This link goes to an extended excerpt on creativity and Christians by Michael Gungor from his book The Crowd, the Critic and the Muse.
It is well worth the read.
In it Gungor explains the difficulties in being categorised as a Christian musician, a tag which says little about what sort of music it that he creates, but which says volumes about who will listen to it and which in turn imposes certain limitations on the music he can create.
It features this summary about the target audience of radio stations run by Christians:
For years, Christian music marketers and radio programmers have known who their target demographic is. They actually have personified this target demographic, and her name is “Becky.”
If you think I’m joking, ask any Christian radio programmer about her. A lot of stations have very specific information based on reams of market research. One station programmer told me that Becky is a forty-two-year-old soccer mom. She has three kids and she has been married twice. She is an evangelical Christian, but not a radical who watches Christian television or goes to church three times a week. She only attends church once or twice a month. They know what her favorite restaurant is. In fact, they know what restaurant she likes to eat at with her husband on a date and which restaurant she likes to take the kids to. They know the movies she watches and how she spends her money. She is the one who runs her household, the one with her finger on the radio knob, and she wants something positive to play in the minivan as she drives her kids to soccer practice.
In Australia she probably has a different name and goes to church less, but the philosophy is the same.
mgpcpastor's blog 
I know Becky. She was 37 when I met her. I didn’t know she had been married twice, but her husband is a tradesman. They have a golden retriever. They like to drink Gloria Jeans coffee and go into WORD or Koorong once a year for the worship album from their favourite city church.
And her name was Becky? Not Shazza?
The article by Gungor is an excerpt from his book on creativity.
She did have another name, but it wasn’t stereotypically Aussie. I don’t recall what it was. I liked to call her Mildred, but she didn’t like that.
I have always wondered at the way “Christian” is used as an adjective. It seems wrong. I don’t listen to Becky’s music, as most of it is mediocre trash. I agree with Duke Ellington: there are only two types of music, good and bad.
You ever read Reggie Kidd’s With One Voice?
Helpful.
Never read it, but I am not sure that corporate worship can be compared to music for the radio or making music as a professional musician outside the doors of the church. The superficial genre of “Christian” has created all sorts of problems for believers who are making music as a living. I just don’t use the terminology. It seems to be based on the genetic fallacy: made by a Christian=good. Not made by a Christian=bad. But things stand or fall on their own merits.
Herman Dooyeweerd has been more helpful to me in regards to creativity than anyone else I have read. Daniel Lanois too.
Cheers,
C
I think creator intention has to be considered in some manner.
If, as Bach said “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” what do we make of soundscapes created with idolatrous intent and purpose?
If you can name a song that has the intention you mentioned, I will guess that there are yet elements in it that glorify God and can refresh the soul, because it was made by a someone created in His image. No matter how distorted we may be become, we can never erase the Imago Dei. Every person must use the materials God provides.
Besides, supposedly the music that is made for Becky is made with the intent mentioned by Bach, but the better part of it stinks. So, are we supposed to accept it because of the intent? That reasoning is why the church has become irrelevant to many people. Actual qualitative judgments have been replaced with subjective assessments.
Yes.
One of the reasons I liked the essay by Gungor was the way in which he pointed out some of that in a manner which demonstrated his affection for creativity didn’t outweigh his love for people for whom Jesus has given His life.
I suppose an affection for anything that trumps love for the saints is a bad thing. But, giving honour to whom honour is due means making distinctions between those who have it and those who don’t. Some may feel like they deserve it, but that doesn’t make the ones who don’t give it truly unloving. They are just doing what God commands.