An extremely fair review of my book from Josh Riley over at blog.worship.com. He rightly takes me to task for not talking to more fans but is mostly positive. Here’s an interesting bit:

You probably won’t find this volume in your local Christian bookstore, and our online sales affiliate does not carry it; nonetheless, the perspectives presented in this book are not without merit, and it is helpful to see the industry through the eyes of one who is outside the faith, whose view of Jesus is largely influenced by those involved one way or another in the modern (or post-modern?) CCM industry.

I haven’t talked about this on the site yet, but while I’m not surprised that my book isn’t carried by most Christian retailers (there is profanity in it, all quoted for what it’s worth), I continue to be baffled that the majority of Christian-media attention to this book has come from blogs and smaller zines. I can’t help but wonder why Christianity Today is the only major Christian publication to do anything on a mass-market book about Christian music. I’d be happy to entertain theories in the comments section.

From Ruth, a.k.a. anduril05’s LiveJournal:

Along with looking at CCM, Beaujon took a shot at the parallel universe of praise/worship music, as well. Once again, not much quality musicianship there, but he saw a few streams of light poking out in some acts. He attended a few conferences, interviewed some artists, did a ton of research, and came out with a well-balanced look on the entire contemporary Christian world. I also appreciated the fact that he jumped over to the culture. He attended a pro-life rally in Washington DC, Calvin College’s “Festival of Faith and Music” and a handful of worship services.

One of Ruth’s commenters asked to borrow her copy (NO!!!!!!); another said s/he was interested in reading my buddy Andy Greenwald’s book about emo, Nothing Feels Good, as well. True story: After I finished the book, I said one thing to the missus about the cover— “Gee, I hope it’s not gonna be a picture of a teenager wearing a T-shirt with the title on it like Andy’s book.”

Sigh.

G13, a Christian person from Beverley, Mass., wrote up a nice post about my book. Here’s what he likes:

the most compelling characteristic of the story is beaujon’s deep desire to understand evangelical culture and his overwhelming empathy concerning the intentions and aims of the wide variety of evangelicals (from jay bakker to dave bazan) that he encounters along the way. near the end of the book, i was startled by beaujon’s compassion for a culture that is not his own and challenged to be more charitable towards a culture that, like it or not, is my own.

And here’s what he doesn’t:

his indifference towards americana music in general and bill mallonee in particular, the relatively unengaging profile on rock for life and the pro-life movement and the failure to mention – at any single point – the influence that progressive, christocentric, iconoclastic influence rich mullins levied upon contemporary christian music.

I liked the Rock for Life profile, but otherwise, I plead guilty. I think the Rich Mullins story is very interesting (especially since there’s an aspect of it that will likely make many evangelical Christians very uncomfortable), and I hope to look into it more someday.

Americana music I will never find interesting.

I profiled Mark Driscoll glancingly in the book; originally I’d meant to just write something on his church for a chapter I’d planned on youth-oriented churches, but he was such a fascinating interview subject that I ended up writing a short chapter on his parish, Mars Hill in Seattle. All that’s to say that he wrote a blog post about the book, and he appears to have liked it, even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like Christian rock.

I wish I’d done a bigger profile of him. Dang.

Rivet’s Andrea Benvenuto does not like the way I wrote about myself in the book. Fair enough.

The family-friendly folks at Infodad.com reviewed my book. A fair review, but I would not suggest going toe-to-toe with me on who vs. whom.

James Stewart, a fine gentleman whom I really enjoyed meeting in Grand Rapids, reprises a blog post about my book for Catapult magazine. He quite rightly takes me to task for errors of detail (which I’ve tried to catalog here), but I’m not sure what he means about errors from the Festival of Faith and Music. I stand by my notes on that one, though I’ll happily correct anything I’m wrong about.

About me not understanding the language of David Dark: I’m not an academic, and while I consider it my job to learn to parse things I don’t understand (exhibit a: a book I wrote about Christian rock), I couldn’t make heads nor tails of the man’s speech. I encourage anyone interested, though, to download and listen to one of his talks and let me know if I’m just a dope. (I’m at work and don’t have my notes here, so I don’t know whether this was one of his keynotes or a workshop.) I also highly recommend the Stockman talk.

Lars, a metalish young man who seems to intern at NPR, and a commenter on the below post, enjoyed my reading last night. So to you, Lars, I tip a hornful of grog and bellow a hearty “Góða nótt!”

A thoughtful post from a nice young lady in Louisiana about my book; I always figured if I moved to Louisiana, I’d know what it’s like to have my name pronounced correctly all the time. (Hmm. I see on her MySpace page that she’s an Elliott Yamin fan–my former hometown recently made a complete fawning arse of itself over that guy; I trust Renee is handling herself with a bit more aplomb!)

I’m never sure how people I write about are going to like the finished product. But Rock for Life’s Erik Whittington, whom I interviewed extensively for the book’s chapter on youth-oriented Christian political activism, seems to be okay with Chapter 9. From his blog:

Our chapter, Black and White in a Gray World gives an honest account of a day in the life of Rock for Life. I hope you’ll pick up a copy, share it with your friends and let me know what you think….

I am very curious to read what other people think. Incidentally, if you’re trivia-oriented, the original title of this chapter was “Black and White in a Grey World,” with the British spelling grey, because that’s how Leslie (now Sam) Phillips titled her song with these lyrics:

No distinction, no emotion for right or wrong
They tell me any choice will do
No color contrast in their dull morality
The shades of good and bad are through

Seemed appropriate.