I Hate Toby Mac

I just returned from my trip to Gilford, New Hampshire. I went there to attend a festival for a few days to see some Christians artists I enjoy and wish to support. They were tremendous and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. However when ever I attend such festivals you are bound to bump into people you do no like, or worse Christians artists that are not worth the very air that carries their piss poor lyrics and musical sound waves.

I found my distaste for Toby Mac particularly hard to defend while I was there among the masses of countless fans, and yet I somehow loathed him the most. I think it was because there was so much fanfare and joy surrounded by one performance. I suppose that makes me a Grinch of sorts, spoiling everyone's good clean fun.

Music is artistic in nature because it struggles to be successful and push the boundaries of work in its realm. Artistic music is the most respectable. Modern examples would be early punk, progressive rock, early hip-hop, underground rap, and other contemporary forms of music that shape the music that we hear today with respect to its artistic influences. Lower on the scale, tied for second, both pop music and Christian music. Largely they try to do the same thing, pop emulates the success of real artistic movement, then repackages it and makes it marketable. Christian music is guilty of both this and emulating pop, it is like a farce of a farce. However most music we hear is for certain people to enjoy hearing and enjoying the artistic merits of its predecessors, albeit duplicated. Remember though that emulated music still carries the spirit of the original art in it. (though just a shadow)

Lastly there is party music. Though it has its time and place, it does not seek to create art, it is more so to entertain, thus its title. This places it third on my echelon of music appreciation. Lastly there is Christian party music, it is the worst music that can be. It is like party music, but it not only as the failure of copying its secular counterpart, it also is hypocritical. Having fun is something human beings enjoy, and I do not doubt that we were made that way, there is no fault in wanting to have fun, but parties are about excess, lavish enjoyment, and indulgence. Christians should not (idealistically) be a part of a partying culture, nor should they celebrate in a lavish way until their brothers and sisters have their needs met, to do otherwise is completely selfish and against the message of Christ. So it goes that Christian party music, like Toby Mac, has the least amount of respect from me, and thus my abject avoidance of his concert.

In summation Toby Mac is a farce, of a farce, of a farce, copied thrice. There is very little art involved, creation is put aside for celebration, and the revelry is not justified by the author's own ethics. This alone is why Toby Mac deserves little to no respect, in my opinion, from anyone. Just as a coup de grace, he is a skinny white boy who pretends to be black, looks like he was dressed in the dark, has the lyrical sense of Vanilla Ice, the mentality of Jerry Faldwell, and the musical skill of Milly Vanilly. That kind of triple threat of personalities means he could only be the most fake, profiteering performer possible. In a way that is the only sense of respect I have from him, such a synergy of snickering capitalism, even I am wowed by such a performance.