I recently heard a college student make a statement about a rock band that got me thinking about conversion.  He said, “My roommate was the one who got me into that band.”  Those three words, “got me into” are powerful.  How does one person help another become a fan of a particular band or style of music?  I thought about my colleague Mary McDonough’s excellent post about musical conversion here.  While she is focused on the music artists themselves, I think there is a similar dynamic at play with fans.

My friend Mark, who was my roommate in graduate school at Iowa State, is the one who “got me into” King’s X.  I had heard the band on Detroit rock radio, and I even knew two of their songs.  I found them interesting, but I was not anywhere near the King’s X fanatic that I am today!  Mark, however, was crazy about them!  I think back, 20 years ago, to our first discussions about music.  What was it that won me over to this music?  I think Mark’s passion about the band had something to do with my own eventual interest.  He smiled broadly everytime he talked about King’s X, whether the topic was a live show or a particular song, or meeting the musicians for the first time after waiting by their tour bus after a show.  Another aspect that won me over was Mark’s willingness to part with his beloved King’s X CDs for a few days and allow me to be initiated into their music.  I would not have been able to purchase these albums on my frugal graduate student stipend, especially if I did not know whether or not I liked them.  Finally, Mark was able to guide me through my listening experience.  He helped raise my awareness to some of the more subtle aspects of the music that I would never have heard on my own at first, and he told me which songs were, in his opinion, more powerful than others.  These insights were very helpful and, I believe, they aided my “getting into” King’s X.

This dynamic of “getting into” a band fascinates me.  It is definitely not always a “conversion” experience like St. Paul’s, although there’s no reason why it couldn’t be!  But it is powerful and, certainly, spiritually edifying.

In case anyone is open to “getting into” King’s X, you might want to start here!

Dave Nantais, Detroit, MI