Beckah Shae is “fed up, upset, angry and frustrated.” What did it take to get the Christian singer/songwriter so peeved? The current state of pop music. In fact, Shae is so concerned about the character-shaping power of contemporary tunes in the lives of young fans that the Dove-nominated pop/R&B artist recently decided to research Billboard’s Top-5 pop singles. The lyrics. The artists. But that only made her feel worse.
“Bob, I literally felt sick,” Beckah said during a conversation we had on The Official Plugged In Podcast. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. And to think this is the top, this is what millions and millions of listeners are consuming.”
Young listeners, in most cases. Which is why Beckah feels so passionately about the darkness and depravity marching in today’s hit parade—lyrics that could cause particular harm to children still trying to figure out who they are and what they believe. And who understands the potential for damage better than someone who bears the scars of first-hand experience?
“My parents were divorced when I was a baby,” Beckah told me. “My mom remarried three times. As a result of that, we moved around a whole lot. We lived with family members and friends. We stayed in battered women’s shelters for months at a time. There was just a lot of hopping around. So I was never really stable. I was never in one place. …. So I learned very quickly how to adjust and transition, and to conform, really.”
A huge catalyst for that conformity was music, specifically the diverse styles Beckah found herself embracing at any given time during her youth. With the exception of heavy metal, she’d immersed herself in just about every genre by her early 20s.
“I would get bored really fast, so I would start listening to swing music, and then I would go swing dancing four days a week,” she explained. “And I was listening to big band music. And then I was listening to rock, y’know, Pearl Jam, and I’d have my flight jackets on and my boots. I would conform in every way, from the way that I looked, to the way that I talked. It was a whole way of living, whatever music I was listening to. Back in the day, when I was listening to R&B and hip-hop, I was wearing cross colors, and I would talk a certain way and walk a certain way. It was all in or all out. That’s how I was. It was affecting everything that I was.”
It led her into a world of raves, fake I.D.s, experimental drugs, depression and eating disorders. Then, after years of changing her identity the way most adolescent girls switch hairstyles, Beckah found a church online while living in Las Vegas and attended a worship service there. Suddenly, she saw herself through the eyes of the only One who mattered.
“It wasn’t until I found who I was in Christ that I became free, and I could say, ‘OK, there’s nothing that’s worth listening to and nothing worth living for but for Christ.’ It washed out all of that [other stuff]. To find who I was in Him was really where my freedom was. I believe when you see yourself the way God sees you, it’s the beginning of freedom.”
Two songs on Beckah’s latest CD, Destiny, warn listeners to take stock of the media as they’re consuming (“Music,” “Show Me”). As the father of a teenage daughter myself, I’m excited to see an artist of her caliber creating an energetic alternative to the music of Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Rihanna and Lady Gaga. It’s also great to hear Beckah’s clear sense of identity and purpose after years of wandering and experimentation.
How does Beckah’s experience resonate with you, personally? Have you or someone you know been shaped by music in a tangible way?
Listen to Beckah Shae share her story in episode #118 of The Official Plugged In Podcast.
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