Who killed the contemporary Christian music industry?

Remember when dcTalk and Amy Grant were huge?

A Christian group, a part of California’s “Jesus Movement,” sings, 1971.
(Image credit: (AP Photo))

Derek Webb's old band, Caedmon's Call, was once the darling of the contemporary Christian music (CCM) industry. Their eponymous debut, released in 1996, sold over 250,000 copies, and their follow-up, 40 Acres, sold about 100,000 more. Caedmon's Call's live shows frequently sold out, and really broadened CCM's demographic. You were as likely to see college students as their parents at Caedmon's Call's shows.

"We had some very unexpected success, very early," Webb explains. "We backed into a moment of success we could have never anticipated. But a wise man once said to me, 'The two things that will ruin an artist are success and failure. And especially in that sequence.'"

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