Who Were My Favorite Artists? 😀

When it comes to art, I’m very happy to walk around art galleries and watch documentaries on art history, but historic or modern art does little for me. I’m impressed, but there’s no magic in it. For me, pop and rock music and album covers were magical for me.

If anyone reads my blog regularly, you’ll know that I have a great love for hymns and Christian music. But I never really think about the artists. I’m more interested in the Holy Spirit who inspired them. Then again, maybe I am impressed by some.

But when I think of favourite artists, I generally think in terms of secular music. I had different favourites in different eras. In the 1970s I went through phases of the following artists:

• Slade
• Gilbert O’Sullivan
• The Beatles, and the solo Beatles; John, Paul, George, and Ringo
• Pink Floyd
• Stevie Wonder
• The Stranglers
• The Undertones
• Horslips
• Elvis Costello
• Abba

I mightn’t have admitted to liking Abba at the time, but I did like them. I was into punk and new wave in the late 1970s. I liked the music, but it also made me feel like a tough guy. I wouldn’t want anyone to know that I liked girls’ music 😀. But later, I remember Elvis Costello saying that he liked Abba. In 1978, at the height of my punk phase, I secretly liked Mr. Blue Sky by ELO. But I’d publicly go around wearing Stranglers badges and T-shirts. Then, some years ago, Stranglers bassist, Jean Jacques Burnel, was on the BBC Tracks of My Years radio show. He was asked about his favourite 1978 song. I thought he’d choose something by The Clash or whatever, but he actually chose Mr. Blue Sky 😀.

When I committed my life to Christ in 1980, I got rid of all my punk and new wave albums. I saw all that as a hindrance to my faith. Among my friends, some were against all pop music, and others thought it was OK. I pulled back from pop and rock music for a while, but then I started to see no great harm in it. You do get verses in the New Testament that could be interpreted as asking you to distance yourself from worldly culture that might be a bad influence. Here are three examples:

1 John 2:15
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

James 4:4
“Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Romans 12:2
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…”

Some would see these as forbidding pop music, going to the cinema, watching TV etc. But I think that most would see them as warning us not to immerse ourselves in sinful worldliness and yearn for popularity among those who despise God and throw themselves into hedonistic lifestyles. When I was in my teens, even though I wasn’t into violence, drugs or promiscuous behaviour, I’d see rockstars who were into that as cool. At the same time, I was from a good home, so I wouldn’t want to mess up my life or other people’s lives. And even before I committed my life to Christ, I was very aware that I was accountable to God.

Another thing is that making arbitrary rules about what you can and cannot watch or listen to can very easily make you behave like a pharisee. You begin to see spiritual progress in terms of keeping little rules and regulations and look down on others who don’t adhere to them. Pharisees frequently took Jesus to task over not abiding by their rules.

When you get into your 20s, I would think that most people are far less impressionable than they would be as kids or teens. So, I didn’t mind listening to pop or rock music. I could enjoy the music, but at the same time, I wouldn’t endorse the lyrics or the lifestyles of the pop stars.

So, who are my favorite artists? I don’t really have any 21st Century favorites. I did like a few Coldplay and U2 albums, but to find my favourites, I’d go back to the 1990s and think of Paul Weller, Radiohead, and Manic Street Preachers. In the 1980s, maybe The Style Council and Prefab Sprout. And in the 1970s, as I mentioned in the earlier list, Slade, Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, Abba, Elvis Costello, Horslips, The Undertones and The Stranglers. If I had to choose one, I’d probably say Pink Floyd.

I didn’t mention Bob Dylan, but I do like his 60s and 70s music. And I really did treasure his Christian albums.

I have numerous other artists, albums and songs that I didn’t mention. On of my hobbies that I mentioned yesterday, is to go through every month of my life and list music, films, events and personal memories of that month. And music is at the very core of that. A useful site for this is retrocharts. I think it only goes up as far as the late noughties, but I find it very helpful. You can quickly view each month’s new releases.