Christian market thrives as bands reap miracle

The Christian music market is thriving and selling better than its secular brothers and sisters. Christian artists use their music to spread the word and influence others. Though artists come out with albums with ads pitching sales for a bible or supporting organizations, nevertheless the market’s power are miraculous.

The Christian/Gospel genre boosted 11.2 percent since 2002.

"(The music industry is) a dog-eat-dog world, and hopefully there's a lot less of that in the world we're in," said Newsboys frontman Peter Furler. "The main difference between a Christian band and a mainstream band is the link to the church. One works with the church and is encouraged and lifted up that way, and the other is more of a lone wolf."

"The heart and motive behind our music is different, because we want people to experience God," said Christian artist Rebecca St. James, 26. "But there are also similarities to a normal rock show - big production, big lighting, big sound and on this tour we have multimedia.

"But there's still a lingering stereotype that (Christian music) is irrelevant and lacking in quality and uncool, but even in the 10 years I've been involved, the music has grown up and the budgets have increased and the popularity has grown," St. James said. "I always encourage people to give it a chance, because a lot of it really rocks."