How has Christian rock music evolved?

Christian Rock music did not exist in 1967. Mind Garage, a psychedelic hard rock group is considered the first "Christian Rock band". They were the first rock band to bring drums, amps, guitars into church for a live orthodox rock and roll worship service at the suggestion of Reverend Michael Paine, West Virginia University chaplin. The beginnings of Christian Rock are completely documented from 1967 to 1970 in the local and national magazines and newspapers such as The Village Voice, Billboard and Rolling Stone magazine and also on prime time national news shows ( Huntley-Brinkley News, NBC TV ) and specials on ABC TV. In July of 1968, the term "theo-rock" was coined in the Village Voice Newspaper in reference to The Mind Garage worship service. Read the original documentation at www.mindgarage.com or to read more about the creation of Christian Rock music visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Garage .

In a California church named Calvary Chapel, the pastor allowed converted hippies to write the first Christian rock songs for his church worship team. Later the church started its own record label.

In 1970 a guy named Larry Norman became the next Christian rocker to be listened to nationally. He toured with mainstream rock bands, and most Christians didn't except him. He was quoted as saying, "Why should the devil have all the good music?" Today he is known as the "father of Christian rock".

Then the 1970s The Resurrection Band, also known as Rez, came along. They helped to make Christian rock much more like the mainstream.

Stryper came on scene in the 1980s as the first Christian metal band. They were a hair metal band that became extremely popular with most Christian teens, even though they were considered very contraversial. (In about 2005, Stryper got back together again.)

In 1989 DC Talk was formed, and they are the ones who made Christian rock more acceptable, along with the Newsboys. In 1995 DC Talk wrote the biggest break-through song ever heard in Christian music, the song "Jesus Freak". DC Talk broke up around 2000, but all three of the vocalists are around as solo artists; they are Toby Mac, Tait, and Kevin Max.

In the early 1990s, the new record label Tooth & Nail signed a band called MxPx. MxPx was the first Christian punk rock band, and they are also the band that kept Tooth & Nail Records from closing in its early years. MxPx had amazing success in the mainstream and was named one of the country's top ten punk bands. However, the first huge mainstream success came in 2004 with Switchfoot.