Christian Hardcore

In Reality:
What seems to have happened in many cases is that the genre has been so overpowering that it has indeed showed up the possibility of the message being not quite in synch with it. There seem to be two streams emerging – one that sticks with the intensely religious themes while playing the hardcore music while the other tends to deviate a bit, sometimes quite a bit from what was originally intended. So you’ll find with the latter that there are occasions when they just cringe to even mention the words Gods or Jesus in their lyrics. There really is some kind of a discomfort level for a lot of musicians when they have to combine the genre with the content.

Out of the Mainstream:
This trend is probably because the mainstream tends to shun the bands that they categorize as 'Christcore' – this is a term that Christian hardcore is also known by. Most musicians worth their salt would not want top be bypassed just because of this. As it is, many musicians believe that religion is out of the ambit of music so this just reinforces the belief. For most, they feel the genre should also dictate what the lyrics should be – at least the feel of the words and should not be preset criteria that tell you what should go into each song.

Christian Rock Shows:
From organized rock festivals to playing live in coffeehouses, Christian rock and hardcore bands are making their presence felt even though they might not have total acceptance in the regular mainstream. Over the past few years, there have been rock festivals in New Jersey, New Hampshire and Virginia and these have been a great showcase for the hardcore as well as punk and emo bands. Are the hardcore sounds and the message they declare in synch? In all probability not but with time, they might just get the acceptance they deserve.