Book Review - Body Piercing Saved My Life

During my breaks from school, I often try to read at least one or two "lighter" books - usually on topics that I find interesting but that doesn't require much hard thinking on my part. These books are generally nonfiction and have included titles such as Into the Wild, John Adams, and Under the Banner of Heaven. The only exceptions to this loose criteria (no fiction books) that I can think of are Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy and books by Bob Welch, which I really enjoy.

During this holiday break I breezed through Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock by Andrew Beaujon and it was exactly the type of book I was looking for. The book is written by a non-Christian music journalist (Beaujon writes music reviews for the Washington Post and the Washington City Paper), and he interposes a historical account of the rise of the Christian music industry with interviews with many important figures from the past and present.

I can't say that I necessarily agreed with everything the author wrote, but he certainly made me think about corporate worship and the tension between "Christian music" and "music performed by Christian artists." If you are like me and were raised on a steady diet of DC Talk, Petra, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Carmen, then you'd probably really enjoy the book. If you have never listened to Christian music and are unfamiliar with many of the artists, then this book probably won't be quite as interesting. All in all, it was just what I was looking for this break.

Conclusion: 8/10