I have been a big fan of electronic music for about 4 years or so and have a
rather good understanding of the Dance Culture and specifically Trance
music. I also am a committed Christian and am a huge fan of Andy Hunter
and his vision to live as a Christian in the midst of prolifically secular and
sensual culture. Currently I am a 3rd
year architecture major at Cal Poly University
in San Luis Obispo, CA.
DJ Tiesto also known as Tjes Verwest is one of the most famous and
successful Trance DJ's over the last decade or so. (check Wikipedia for more
info) As far as I know, Tiesto is not a Christian. The message you've
seen in the lyrics from "Just Be" does not come from a Christian
worldview and probably represents Tiesto's worldview as you suspect. In
fact, Andy Hunter is the only professional DJ I know of that is a practicing
Christian. To add some more context,
Tiesto is one of the most well known Dutch DJs. If you know anything
about Dutch culture, you know that the Dutch are very "liberal" in
terms of morality and culture. It is a very "postmodern"
culture that rejects the notion of rules, a standard of right and wrong, and
the established order and values seeking after pleasures of any kind. Now
this of course does not describe every Dutch person and is not exclusive to the
Dutch. This culture exists all around the world. However, the Netherlands is
usually always on the cutting edge of this "liberal" worldview.
This is partially why the Dutch have embraced the Dance Music scene which is
generally described as a very experiential and sexually driven culture.
Dance Culture is a culture that values having a good time, living for
the moment, and the pursuit of euphoria. Clubs and raves create
environments designed to overwhelm the senses. The music is very loud and
overwhelming, many people, (especially girls) are dressed to enhance their
sexuality, alcohol of all kinds is readily available (and very expensive) at
several bars throughout most clubs, some people use other illegal drugs such as
ecstasy to enhance their experience, and the flashing lights are timed with
music to create an extravagant audio-visual experience.
Now if you are at all like me, when I was getting into this music, you are
thinking that this does not sound at all like an environment that a Christian
should be in. However, there is something about a tight dance beat with a
catchy synth over a driving bass line (and don't forget the sexy vocals) that
stirs something in you. I struggled for a while over whether it is ok for
a Christian to engage with and even be a part of this culture. I grew up
going to a Protestant church in the Bay Area (just north of San
Francisco) This helped develop a worldview for me that says secular
culture is detrimental to Christians and Christians should therefore be fully
engaged in the Christian subculture... you know... the whole church youth
group/Christian bands/Christian friends/Christian books/etc... culture.
This essentially is a culture that seeks to "Christianize" every
aspect of secular culture so that Christian don't ever have to be tempted by
secular culture. Evangelism is achieved through bringing "non-Christians"
into the Christian culture. This culture potentially makes the cross just
a piece of jewelry, Jesus just a celebrity, the Bible just a bumper sticker,
and Holy Spirit and miracles into abstract theological concepts. As a
disclaimer, I am not saying that Christian music/books/etc.are bad, I think
that many of these things are very good. I am just questioning whether
this Christian culture is really nothing more than secular culture slapped with
a Christian label. Materialism is probably the one of the biggest
stumbling blocks for the Western church. I wonder how much money churches
spend on making themselves more comfortable and entertained verses what is
spent on missions or helping the needy.
Therefore, although I do not claim that Christian culture is a bad thing, I
have been disillusioned by the marketed American Christian culture and have
been convinced that making a Christian alternate to everything is not the way
to reach the lost, but rather engaging with the secular culture. Jesus spent a significant part of his
ministry among the “sinners.” There are
many verses that talk about the calling for Christians is to be “in the world
but not of the world” I believe that this is how Christians should approach
engaging with any culture. Dance culture
is essentially no different from any other secular culture, it just happens to
be one of the more eclectic ones. The
main issue for Christians is how do you engage with secular culture without
being influenced by it? This is
especially acute when engaging with a culture that openly embraces many things
that are considered sinful (e.g. drunkenness, intense sensuality, self-seeking,
etc..)
