I was raised up listening to music. I consider music part of my life, I just wish I would have kept up the guitar lessons when I was young. When I was convicted by the Holy Spirit about life changes that needed to happen in order to become a Christian I had around 3500 albums. I listened to everything from Jimi Hendrix to Beethoven. Never cared for lustful music, I was always blessed by music with life stories and poetic meaning, and/or talent. I was always in search of the best. The best drummer, the best guitarist. I came to the conclusion that the best drummer Billy Cobham, and the best guitarist is Al Dimeola, the best violin Jean Luc Ponty. If anybody thinks otherwise I would like to hear your suggestions.
Much of the poetic music I listened to led me to Jesus, like the Moody Blues, who sang about OM and other god's but I always put Jesus in the place of the higher being they sang about. I did that with all music I listened to and was blessed by many bands that have a lot to say, but it is too bad they flaunt the stanic symbols and stanic gestures on stage. One band that has a lot to say is Rush, but it is obvious who they worship, and Kansas, I still get tears in my eyes when I hear the song "A Song For America" by Kansas. I even went and saw them a few years ago for their 40th anniversary tour, and the first song they played was "A Song for America" and I wept. I do not promote classic rock any more because I see what is is doing to the young because most people do not listen the same. In fact, even though I listen to contemporary "Christian" music I see satanic symbols and satanic band names. Michael W Smith uses satanic symbols on his albums. The band stryper uses this name which represents satan himself. Satan was the one that gave Jesus the stripes. These things should be considered in the music we listen to. Satan was the band leader in heaven so he uses music very effectively to deceive if possible the very elect. There are many great videos about how satan uses music and musicians. Many musicians have come out and shared their experiences on You Tube. Even though the music is hard, and the driving beat hypnotizes us we must be very careful what we do choose to listen to. My favorite song today is "I'm into Jesus" by DC Talk, BUT the music in most of their songs is confusion. I have a music video of them playing that song with just an acoustic guitar and it is so inspiring to me.
After I was baptized and became a Christian I went to a used record store with all my albums and offered them all for 100.00. He came out and looked. My truck bed was filled two layers high with boxes of albums. He bought two albums for 25.00 the Beatles white album ORIGINAL and It's a Beautiful Day. After a couple months I returned to the same store and saw my two albums on a separate display, the Beatles album was selling for 150.00 and the other was 125.00. They still would not buy all them, so I took them all to the dumps. I was convicted that if this music is not good for me as a Christian why am I trying to sell it to others to deceive them by. This was in the early 80's.
Now I listen to all styles of Christian music. There are many supposed "Christian" songs that are actually lust songs which deceive many, but there is a lot of talent many miss out on because of a stern judgmental attitude toward this style or that. We all have our druthers.