Christian music doesn’t exist.  Please stop using that term.  Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was for the redemption of people, not music.  Christian music is not a genre - it’s a theme.  People should be able to sing songs with a God-oriented theme in many genre’s - according to their tastes.  Perhaps the question we’re really trying to answer is what musical genres work best in the institutional church?

Christian worship music (at least in the predominantly white churches I’ve attended) is typically a mix of folk, country, adult contemporary/easy-listening, and pop genres.  There was more R&B influence in the 90’s (let’s pray it comes back!) with some of the recorded worship leaders such as Ron Kennoly.  It’s more than semantic nit-picking.  To label Christian music as a genre fosters a limiting mindset on what is “appropriate” and what is not.

As a worship team member, understanding the genre of the music you are playing is critical.  For the same reason you wouldn’t bring an acoustic guitar to a thrash band rehearsal (unless you were planning on smashing it), don’t bring a skull & crossbones electric guitar to praise team rehearsal.  Why?  Simple: it doesn’t fit the folk, adult contemporary, and pop genres.