Today’s Christian MusicFor a lot of people, the words ‘Christian music’ still come with baggage. It gets written off as preachy, cringe, or creatively limited, often without people giving it the time of day.
But the reality is, Christian music isn’t a genre at all. It’s pop, rock, hip hop, country, indie, worship, folk, and everything in between. The only thing that really connects it is where its marketed and who it’s aimed at.
For the past 27 years, Today’s Christian Music (TCM) has quietly been tracking that reality – week in, week out – through one of the longest-running Christian music charts in the country.
TCM was created by Wes Jay, founder of Woodlands Media, whose career in music and radio spans decades and formats. Long before TCM existed, Wes was already deeply embedded in the industry, starting out as a classical musician, moving through radio, working with the ABC and later in corporate communications.
Radio, though, was always the constant thread.
One of his early radio jobs involved compiling music charts, and that’s where the magic happened.
Wes developed a system that was able to track airplay and sales across regions, giving him a clear view of how music was actually moving through communities, a skill set which became invaluable in the late ‘90s when Christian radio in Australia was still finding its feet.
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“We needed to find out, particularly for the first broadcasts of Light FM, what other stations were playing.” Jay explains. “We were faxing each other or doing air-checks on what other stations were sounding like.”
Since there wasn’t a central place where the information they needed existed, Wes built one. Originally launched under a different name and model, the chart combined airplay and sales data.
By 2004, it had evolved into what it is today: a Top 30 airplay chart, entirely focused on what Christian radio stations across Australia are playing.
In the earlier days, compiling the chart was no easy feat. Stations would manually fax or email their playlists and everything was logged manually, making the process slow and slightly messy.
Today, this process is mostly automated, using audio fingerprinting technology alongside direct station reporting. Around 30 stations contribute to the data each week, and while the tech does the heavy lifting, Wes still oversees the entire system.
The role of assisting stations in discovering new music was made TCM more than just a chart- for many stations, it’s a trusted programming tool, often leading stations to play new music because they can clearly see that it’s working for others.
One of the most compelling ideas that keeps popping up in our chat is this: Christian music isn’t a genre at all.
“I don’t think Christian music can be considered a genre,” he says. “I think it’s a marketing place.”
From its earliest days, contemporary Christian music was deeply tied to the mainstream. Artists like Dion DiMucci, Barry McGuire, and Larry Norman all had established secular careers before being associated with Christian music.
Over time, the industry became more segmented commercially. And now that segmentation is being broken down again.
“We’re in a period in our music history where there’s so much cross-fertilisation.” Jay explains. “You’ve got country artists working with rappers, classical singers working with metal bands.Then you’ve got artists like Jelly Roll working with Brandon Lake from the Christian community.”
Artists like FOR KING + COUNTRY collaborating with Dolly Parton, Tori Kelly, Kirk Franklin, and Jordin Sparks not only blur lines, but erase them completely. Fans don’t come for the label, they come for the song.
“If you’re an artist, you just want people to enjoy your music,” Jay says. “You’re not worried about where it comes from. You want people to enjoy your craft.”
One of the great ironies of Christian music is that many people who claim not to like it are already listening to it without even realising. This isn’t new. Gospel music has been woven through mainstream culture for decades, from the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ Oh Happy Day topping charts in the ‘60s to gospel influences running through classic albums by The Rolling Stones and beyond.
Topics like spirituality and politics in music have always resonated with audiences as much as they’ve stirred them.
“Music has been talking about politics for at least 50 years,” Jay says. “There have been many Aussie groups, like Midnight Oil and Goanna, who have driven cultural change in our country, and that’s to be applauded and not hidden away.”
Today’s streaming platforms and algorithms have accelerated this exposure, with listeners discovering artists in a more organic way, without needing to know or care what box they’re supposed to be squeezed into.
Look at a current TCM chart and you’ll see just how wide the landscape is: FOR KING & COUNTRY, We Are Messengers, Stars Go Dim, Jamie McDonald, Carly Ann Taylor, Josiah Queen, Forrest Frank, Anne Wilson – the list covers multiple styles, sounds and audiences.
Just last year, the #1 high rotation tune on Australian Christian radio belonged to The Afters’ You Never Gave Up On Me, which also peaked at No. 16 on the US Christian Airplay charts.
Then you’ve got the artists that move a little more freely between Christian and mainstream markets, while others serve more specific communities, yet none of them fit neatly into a single genre box. And that’s the point.
Christian music today isn’t about staying in its lane. It’s about showing up wherever people are listening. After 27 years, TCM continues to document that truth. Not by arguing for it or over-explaining it, but by letting the music speak for itself.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
