What Matters More?

I read an article about Derek Webb and his battle with his record label, INO, over the release of his solo album “Stockholm Syndrome”. The battle was centered around a lyric in a song on the new album causing a delay in its scheduled release. I actually had the opportunity to witness first hand Webb and the infamous song with the questionable word. I was at the Revelation Generation Festival, it’s a fairly large two day Christian music festival and the year I went it included five stages, the New York, Philadelphia, Nashville, Urban and Come & Live, with over 50 artists and speakers, one of which was Webb. 

Friday night, I spent my evening traipsing between two stages, the New York and the Philadelphia stages, watching artists like Matthew West, Haste the Day, Delirious?, Emery, Jars of Clay, Underoath and MercyMe! It started at about 3pm and was done by around 10pm. Saturday was a much more grueling schedule; I had to run to all five stages to see all the artists I had come to see. The gates opened around 10am and the first act on the Philadelphia stage was And Then There Were None at around 11am and the last act, Switchfoot, hit the New York stage around 8:50pm! A long with a bunch of lesser known groups, too numerous to mention, I made sure I saw, The Fold, August Burns Red, B. Reith, Needtobreathe, Barlow Girl, Impending Doom, Relient K and last stop was the Nashville stage with Derek Webb.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive upon entering the tent, but I liked Webb before I had read the article, so I guess it was just plain curiosity that brought me there. So there he is up on the stage, alone, just him and his guitar, just playing and it didn’t seem so scary, so I pulled up a seat. Since I own only one of his albums, “Mockingbird”, I have to admit that I’m not all that familiar with his solo stuff since he left Caedmon’s Call. Not much of a talker, he seemed kind of nervous as he was explaining that he never really had a hit song, but the closest he had come was a song that was used on the show “Grey’s Anatomy”, the words of which had my 19 year old, unsaved daughter twitching in her seat, but it wasn’t until he played a song "What Matters More" from his new album, that she really became uncomfortable, it’s the one with the tainted lyric. The song contains a line referring to how we don’t give an “s-word” about others, so there it was in a nutshell! Probably one of the most common sayings in the English language, but is it necessary for an artist who professes a faith in Christ, to use such language in his songs? So the question is really what does matter more to Webb? 

To me, it's obviously his artistic freedom that matters more to him, more than using discretion when choosing his words. So whatever point he was trying to get across in the song is now lost, because the focus is on the word and not the intended meaning behind the song. The saddest part was that the audience didn’t seem to mind it at all, even with young children present! But I felt I had to leave and was a little embarrassed about having taken the time to give him a listen. Had I any desire to continue following Webb's music, it was quickly extinguished, what would be the point? What could he possibly offer me, something new, maybe something different? Apparently not, just the same old drone as most of the secular mainstream music out there these days! I could have listened to Green Day or Lincoln Park and gotten the same effect. Listening to his songs one hears a lot of sarcasm, mostly political in nature and rather crude descriptions of things in everyday life, which I could let slide, if there was something of value hidden in it somewhere, but I found his use of this word far more offensive than the Newsboys use of “elephant dung” in their song “Reality”. Dung is actually mentioned many times in the Bible, but somehow the use of modern slang in the lyrics of songwriters of faith just doesn’t seem appropriate. 

Maybe it was just because I was tired and sun burnt, that I took offense, but I think not. I still think it is much better to sacrifice one’s art instead of one’s sense of right and wrong or the integrity of the heart. I think most people have a tendency to use art as a license to sin. Although Jesus sat, ate and spent most of his time with hardcore sinners, I don’t think he would have used coarse language among them just to fit in or to make a point. So whatever arguments Derek Webb might use to justify his actions, I think they would be a bit flawed based on the following verse from 1 Corinthians 6:12 “Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything.” Was Webb letting his sense of artistic freedom in his music, master him? If he was looking for a hit, I think it's a miss!

Webb and INO later came to some kind of agreement, the album was then released in two versions, a "clean" and an "uncensored" version, which just makes me wonder why? If he was so proud of his original version, why release an alternate version? Was he sincere or just trying to corner both markets? My bet was on the latter!