CCM Magazine Releases Last Issue

For 30 years CCM Magazine has been the top publication covering contemporary Christian music and the April 2008 issue was its final print edition. The brand will continue as a website entity at ccmmagazine.com.

The term "contemporary Christian music" was coined in the ‘70’s when “Jesus Music” came into its own as a viable genre and a successful business. That tag is now dated – just “Christian music” is used – but it was the original meaning of the magazine’s acronym.

CCM - The Music

Jesus Music” emerged after the Sixties as a number of disenfranchised Hippies turned to Christianity. True to form, they did not return to established forms of worship but rather updated them, most notably the music. They took a love of rock with them and injected it into creating new songs for worship and for expressions of faith. Defined by lyrical content, Christian music emerged from that foundation and today encompasses most every popular style from country to techno. (Traditional and Urban gospel has influenced and been influenced by Christian music but they still remain distinct; even Billboard maintains separate charts).

Pioneering artists such as Larry Norman, Keith Green, 2nd Chapter of Acts and Randy Stonehill were the center of this new paradigm which developed record companies, radio stations and tours that ran parallel to the mainstream. In 1978 CCM Magazine emerged as its voice.

CCM - The Magazine

As founding editor John Styll recounts in the last issue that CCM Magazine initially started as a trade publication connecting a still-developing support system. In particular, providing concert listings was a key service which the magazine provided until the advent of the web. After a short time it morphed into a consumer oriented vehicle by adding artist features and music reviews. As Christian music matured and exploded during the ‘80’s and ‘90’s CCM Magazine provided vital exposure to top selling acts such as Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman who received minimal, if any, mainstream media coverage.

It is no stretch to observe that Rolling Stone was the template for CCM Magazine as it developed. Like Rolling Stone it moved from newspaper print to four-color glossy; it developed editorial hooks like the “CCM Interview” and annual Readers Choice awards and it created ancillary products such as books, music compilations and t-shirts. Unlike its role model however, CCM Magazine was never embraced as a platform for broader cultural and political issues which, in hindsight may have contributed to its demise as a printed product.

In the end though, the biggest contribution to that demise may have been the success of Christian music itself as noted by David Sessions in the February 9, 2008 issue of Christian newsmagazine World (worldmag.com). Over time both artists and listeners changed how they interacted with and consumed pop culture at large, particularly by loosening the requirement that all lyrics be clearly “Christian.” This allowed artists to “cross over” into the broader culture and listeners - and readers – followed, no longer desiring to be bound to a pre-packaged idea of what a “Christian” consumer consumes.

Finally, business realities sealed the deal as well. CCM Magazine was eventually purchased by a big conglomerate company (Salem Communications) that chases a stock price. And, besides the development of the web, magazines today are dealing with declining readership, less ad pages and increased costs for paper and postage.

How CCM Magazine evolves as a brand and a “voice” in the future will be interesting to see.

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