The most important thing I believe when engaging with any culture is where
is your heart at? Are you seeking ultimate
satisfaction? Is there a high
probability of you seriously stumbling as a result of being in this
culture? What kind of influence are you
having by participating in these things?
Personally, I believe it is completely okay for me to go to a club and have
a great time as long as I keep things in the proper perspective. Practical ways of doing this are by limiting
how many drinks I have, who I go with, how I engage with people when I am at
these places. I have found that it is
much better to go with a at least a couple Christian friends, as it allows for
accountability as well as its much more fun to go clubbing with people as you
are enjoying the friendship you have at this place rather than looking for
someone to hook up with as often happens at these places. An unfortunate fact of most clubs is girls
need to literally be near their guy friends on the dance floor so that strange
guys don’t come up and start dancing very close to them. I could go on but these are just a couple
strategies I use when I go clubbing. The
famous DJ’s I have seen are Kyau & Albert, Gabriel & Dresden, Blank
& Jones, Kaskade and other DJ’s in various clubs around the Bay Area (mostly
in SF)
In order to paint a complete picture, within the Dance Culture and
electronic music there are many commendable good things that exist in spite of
the bad parts as there are in every sub-culture. One of these things is a sense of community
and openness towards anyone engaging in the culture. Granted this is a harsh generalization, but there
are many instances where the sense of a shared experience and lack of
discrimination is very apparent. There
have been times during DJ sets that I’ve been to where a climatic moment with a
hit song or an amazing transition brings the whole crowd together in a sense of
community despite most of the people are complete strangers to each other.
There are also many well written songs with legit lyrics. Like in any music genre, dance music artists write
songs inspired from what they experience in life. As a result there are many songs that
although they do not necessarily come from a Christian wordview, they speak of
truth in the world and offer hope. The
majority of dance music songs are about love and relationships. Some are dumb, some are cheesy, some are
erotic yet there are some that capture the essence of what love is between
people or powerfully speak of the pain that comes from broken
relationships. There are also songs
about other deep things in life such as death, life, friendship, hope, dance
culture itself, etc… In a nutshell,
there is a wide range material in songs like in any genre with the majority focusing
on love and relationships.
In terms of songs that stick out to me that have a powerful message, these
are a few of my favorites you should definitely check out.
Paul van Dyk – The Other Side
(Amazing song written by a premier German trance DJ that deals with the
deaths from the Tsunami a couple years ago.
It speaks of seeing someone again on the “other side of life” Speaks of hope and heaven.)
Tiesto ft. BT – Love Comes Again (You may be
familiar with this song from the Just Be album.
Aside from the fact that I love BT’s vocals, the words speak of love
coming again through the hard parts of a relationship. It speaks of commitment to one’s significant
other.)
Paul van Dyk – Time of Our Lives
(Words remind a lot of Ecclesiastes 3, talking about how there is a time
for everything)
Armin van Buuren ft. Raccoon – Love
You More (Popular Dutch rock group song (in English) remixed by one of my
favorite Dutch DJs. Talks about a
relationship where the lover tells his beloved “every day I love you more”
despite not having seen her in a while.
Great song.
BT – Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved) (Quite possibly my favorite dance song. Awesome lyrics talking about how “simply
being loved is more than enough” When
that love is God’s love, it truly is more than enough to give our lives
meaning.
These songs are just a handful of the songs I love. Artists that generally write great songs with
powerful lyrics that I resonate with are Paul van Dyk, Kaskade, Kyau &
Albert, BT, Gabriel & Dresden, Armin van Buuren. I hope this has been helpful. Let me know if you would like to discuss
further via IM or something. I remember
being in your place a couple years ago just discovering the awesomeness that is
electronic music and totally stoked on Andy Hunter. I love how he is a great artist making
awesome dance music who loves Jesus and is fully committed to him. I belief Andy Hunter exemplifies the whole
concept of “living in but not of the world”
He has had opportunities to rub shoulders with the world’s top DJ’s,
have his music used in top films and video games and play in clubs around
Europe, as well as lead worship as a DJ at Christian festivals. I hope to someday be able to have that kind
of opportunity and influence whether that be in architecture or as a musician.
-Steve