contemporary genre to spread the Word.

Sometime in the early 1990s, I had a conversation with a pastor at the back of a Christian rock concert. I don’t remember who the band was. I do remember liking them.

But for now, EMF and the Christian-rock industry, it seems, are happy to be a joke if it keeps scrutinizing eyes off them. “The public just doesn’t really care what they’re doing,” says Urick.