Sweet said from his home near Boston, where he writes material and the band records and tours. “That drives me insane, I hate that label, ‘Christian band,’ ” Mr. Estey referred was a time when Christian rock or contemporary music was largely bought and sold in “Bible bookstores,” not the record store, he said. “It might seem a little silly now, but it wasn’t then, when Christian music was all on labels you’ve never heard of and was really bad.” “Stryper was significant because you saw them on MTV,” said Chris *Estey, a pop critic in Seattle who has worn many hats in the music industry. But the idea of containment, a sense of strong obstacles to break out, still permeates the scene, experts said. The danger is that acts get relegated to that niche.
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Like Hollywood, the music scene is generally not a place where the powers that be recruit overtly religious acts.īut like films, a Christian music industry sprang up to serve those who are looking for the same rock, metal and rap styles, without the often troubling or despairing messages common in mainstream music. The group had three other gold records too.
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In the 1980s, Stryper’s major label record “To Hell with the Devil,” spent months on the Billboard charts and sold over 2 million copies. Sweet, 56, is the front man and lead songwriter for Stryper, one of the most popular Christian rock groups of all time and one of the few to also enjoy crossover success in the broader pop market.