STOP BASHING CHRISTIAN METAL!!
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I got into Christian hip/hop because of the lyrics mainly, how they bare their heart and love for Jesus through the creative gifts that have been given by God, their just giving it back 
I love that!!! I haven’t heard anything recently, like 20 years, (lol) I don’t even know if he is still out there, but I remember thinking one of the most gifted people is Eminem. Did I hate his lyrics? Yes! But his gift could not be denied. How wonderful is it that men/women of G-d are using their gifts given by G-d for Him!!! Wait… is/was he hip/hop…. I don’t know…. Same point anyway… lol
I'd say Eminem us more rap, but I'm not sure of the difference myself. I think maybe hip/hop also includes a focus on the beats and rhythm where rap has a stronger focus on the lyrics and rapping ability? Those who don't know how to listen to metal say it all sounds the same, I say the same thing about pop to me it all sounds the same until I listen to the details.
people say that they have the same sort of reaction to ethnicities they aren't familiar with -- that 'they all look the same'
i've never really bought that, personally - it seems obvious to me that people are all quite different, even people who do have a lot of similarities, genetically, like Asians with their relatively uniform hair and skin color.
when a person says something like this, it's because they aren't looking at the details. they're looking only at the hair color, the tempo, the skin color, the instruments being played, the accent, the tenor & timbre of the vocalization.
at a certain level it's true, but at a very shallow level. people generally all have arms and legs and a torso. hip-hop generally all has spoken-word presentation of lyrics and a simple melody dominated by percussive electronic sounds. metal is generally played with amplified, reverberating strings playing complex structures and sung with shouts.
they're not bothering to look at any refinement, or to consider what is being communicated at all --
-- they look superficially, and make a snap judgement.
. . . which is quite contrary to what Jesus teaches us to do.
Stop judging by mere appearances, and judge righteous judgement!
o for sure i do it too. i dismiss some things because of stupid reasons.
but my eyes are trained to look at details, and my heart is being taught to listen to what is being said, no matter what font is used or how eloquent the diction.
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please read the lyrics and listen to the song in this post
http://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/22254-stop-bashing-christian-metal-20.html#post2825420
and let me know what you think.
is the Spirit at work in this or not?
http://christianchat.com/bible-discussion-forum/22254-stop-bashing-christian-metal-20.html#post2825420
and let me know what you think.
is the Spirit at work in this or not?
i always though "Gestalt" referred to sort of 'filling in the blanks'
the "Gestalt principle" in art is that you don't have to draw an entire figure of whatever it is you are trying to represent; people's minds naturally assume information that actually isn't there, is, and perceive it. like this rather famous example:
the letters aren't actually fully formed, but our minds put them together. what's actually drawn is just the lighter pink abstract shapes. or this, is also an example of 'Gestalt' in art:
you probably see the image of a man - a bearded one, like the archetypal "Christ" figure of western art. but what's actually there is not any kind of complete drawing; it's just abstract black shapes. your mind puts these things together, without having to see all the information.
another example is how a couple weeks ago, another car a few lengths away from me in the next lane ran over a tractor trailer retread debris on the highway, and threw it at my car. we were going at or over 70mph, and it was very early, like 3:30 am. dark.
i remember distinctly thinking it was an entire wheel -- picturing it in my mind, i see a a silver hub in the center of it. i only had a fraction of a second to react and sort of veer away from it, and it was of course some abstract black shape, maybe with a bit of white light from the van that had run over it in front of me, or oncoming headlight, or cement divider -- anyway my mind put all that together as the image of an actual full wheel, though i'm sure from the damage it must have been a very large chunk of rubber, that's all. an actual rim would have had a much different impact. but still , even with fully convinced knowledge of what it must have been, when i replay it in my mind i see a whole wheel.
that's Gestalt -- my subconscious putting limited info together into something my conscious recognizes.
[HR][/HR][HR][/HR]
anyhow -- another long "post" post lol that most people will skim past
i think what you're describing might be something else, or maybe it is connected with Gestalt in some other way, but all i know is the artistic principle. i believe Gestalt was a person, a German psychologist - without looking it up, i guess he had some other things to say about the mind that are more directly related to what you're talking about.
but this principle of "filling in gaps" is certainly present in music too, in a lot of ways - in the structure of certain melodies, for example, we might hear notes that aren't actually being played.
and i think in a certain way of looking at it, it's where a lot of the negative comments here are stemming from too, i think. people are associating certain genres and qualities of sound with things, and without having complete information, in their minds they are inserting meaning and nuance that aren't actually in the music itself. it is actually very "Gestalt" in the artistic sense.
this is related to how i usually describe this issue -- it's like Paul's discussion about meat offered to idols. some people are not so far removed from idolatry that they still associate it with the meat, even though it's nothing. an idol is nothing. that connection is actually non-existent, but they may see the meat as being tainted by evil.
likewise, people whose faith is weak in this regard, and who are not far removed from a certain kind of idolatry, still have a strong association of evil with certain sounds. the sounds are not evil. the songs may actually be praise - they may be the literal words of scripture. but some people "fill in the gaps" with some information that's not there, and in their minds, it's demonic -- though there is no demon involved at all; there is no evil involved at all. it's just how they are "wired" in some sense to despise it.