«This highly anticipated history of Contemporary Christian Music does not disappoint. Mapping out the complex and shifting landscape of popular Christian music, Payne provides an indispensable guide to the soundtrack of millions of Americans' lives while offering a fascinating window into evangelical culture more broadly.»

Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and F

«This wonderfully written, skillfully researched book adds much to what we know about popular religious music in the 20th and 21st centuries. Payne covers so much fascinating ground that others have not been over, illuminating a great deal about religion, pop culture, politics, and more.»

Randall J. Stephens, Author of The Devil's Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced R

«Fascinating! A fast-paced narrative as illuminating as it is cautionary about the powerful bond between Christian music and the making of white evangelical identity. Trust me-if you, like me, grew up with Amy Grant, you don't want to miss this book.»

Beth Allison Barr, Author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became G

«God Gave Rock and Roll to You will take its place in the small canon of essential books on the subject. This is smart, historically accurate, sometimes humorous, and always gracious writing. It speaks to the genuine, heartfelt desire to honor God through music-how beautiful the impulse can be and how wrong Christians often get it. Easy to read and hard to put down.»

Charlie Peacock, Grammy Award-winning music producer

«God may have given Rock and Roll to white evangelicals, but as it turns out, they preferred a chimera instead: Contemporary Christian Music. As Leah Payne expertly shows in this indispensable survey, for several decades, CCM became a prized vehicle for the goal of many conservative religious movements: socialization and control.»

Gregory Alan Thornbury, Author of Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? Larry Norman and the

«[A] comprehensive and fascinating survey of a much-maligned yet influential musical genre.»

Publishers Weekly

«This breezy yet fact-filled romp through the Christian side of American popular culture from 1897 to the present will be eye-opening for many secular readers.»

Library Journal

«Dr. Leah Payne's book remains a significant contribution to this field of research. God Gave Rock and Roll to You is an impressive rendering of a diverse history and will serve as a standard work on evangelical cultural production. It is essential reading for those who want to deepen their understanding of late modern evangelicalism.»

Tomas Poletti Lundström, Sociology Of Religion