Christian punk

Christian punk (or Christ punk as it is also called as a reference to crust punk) is a form of Christian alternative music and a subgenre of punk rock with some degree of Christian lyrical content. Much disagreement persists about the boundaries of the subgenre, and the extent that their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies among bands. For example, the seminal band The Crucified explicitly rejected the classification in their songs.

Christian punk bands that target a Christian audience explicitly state their beliefs and use overt Christian imagery in their lyrics may be considered a part of the contemporary Christian music (CCM) industry; some observers would consider this music to fall outside the scope of Christian punk.

Given the edginess of punk and some of its sub-genres, such as hardcore punk, many bands have been rejected by the Christian and CCM music industry.Template:Fact Some bands generally avoid specific mention of God or Jesus; likewise some bands may specifically reject the CCM label or express disdain for that niche of the music industry. For example, Ninety Pound Wuss vocalist Jeff Suffering said about the breakup of the band in 2000, "...[N]obody wanted to continue playing in [the] "Christian" music industry." Tooth & Nail Records, a major record label for Christian punk bands, distributes albums by their bands in Christian bookstores; several of their bands whose albums they distribute to Christian stores do not call themselves Christian bands, and some of these also have some members who do not identify themselves Christians. Tooth & Nail does not identify themselves as a Christian label , but since they have had openly Christian bands on their roster such as The O.C. Supertones, Project 86, and Thousand Foot Krutch, their other bands are also often distributed to Christian stores.

Related genres are Christian hardcore and metalcore, Christian rock, Christian alternative music and Christian metal.

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