Ever the little praise label that could, Integrity Music chose to mark its 25th birthday with
25 Songs That Changed the Way We Worship, a retrospective that attempts to capture the life and the times of one of the underdogs of contemporary Christian music. Praise music and CCM have always been strange bedfellows, which explains why Integrity was never a singles- or radio-driven powerhouse, but mainly existed to serve the church with new songs of praise -- before becoming a bona fide record label, its popular direct-to-church music servicing model was its primary bread and butter. In those early years, it was all about the songs and never about the praise leaders singing them; Integrity didn't even bother putting their pictures on the album covers. That's how worship veterans like
Don Moen,
Paul Baloche, Lenny LeBlanc, and
Darlene Zschech went on to become better known for their songs than by their names or what they looked like. It was a model that served Integrity well, until the advent of modern worship and singer-centric praise forced the label to adapt and start thinking in terms of radio singles, imaging, and trends. Signs of the times.