Modnote: Not just Eyebrows_0f_Doom, but to all, this is about Christmas music, not a discussions about religion and what aspects of Christmas are religious.
So back to the music please.
*This is just a guidance, not a warning. Nothing on your permanent record of course. *
I don’t think Santa will need to check it twice.
Reflecting only on my own experience, I think at least a part of the reason – for some perhaps a big part – is that most Christmas music is traditional and carries a strong nostalgia factor, much of it from our childhood in which for most of us Christmas was a uniquely happy time. That very thing made me love Christmas music and carried far into my adulthood. But as time went on and Christmas became less of a family event and gradually less and less important, that nostalgia carries a weighty sadness. The celebratory nature of Christmas music becomes almost mocking.
That’s the way with most novelty songs and I would argue that almost all Christmas songs are essentially novelty songs. The holidays are pretty much like listening to Dr. Demento every waking hour for two months. For me, that stopped being fun when I was 12.
Yikes! Nothing silent about that Silent Night! Much better than the original though.
Here’s one bit of Christmas music that’s totally worth listening to, you hosers:
I have it on a CD and it’s an important family tradition to play it before tackling the few presents under our tiny tree.
This is also good Christmas music and truly speaks to Christmas American style:
Sadly you will NEVER hear either of these songs while shopping at a mall.
This summed it up for me way back at post #3
For me it’s simply that it’s music I don’t enjoy. If every Christmas song had the lyrics changed I would not enjoy any of it.
The Paul McCartney Christmas Cash Grab (as I think of it) is the one I absolutely despise. And the traditional choral stuff I find, unfortunately, funereal and depressing.
I don’t mind, however, jazz and crooner style of Christmas music. Regarding the event - I’m only interested in the time off.
I’d like it if it was limited to a few days around Christmas. There are only a few songs I actively dislike, and I can easily tune them out. But these days - Christmas music, gifts and bric-a-brac start getting rolled out the second the Hallowe’en treats disappear.
As mentioned - the season is too long, the songs mostly mediocre, the playlists too repetitive. If people hate crowds, stress or shopping they associate it with that. New songs can sometimes seem grasping or kitschy. A few songs should just be retired. If they played popular music and some Christmas songs, that would be better than pure kitsch. But that doesn’t seem to happen.
But I don’t dread it. I tune out elevator music and pop schlock too. And who doesn’t carry headphones these days? I wonder if it was once edgy to play the Pogues on Christmas? This also seems to be a bit commonplace.
I find this particular thing schlocky, but I could stand to listen to this a few times at the local dépanneur:
NB: It’s crunchy heavy Quebecois metal singing a christmas song. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Schlock, overly sentimental, repetitive, and there aren’t all that many songs and they are played everywhere all the time for over two months.
Still like Carol of The Bells, and Little Drummer Boy.
That’s it though.
I dunno. I also hate the regular Christmas music, but alas, “Fairytale Of New York” became my favorite song of all after the first listen, being a fucking Christmas song! I still hear it as a fuck you to all the sentimental schmaltz that oozes out of the radio at these times. And I can enjoy it the whole year, I’m as happy to listen to it in August like I am in December. So I have it a tradition to sent all my contacts a link to the song on Christmas, maybe I can convert some of those hopeless souls.
ETA: and it pays Shane’s dental bills. Profit!
For @EinsteinsHund’s other friends who, like me, wondered what he was talking about:
This entire thread should be stamped with a Content Warning for the sheer lethality of its earworms. Like the proverbial “don’t think about a camel,” every Christmas season is, for me, an exercise in concentration to escape any possible thought of “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.” And I was doing so well.
As an antidote, I’m trying to replace it with this as an earworm, Mary Margaret O’Hara’s blues version of “White Christmas”:
This makes me cry, after hanging out drinking with @Equipoise and KirstyacColl following a concert she did at Park West.
I like this one, with Miles Davis and Bob Dorough:
Listen to this one, then:
Always a pleasure to hear Dexter Gordon
This seems like the perfect thread to settle something once and for all. I’ve narrowed the field of most unintentionally gay Christmas songs to these two. Please weigh in on your choice for champeen. This is important.
Yeah, I dread hearing the same Christmas songs every year. I worked for a guy once that played a radio station that was doing the most clichéd kid’s level stuff. It was tedious as hell. I like some Christmas music, more classical, rockabilly, metal…etc.
Always loved this classic …
Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Eve / Sarajevo (Timeless Version) (Official Music Video) [HD] - YouTube
Another favorite from a Christmas music sceptic.
I notice that of the listed 20 most played songs , 15 of them mention Christmas or Santa in the title itself. There are actually very few generic “holiday” songs that don’t mention Christmas or Santa or a tree somewhere. That is not to say that I don’t enjoy some songs. All I Want For Christmas is You is awesome ( shut up Mariah haters), and White Christmas gets a pass because-Irving Berlin. Pretty Paper also gets a pass because I can pretend it’s a Hanukkah song because the ribbons are blue, but I think people hit the nail on the head with the micro aggressions comment. I can’t tell you how many people don’t understand my reluctance to have a Christmas tree because “it’s not a religious symbol”. First of all, it has become a symbol of Christmas, which is a holiday I don’t celebrate-it’s right there in the name. Second, trying to get me to decorate a tree because “you can call it a Hanukkah bush” misses the point that Hanukkah is NOT a Christmas replacement, it is a separate albeit minor holiday with its own customs and traditions and trying to shoehorn in a version of your traditions onto an entirely unrelated holiday is offensive. I will let the staff decorate the office if they wish, I will respond politely to those who wish me a merry Christmas, but I am not hanging lights or decorating a tree or going caroling. However, I will gladly accept some Hershey’s candy cane kisses (because those things are like crack) before I go back to being Scrooge.
Any type of music gets tiresome when you play it over and over for three months of every year, year after year. Worse if it’s religious music and you don’t belong to that religion.