With that said, it was after the Jesus Movement of the ’60s and ’70s, during the 1980’s that many non-denominational churches sprouted up all over America, some of them overseen by self-appointed pastors and leaders who were unaccountable to anyone but themselves. As a result, in the Christian community, young adults, desirous to serve God, were drawn into congregations with showbiz-style charismatic leaders who exploited the enthusiasm and commitment of individuals who, at that time, were too immature to differentiate the counterfeit from the divine.

Kids “raised” in many of these churches responded harshly to hype and unbiblical legalism and emerged from the experience tattooed, smoking, drinking, and toting around babies born out of wedlock. Lost between redemption and confusion were grossly cynical parents who realized they wasted precious years serving man and not God and a generation of kids who sang with Psalty, then grew up eager to partake of forbidden fruit.

Similar scenarios were common in churches across America and could explain the disturbing phenomenon presently on display where the worldly success Christian pop stars achieve is often accompanied by a public fall from grace. Two of the most obvious examples of church kid tragedy include the sorry lives of Jessica and Ashlee Simpson and train-wreck-waiting-to-happen Katy Perry.

In Jessica and Ashlee Simpson’s case, they are the daughters of a former minister-turned-showbiz-pimp named Joe Simpson. Mr. Simpson began as a youth pastor at Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas and, if one were to guess, probably aspired to heights at “Heights” higher than the youth ministry.

It’s probable some kind of disappointment caused Joe to drop the Bible, change from preacher to manager, and work toward elevating his singing daughter from the choir to reality TV. Problem is, ever since Joe made Jessica’s stardom his religion, nothing but disaster has followed the girl. Jessica ’s foray into the world of Hollywood notoriety may have made her a superstar/business mogul, but with success has come irreparable pain and humiliation.

Jessica Simpson’s climb to fame began when she revealed herself to be a bubble-headed ditz after mistaking tuna fish for chicken and ended soon after when she divorced wholesome, nice guy Nick Lachey. The star-studded Simpson divorce list also includes another failed marriage for younger sister/pop star Ashlee, whose marriage to Pete Wentz produced one son named Bronx Mowgli.

After her divorce from Lachey, Jessica Simpson’s romantic life read like a who’s who of unattached men.  The list included such notables as: Maroon Five’s Adam Levine, comedian Dane Cook, and blabbermouth pop star John Mayer, who described Jessica this way: “That girl was like crack cocaine to me… Sexually, it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm.”

Then there was football star Tony Romo, Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan, and her latest, Eric Johnson, father to Joe Simpson’s unborn grandchild.

And let’s not forget Jessica’s breakout movie role in which she soaped up a Dodge Charger dressed in a pink bikini, as Daisy Duke in butt-exposing hot pants in the remake of “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

So while church life and church people are imperfect, the answer was certainly not for Joe Simpson to replace the flawed outworking of Christianity with dysfunction, promiscuity, divorce, and public ridicule which, in Jessica and Ashlee’s case, came disguised as fame and fortune. One can’t help but wonder: if and when Pastor Joe contemplates the cost of celebrity, is he proud?  Has it been worth it?

Either way, besides the Simpson sisters, in the church-kid arena, there’s also alleged teen father Justin Bieber, raunchy Tweeter Natasha Bedingfield, and bawdy Southern Baptist girl Britney Spears. Yet not one of them surpass the biggest disaster in the PK (pastor’s kid) department, former Christian singer turned flamboyant superstar, the shameless self-promoter Katy Perry.

Unlike Joe Simpson, Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson’s father Keith would probably prefer that his pop-icon daughter not profit by gaining the world and losing her soul. However, hugely successful for all the wrong reasons and based on some of her blasphemous comments, outspoken jester Katy might disagree.

Cartoon Katy is indeed the consummate reactionary Christian school and camp/singing in church/no-TV-or-dancing kid. Katy rebelled by remaking herself into a gay activist/slutty pinup girl.  She sings songs like “Ur So Gay,” married ex-heroin and sex addict/comedian/Hare Krishna/80-women-a-month Russell Brand, and filed for divorce after just one year.

In her Rolling Stone magazine interview entitled “Sex, God & Katy Perry: The Hard Road and Hot Times of a Fallen Angel,” Katheryn Hudson said, “When I was a kid, I asked questions about my faith. Now I’m asking questions about the world.”

Hopefully, when the applause of the world Katy Perry is asking questions about stops – which it will – the klieg lights cease to reflect off her electric blue wig, and the cupcake bra is hung out to dry, Ms. Katy will stop singing “I Kissed a Girl” long enough to embrace the essence of truth she was raised to accept but thus far chooses to reject.

And rather than becoming another casualty of an imperfect church filled with imperfect people, perhaps Katheryn will one day have an opportunity to teach Pastor Joe Simpson a thing or two about grace, redemption, and what the God he purported to once believe in considers the true measure of success.

Unanimity of public opinion over popular song has passed.  Music, which used to unite, now divides.  Eminem and Ludacris would have been unthinkable thirty years ago.  We live in an antinomian age where it’s hip to defy conventional wisdom long after every vestige of conventional wisdom lies in tatters.  Where Keats’ Grecian Urn once proclaimed, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” today’s antinomian consumer proclaims, “Whatever,” in a voice oozing ennui.

