P&W in and of itself is not bad, it's just "generic" - this is the reason we don't prefer it as a musical genre that we'd go out and buy albums by these artists.
It is excellent for worship time - What it accomplishes is a bridge for all ages and all musical preferences to come together as one to worship our worthy Creator.
But as for recreational listening ? I'll be poppin in a Bloodgood CD to listen to over a Chris Tomlin album. It's certainly not a matter of talent, as many P&W artists have a lot of talent, rather it's a matter of musical preference.
One other issue for me is the occasional silly lyric, or even the lyrics that may have incorrect doctrine in them (songs that were not well thought out when they were writing them)
- Silly lyrics (to me) is singing "
and I can feel this God-song rising up in me"... "
God-song"??
Others are the songs that, for example, have a word like "Ne'er" for Never
One example of something we shouldn't be singing in a New Covenant church today is the Psalm where David sang "
Take not your Holy Spirit from me"... I don't want to get all doctrinal here, but I cannot sing that song knowing what God teaches in the New Covenant about the permanent Sealing of Spirit in the believer, the Holy Spirit who takes up permanent residence in the N.T. believer... I think it's insulting to sing to God to please don't take that Spirit from me, when He already said He WON'T.
I could go on with the examples and the fact that the songs have repetitions (something that drives me crazy), even God said "sing Me a
new song."
On the flip side of my ramblings here, there are certain P&W songs that simply jump out of the box and give me chills... those are the ones I will buy just that song and listen to.
And I also have the first 4 Maranatha! Praise Band releases from the early 90s as those have a special place in my heart as I was a new believer then and listened to them over and over.