*Updated, see below.*
I grew up listening to Christian rock. In those days, when the seeds of the current Christian Ghetto were just being planted, the Jesus Music wave had crested and carved out an entire new industry from the soft sand of the then newly-blossoming Charismatic and Religious Right movements. Good Christian families of the day listened to Keith Green instead of Elton John, Larry Norman instead of Bruce Springsteen, and Petra instead of Boston or Foreigner. "Secular" music wasn't allowed in my house, and I was left to explain to my classmates why I had never really heard Madonna or Michael Jackson.

Eventually, my parents softened on the guidelines. My dad went back to listening to Elton John and Buddy Holly and The Monkees, and my mom went back to Motown and her girl groups. My sister and I were permitted to switch our radio dials from WDJC to Magic 96, and while MTV was out of the question, the newly created VH1 was allowed. I discovered The Eagles, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and the seeds of my real love of music were planted.

One would assume that I would have never gone back to the world of CCM after breathing the fresh air and limitless spaces of the outside world, after seeing the lights of gay Paree you might say. I did though, only for brief periods of time, but I did go back. And, even now, I still do listen to a select few "Christian" musicians (Waterdeep, Rich Mullins, Chasing Furies), most of whom, I must admit though, one would have to be a Christian to enjoy.

That surprisingly (surprising to me anyway, as I intended only a short paragraph of introduction) long bit of set up was my attempt to simply state that while I do still occasionally listen to some CCM, I am very particular about who I actually listen to now. One artist who I have discovered in the last year or so is Derek Webb [interview, videos], former guitarist of another band I liked, Caedmon's Call. Rachel and I went to see him last year [blurry pics here] and he amazed me with the simple and direct honesty of his songwriting. Like his views or not, this was not a man who made you guess which side of the fence he was on. Some in the audience, however, were not as impressed with his particular view of the Christian life and left during the middle of the show. The sight of people leaving while he sang Bob Dylan's "With God on Our Side" was both troubling and entertaining in a sick sort of way.

I bought a cd at the back table before I left, and hoped Derek would come back to town soon so that I could buy a copy of his then unreleased new album. Nine months pass, and then on Friday morning I receive an e-mail stating that Derek Webb was giving away his new album in mp3 format at FreeDerekWebb.com. "Awesome!", I think, and save the email. I don't remember putting my email address on anything at the concert, no mailing lists that I can remember, but when I glance the site before running out the door I see a space to invite your friends and think that Rachel probably sent me an invite. I even think, "Hey, this weekend I'll listen to the album and then write up a little review and pointer post for the blog." I love artists that view the 'net as a new distribution medium, and who embrace and participate in this new paradigm rather than trying to defeat it. A very good idea, I think.

Saturday morning rolls around, and after my walk and my breakfast I sit down to download the album and catch up on my feeds. And it is at this point in time that I discover the bad idea that has been added to the good idea. The space where you enter the email addresses of five of your friends, a space I had thought was providing an optional service, is in fact mandatory. Those people in turn will receive an email inviting them to hand over the email addresses of five of their friends before they can proceed, and so on and so on. This struck me as a very bad idea. I was put out by the whole concept, and promptly closed that tab. It isn't that I don't have five friends with email addresses -- in fact I think I have exactly five -- it's that I didn't think I should have to give anyone else's information out to get something for myself.

Part of me says that I am overreacting hugely, and part of me appreciates the viral genius behind the idea. And maybe I will end up picking five friends (I'm thinking Jerry, Lori, Lori, David and Josh) and sending them invites. But regardless, that little bit of a bad idea twisted what I originally thought and still think of as a wonderful thing, an artist passionate about his work and message being heard.

Update: After receiving a couple of comments, I decided to clarify and change a few things in this post. As I stated in response to the first comment, I initially started this writing as a way to explore what was bothering me -- something I do from time to time, as the act of putting words to page can have a clarifying effect on my thought process -- but in the end was unable to find what had irked me. This lent a more rant-y tone to my words which I did not notice until rereading them the next morning. I regret that, since my intent was not to rant about an artist I have a great deal of respect for and who is doing something that I think is brave and wonderful. Namely, offering free copies of recordings that were likely not inexpensive to produce.

The first change was to remove the possible implication that the sending of invites to friends amounted to spam. That was unfair and untrue, and I have removed that sentence. The second was to clean up one or two of the rant-ier sections.

I wish to thank Matthew Smith for challenging me and for laying back the skin to reveal the thorn which had troubled me with this sentence: "I guess my point is that he is NOT forcing you to send invitations. You have the option to not get the record, or go over to iTunes and pay $10 for it." With that I finally understood what had irked me, the thwarting of my own selfish expectations. I had so focused upon the concept of getting something for free that when there was any impediment, real or perceived, I became annoyed. And in this age of the ascendant blogosphere, annoyance far too often leads to rant-y and petulant blog posts, such as this one.