Dispelling myths

The prevailing reason that I've heard people (many of them Christians) give for why they don't listen to Christian music is that it isn't very good.  For many years, the prevailing stereotype of Christian music is that it is very basic, not very deep, derivative, childish, or out of touch with reality (its usually seen as unrealistically happy, plastic, or as my pastor would say, "earthworm baby") and must say "Jesus" or "God" in every other sentence.
Frankly, this stereotype has some fair points.  Worship music is often fairly basic instrumentally, and sometimes lyrically.  However, this is because it is helpful for most worship music to be easily memorized to sing and/or play.  That said, I don't generally listen to worship music when I'm not actively worshiping (I know plenty who do, I just don't).  There is also a lot of mainstream (non-worship) Christian music is pretty simple.  Some of it features synthesized instruments rather than a true band.  There is certainly music that features lyrics which aren't especially meaningful or which seem to have been written by someone constantly on Prozac.  But I think that it is unfair to level these accusations squarely at Christian music.  After all, when was the last time that Brittany Spears impressed anyone with her instrumental complexity or Kesha (sorry, the dollar sign isn't available) moved people with her lyrics that dealt with the great issues of life?
While the stereotype may hold on the surface of the Christian music scene (even I don't listen to the local Christian radio station), there are whole areas of the music industry that are shattering it.  I'm sure that there are genres where this is not true.  For example, I have no idea how the Christian folk scene is doing.  I would have thought to write off most Christian rap as well, but I have a friend who tells me that there is some pretty good stuff out there.  For the purposes of this blog, though, I'm going to restrict my posting to Christian rock and metal, because that is what I mostly listen to (though if anyone knows a Christian Irish folk band, I'd love to hear about it).
I've heard it said that Christian rock is an oxymoron.  I disagree.  It may take a little digging to get past the mainstream music, but there are some fantastic bands out there, 'even' compared to non-Christian music.  I've seen lots of comments from people who are upfront about saying that they are not Christians, but who still love the band's sound.  I'll work on covering bands from rock, to heavy rock, to metal, and some of the things in between.  I get a little fuzzy on sub-genres and sub-sub-genres, so forgive me is the hardcore band I'm talking about it actually metalcore or if the rock band is actually alternative.  If you can nitpick that much, you obviously already have figured out what it actually is.