Cultural arbiters such as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and People regularly cover hip-hop as serious art, generally in the music section.  But if music is a combination of rhythm, harmony, and melody, where does hip-hop, with its chanting and choruses “sampled” from better songs fit in?  Is it music?  Not by definition.  It’s a perpetuation of “the dozens,” the tradition of black cultural put-downs and sports-style cheerleading set to a beat.

The Billboard Top 100 is depressing.  The artists are either rappers or American Idol survivors.  It’s great that Stevie Wonder sings a song with the Jonas Brothers, but where is the new Stevie Wonder?

Thank God for the divas.  Thirty years ago, the divas were Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Martha Reeves, Patti LaBelle and their ilk–real women with real songs.  Today’s divas are Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston, and Ashlee Simpson.  Can anybody hum anything by Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera?  How about the Back Street Boys, ‘N’ Sync, or Justin Timberlake?  Today’s divas, exemplified by the vocal acrobats on American Idol, prove their divaness by avoiding the melody.

There are Top Forty artists who still value craft.  Occasionally, a real song makes it on the play list.  Maroon 5 and Leona Lewis suggest song craft is not entirely dead.  It has merely been driven underground.

What an underground.

If you’ve never hummed a Beatles song, have no love for The Who, Cheap Trick, the Raspberries, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Stone Roses, Tom Petty, Linda Rondstadt, the Bangles, the Beach Boys, the Beckies, Badfinger or the Byrds, stop here.  Go back to your X-Box.

Like Australian convicts, eucalyptus trees and the nutria, pop music has flourished in exile.  Thousands of bands have taken advantage of new technology to record themselves, and offer their product over the Internet.  Thanks to downloadable programs like GarageBand.com, you don’t even need to produce CDs.

Most self-released records go for twelve to thirteen dollars.  Not cheap, but they offer things no major label can match: unalloyed joy and soaring pop song craft.  Peter Townshend, lead singer and guitarist for The Who, coined the term “power pop” to indicate the type of complex, joyful, upbeat music pioneered by the Beatles.  Power pop songs use harmonies and have at least three chords.

PowerPop keeps track of many of these bands.  Most have their own websites.  All pursue song craft with skill and passion: The Offbeat, The Churchills, The Davenports, The Wigs, The Wellingtons, Scott Miller, Sloan, L’Avventura, Superdrag, The Shazam, Heavy Blinkers, Bryan Scary, Hindu Rodeo, Michael Carpenter and Ness, to name a handful of the more important bands.

Independent popsters are more politically savvy than their gargantuan Top 40 Counterparts.  (Did you ever imagine that Bruce Springsteen, who started so well, would end up spouting socialist crap?)  Hindu Rodeo in particular gets it.  On their first, self-titled album, “Evil White Man” gleams with pop smarts and a great hook.  “I wish I was a woman/ So I’d think with my head/Not just the one ‘tween my legs/So I’d live twice as Long/Dance on my grave when I’m gone/But I’m an evil white man.”

Their second album, Nalladaloobr, is even better with brilliant, incisive, and danceable songs such as “McLife,” “American People” and “Somebody’s Eyes.”

Greg Pope’s Popmonster which dominated ‘08’s Top Ten Lists, proves the power of the lone artist working by himself.  Unbelievably, Greg Pope recorded every sound: drums, guitar, keys, you name it, and provided all the vocals.  The results are one of the most dynamic shout-it-out rock records since Born to Run.

The songs are way beyond my baby don’t love me, dealing with family responsibility in “I Got a Life” and individual responsibility in “Burden.”

Other power poppers who do it all themselves include Bryan Scary on his first record, Ed James, Josh Fix whose Free at Last came out of nowhere to land on everybody’s Top Ten, Jason Falkner, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Michael Behm, and the Well Wishers to name a few.

Bill Majoros of The Foreign Films released a two disc debut set in 2007 that compares favorably to The White Album for sheer breadth and scope.  The Foreign Films play with an overwhelming emotional power that most modern bands can’t grasp.

Some power poppers achieve major label success but they are the exception and not the rule.  Barenaked Ladies and Fort Collins, Colorado’s Color Me Pink are two such bands.

Seattle-based Sub Pop has offered haven to The Shins, Fleet Foxes, and Flight of the Conchords.

Not Lame Records is foremost among the tiny independent labels carrying the power pop torch.  Not Lame’s premier act is the Nashville-based Shazam, a trio with soaring, anthemic songs and enormous guitar.  Not Lame’s owner, Bruce Brodeen, is a devout Christian who trained to be a Lutheran minister.  One day he had an epiphany: he was to start his own label.  Not Lame has rescued stunning power pop from the past such as the two Toms records, another one man band in the person of Tommy Marolda.

New York-based Rainbow Quartz Records is another outstanding power pop label, specializing in finding acts from all over the world.  Especially Sweden.  During this season of ABBA revival it comes as no surprise that the dark Scandinavian countries produce some of the sunniest music ever recorded.  In particular, Rainbow Quartz’ Marmalade Souls is a haunting evocation of Mommas and Poppas era rock with a spark of fresh genius.

Rainbow Quarts is also home to Andy Bopp (Myracle Brah) and RockFour, the tightest rockin’ psychedelic band to ever emerge from Tel Aviv.

You can find most of these bands on fan sites such as Powerpopaholic and Absolute Powerpop.  Every year going as far back as I can remember has been notable, but 2008 was one of the very best.  You can find my Top Ten list and numerous others at:  Not Lame Blog.