Let me share some of the musicians that thrived 4 decades ago worth the ear that helped shape the current christian musicians you hear today. Prior to the Flower People and Jesus Freaks during the late 60's and the early 70's. It was an era where most worship services have the hymnals and the organ as the norm and anything that exceeds that could be considered worldly. Anything that sounded rock or with full band would have the elders raise their eyebrows. It was an era when you say Christian music would equal monotony and boring sound...as in worships songs were centuries old like Mighty Fortress Is Our God a hymn Martin Luther composed which ironically was a bar room song as in "pang beerhouse" during their era. These musicians suffered from their very own faith they belong, but still continued to counter the music scene winning hearts and souls while being lambasted by their fellow Christians. These are some of the names as far as I can recall and collected their recordings:
Keith Green, Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, Tom Howard, Love Song, Sweet Comfort, Tommy Coomes, and a host of others which I would later name. During the 70's There was a TV program aired -Maranatha , where a concert takes place, in between concerts a preaching takes place as I can remember it was Jim Kepner, he was dressed like any 70's dude far from looking like a pastor...and then after the preaching goes for an altar call...crude during that time but where winning souls... For reference try reading CCM Contemporary Christian Music in wikipedia