Visible Year 7: Popping into Pop Culture

Many an “overnight sensation” has worked for years without notice. Dozens of artists and managers and tour companies and record labels come and go into and out of popular vision every year. Out of the view of the popular “thing of the day” is a group of people working hard to create music, set up businesses, work on academics, and design new teachings and art and vision that may or may not ever connect with a large audience. Visible School, as it was known, was just popping into the Contemporary Christian Music world in 2006 and 2007 with a few little hard workings of its own.

VW40 and LIME.

Visible 40-Hour Worship, or VW40, was arriving on the scene and hosted by Christ the Rock Church (now Renewal Church Memphis) with 40 hours and 40 leaders from many churches across Memphis coming together to worship. Under the leadership of Shannon Kropf and Heather Isaac and many others, this was a tiring but great event. LIME, or L.I.M.E. for Live Intense Music Experience, was our Music Business department debuting some dozens of bands from across the US and internationally. We met and hosted Extremum from Bulgaria and saw bands from everywhere arrive to compete for spaces with labels, studios, producers, and managers from the industry. We were at every major festival attracting students and getting young singers and bands to come for a chance to also BE on that stage and lead people in worship or entertainment.

That was pop culture in the 2000s. Rock bands and worship in CCM. Emerging hiphop artists and some very few folks musicians who predated the coming rise.

But you don’t always rise at the right time and sometimes you do and then you settle back in to place. Our mission was to release skilled artists of Christian character into the Christian and mainstream market and we did this, some successful to this day. We partnered with groups like Worship Together and toured and learned and grew and built new teams and new systems and saw so many great leaders arise from among our staff and students. Being a creative Christian community before we are a college, Visible has endeavored over the years to be exactly that - a community from which people can incubate and experiment and create new music and new paths for themselves and try to pop into culture with something beautiful or challenging.

We love it and celebrate every attempt to pop.

And sometimes, you just have to relax with friends.