''CCM Magazine'' is a twice-monthly
online magazine
An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer mag ...
focusing on
contemporary Christian music, published by Salem Publishing, a division of
Salem Communications
Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to Irv ...
.
History
''CCM'' was first published in July 1978, as a printed magazine. It has been owned by Salem since 1999. On January 16, 2008, Salem announced that the April 2008 issue would be the final printed issue of the magazine, which would continue in an online-only format.
When the magazine was first published, it was called ''Contemporary Christian Music'' and covered that music genre.
The name was later shortened to ''CCM'', which was still an acronym for "Contemporary Christian Music".
[ For a short time, the magazine changed its name to ''Contemporary Christian Magazine'' (keeping the "CCM" but broadening the scope) but then ultimately went back to ''Contemporary Christian Music'' (''CCM''). Then in May 2007, the name's meaning was changed to "Christ. Community. Music." The editor explained that the term "contemporary Christian music" was dated and marginalizing and that Christ, community, and music are three entirely different things — thus, the periods after each word of the acronym to show that they are not related. The editor's explanation of the name change can be found in the May 2007 issue of the magazine.
In October 2006, ''CCM'' launched its own social networking site, MyCCM.
Since its start, ''CCM'' has covered mainstream musical artists that mix spiritual themes with their music, including ]Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, Johnny Cash, T Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. He rose to fame as a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. He has received multiple Grammy awards for his work in fil ...
, Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams (born December 23, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multi ...
, The Call, Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, ...
, U2 and Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, p ...
, as well as more mainstream Christian radio artists such as Amy Grant
Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She began in contemporary Christian music (CCM) before crossing over to pop music in the 1980s and 1990s. She has been referred to as "The Queen of Christia ...
, Larry Norman
Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 – February 24, 2008) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, and record producer. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Christian rock music and released more than 100 albu ...
, Michael W. Smith
Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957) is an American musician who has charted in both contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when " Place in This World" hit No. 6 on the '' ...
, Steven Curtis Chapman
Steven Curtis Chapman (born November 21, 1962) is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, author, and social activist.
Chapman began his career in the late 1980s as a songwriter and performer of conte ...
, Benny Hester
Benny Ray Hester (born May 3, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and recording artist. He is perhaps best known for his songs "When God Ran" and "Nobody Knows Me Like You", and for producing the groundbreaking tween/teen music-dr ...
, Steve Taylor, Phil Keaggy and Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan Stonehill (born March 12, 1952) is an American singer and songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the pioneers of contemporary Christian music. His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but ...
. In the 1980s, ''CCM'' also focused on some of the more obscure spiritual artists coming out of the Southern California punk rock and new wave music
New wave is a loosely defined music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself. La ...
scene like the 77s
The 77s (alternatively spelled the Seventy Sevens, the 77's, or simply 77's) is an American rock band consisting of Michael Roe on vocals/guitar, Mark Harmon on bass guitar, and Bruce Spencer on drums.
History
The group was “formed at a ch ...
, Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos (aka D. A., Dä) is an American Christian rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. The band currently c ...
, Undercover
To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an ind ...
, Altar Boys, Crumbächer, the Choir, Adam Again
Adam Again is an American rock band that was active from 1982 until the 2000 death of founder, leader and vocalist Gene Eugene, with Riki Michele on vocals, Paul Valadez on bass, Jon Knox on drums, Greg Lawless on guitar. Dan Michaels often p ...
, and others. However, as the 1990s rolled around, the magazine focused more and more on artists that were heavily played on Christian radio.
Online publication
On July 8, 2009, Salem announced that ''CCM Magazine'' will be re-launched as an online publication, released four times a year.
The online concept has been further developed and the online magazine is issued twice each month usually on the 1st and 15th of each month.
The CCM Update
In 1983, ''CCM Magazine'' spun off its contemporary Christian music industry
The Christian music industry is one aspect of the broader music industry, with a focus on Christian music and subgenres such as gospel music, southern gospel, contemporary Christian music, contemporary worship music, and even traditional church mus ...
analysis and charts into a new publication, ''The CCM Update'' (originally known as ''MusicLine'' and later ''MusicLine Update''). While the new magazine focused on the contemporary Christian music industry-related content that was previously included in ''CCM Magazine'', ''CCM Magazine'' retained the consumer-related content. ''The CCM Update'' published charts
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...
until its closure. At the time of its closure, the magazine published Christian album charts as well as four radio charts: adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
, Christian hit radio
Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...
/Pop, Inspirational/Praise, and Rock. It had previously published a Christian country radio chart as well as southern gospel, black gospel, and metal charts.
''The CCM Update'' folded on April 15, 2002, with its feature content being incorporated into a full-page column in '' Radio & Records'', also called The CCM Update. It also stopped publishing charts, leaving ''Radio & Records'' as the major chart publisher in the Christian music industry; according to James Cumbee, the president of Salem Communications
Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM; formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher formerly based in Camarillo, California (moved most operations to Irv ...
, they felt that continuing to publish charts was a conflict of interest, as Salem owned many of the radio stations that reported to the charts.
References
External links
''CCM Magazine''
MyCCM Social Networking
Charlie Peacock on the end of Christian music (from the final issue of ''CCM'')
Analysis of the history and folding of ''CCM'' magazine
John Styll & ''CCM''
John Styll Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ccm Magazine
Christian magazines
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Music magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1978
Magazines disestablished in 2008
Online magazines with defunct print editions
Salem Media Group properties
Magazines published in Tennessee
Mass media in Nashville, Tennessee