My favorite website of all-time and space turns 25 years old today! What a milestone! I thought I’d honor its existence with twenty-five reasons why I love it so much. Here goes…
1. It helped start my love for christian music during my formative years in the 1990’s.
2. It helped me expand my musical tastes beyond radio ready pop, to include, ska, alternative, rock, hip hop, and worship.
3. The site gave me a great late night hobby with hours upon hours of things to read.
4. The music news section kept me up to date on what was happening in the industry faster than my once a month subscription to CCM magazine.
5. The album release dates gave me something to look forward to every week.
6. It educated me on all things Christian music so I could impress my one friend who cared about Christian music in high school.
7. It allowed me to take music nerd to a whole new level. 🤓
8. It provided a place to discuss, debate, and respectfully disagree with others who shared a passion for Christian music.
9. The music reviews helped me listen to music with a more discerning ear and put my critical thinking/analytical mind to good use.
10. It gave me music to pursue beyond what the radio played, and to my shock a lot of it was much better.
11. It helped me discover new bands that I would have otherwise missed.
12. It helped me be prepared for albums I needed unsealed so I could listen to them on my weekly trips to the Christian bookstore.
13. Some websites can crank out reviews faster, but I could always count on a fair, in-depth review.
14. Reading the reviews over the years helped me develop a love of writing reviews myself.
15. I love JFH because the site has always been sleek and easy to navigate without a ton of advertisements getting on the way or popping up.
16. Because they have taken a stand choosing not to review albums from artists that move away from the Christian industry and include ungodly content/profanity in them.
17. The movie reviews are detailed and on point.
18. More recently the podcast has been a fun addition for me to listen to on days with lots of driving.
19. The lists! I love the features and best of lists including the most anticipated albums of the year, and the end of the year lists.
20. The 10 and 20 year later blogs are a favorite read, reminding me of great albums, and sometimes introducing me to music I missed the first time around.
21. Concert reviews that give me more info on live shows to check out.
22. It’s provided me with great friendships that have expanded my views of, and taste in music.
23. They have graciously brought me on the podcast (11 times and counting!) to share my thoughts on albums, lists, and topics very close to my heart.
24. I love that JFH champions indie artists and has an entire page/database dedicated to unsigned artists who can submit their music for review. In addition, the yearly free sampler of indie artists for download is always a highlight.
Last but not least…
25. I’m glad they took a chance on adding me to the review team over four years ago. It was a twenty year dream, and it’s been a blast!
I love jesusfreakhideout!
How about you fellow readers and Christian music fans? What are your favorite things about the now twenty-five year old https://www.jesusfreakhideout.com?!
Head on over to the site for some really cool features, reviews, blog posts, and a free (yeah I said FREE!) 62 song indie sampler that you can download of new music as we celebrate 25 years! Also, if you’d like to see regular news, reviews, and join the discussion online we have a Facebook page you can follow and the JFH Podcast group you can join to discuss the topics that we cover with others of similar musical tastes. Hope to see you soon!
Happy Listening
-josh
joshbalogh 