The Jesus Music Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Jesus Music Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 7, 2021

Here's a quick and easy way to figure out if you're likely to enjoy The Jesus Music or not: is your Christmas playlist more likely to feature things like Handel's Messiah, or the Buddy Greene - Mark Lowry piece Mary Did You Know?. If it's the latter, you're probably the target demographic for this appealing if kind of surface deep look at what is now typically called "Contemporary Christian Music", but which (according to this documentary, anyway) was originally called Jesus Music and which supposedly rose from the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll fueled ashes of the hippie movement. Quite a bit of my "other" life as a musician has been spent as music director for a number of congregations in a pretty huge variety of denominations, and two of those denominations in particular, Episcopalian and Methodist, were at least tipping their communal toes into the idea of featuring more modern sounds in their services when I worked for them. That led me almost by default into a deep dive into a number of the artists who are profiled in this appealing piece, and while kind of ironically one of the priests I worked for at an Episcopal parish unabashedly and unapologetically despised the more contemporary Christian tunes because he felt the lyrics often emphasized "I" over the "we" of more traditional church music (which is actually a rather insightful comment, frankly), a lot of the best material in this genre is surprisingly universal and perhaps even not necessarily indelibly tied to Christianity (something that is addressed at least obliquely in some of the material about Amy Grant in this piece, and a sidebar element which may be another reason for some at least to find fault with the genre).

A lot of people who are relatively up to speed with the Contemporary Christian Music movement may tend to cite "megachurches" like Hillsong as the progenitors of the idiom, but decades before that Australian congregation became so influential, there was a smaller and arguably less market savvy group starting to appeal to younger folks in Costa Mesa, California. Calvary Chapel had a "hippie minister" named Lonnie Ray Frisbee and from the sound of things basically attracted hordes of like minded individuals largely through word of mouth. An almost casual decision to have a band play during a service led to epochal changes, attracting even more young folks, and rather organically, a "movement" was underway.

The Jesus Music takes a largely chronological approach to documenting the journey of more rock and pop fueled tunes starting to enter the Christian liturgy. There are therefore a few "gray beards" scattered among the more middle aged and younger talking heads here, offering an assessment of the "early" (i.e., late sixties to early seventies) attempts to get more modern sounds into Christian worship music. Some of the artists covered in this section like Larry Norman may frankly be lesser remembered today, but the documentary makes clear how much impact Norman and others had at the time, for both good and ill (depending on your point of view). Despite a certain rawness to things (especially evident in some of Norman's music), there's an appealing sweetness and maybe even naivete to some of these early explorers, but as with many media driven enterprises in the United States, the marketing mavens soon started paying attention and a whole new "industry" resulted.

While "little" labels like Maranatha started flourishing against considerable odds, it was more mainstream acts like Stryper that finally proved that Christian music could top the charts. There's some kind of funny subtext in the documentary as bands like Stryper and even more "metal" minded outfits like Skillet are profiled, with overt commentary that a lot of "believers" found it downright shocking that music like this could even be considered "Christian". There are some great archival clips of folks like Jimmy Swaggart ranting in what I'm assuming was the 1980s or 1990s about "the Devil's music" which sound positively reminiscent of early reactions to ostensibly non-religious artists like Elvis Presley in the 1950s, and which may come off as almost incredibly ironic considering Swaggart's family relationship with one of the main purveyors of early rock 'n' roll, Jerry Lee Lewis.

Vis a vis the personal (and/or plural) pronoun observation by the Episcopal priest mentioned above, there is a lot of "I" in this piece, with a ton of brief first person confessionals (no pun intended) delivered directly to the camera. Interestingly, there are also some overt references to perhaps sinful behaviors like pride with regard to some interactions between band members, and some frank discussions about things like substance abuse. However, this piece never really delves into any number of the many sidebars it glancingly refers to along the way. Lonnie Ray Frisbee is just one perfect example in that regard, and remains a really fascinating fringe figure who might deserve a documentary of his own. The fact that executive producers Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith are prominently featured in The Jesus Music, no matter how much they inarguably belong there, may smack a bit of self promotion, but in fairness the documentary mentions a huge glut of performers and includes a number of brief but often very interesting interviews with a variety of folks.

The Jesus Music Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Jesus Music is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. There's an understandably heterogeneous appearance on display here courtesy of quite a bit of engaging archival footage, but all of the contemporary interview capture footage is sharp as a tack and generally very well detailed. There are some very minor issues with aliasing in some shots of the ocean that I'm frankly not sure are sourced from stock footage, and some of the archival video has baked in anomalies like ghosting and quite a bit of damage. There are some stylistic conceits that are utilized, including a couple of reenactments with "arty" moments like Jimmy Swaggart's almost beet red face filling the eyeball of a youngster watching television. Some of the interview segments have an almost buttery yellow look.

The Jesus Music Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Jesus Music features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that offers the kind of intermittent surround engagement that is often part and parcel of "music documentaries" that feature the actual music typically only as brief interstitials or even as underscore for more talking head material. There are a few noticeable moments of damage in some of the oldest archival audio, but the vast bulk of this presentation, whether via older live performances or the contemporary interview segments, sounds clear and with no real problems. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Jesus Music Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Sing Again Lyrical Video (HD; 5:47) is a kind of odd almost karaoke type piece in that it provides the song's lyric along with Michael W. Smith's vocals over various scenes. This includes an introduction by Michael W. Smith. This features Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Additionally, both a DVD Copy and a Digital Copy are included. Packaging features a slipcover.

The Jesus Music Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My own personal history probably made me a more apt audience for The Jesus Music than the public at large, but for those with an interest in this particular genre, this is at least a good overview and/or introduction, even if it may well leave some wanting more, which is probably a good thing and may provoke further investigation. Technical merits are generally solid. For lovers of so-called CCM if for no one else, Recommended.