I rather enjoy Christmas music, actually. Especially sacred music such as hymns and Handel’s “Messiah”.
Some really good voices there, but what’s with the crazy tempos? That cadet group seemed like they were being paid by the note.
I can start listening to radio again after 1 month… no more jazzy versions of “Jolly old Saint Nicholas” on the Jazz stations, and no more baroque versions of “The Little Drummer Boy” on the Classical stations.
That’s the problem (as many others have said) - it’s freaking everywhere, you can’t get away from it.
Bah Humbug.
One factor may be the conservatism of Christmas music. People listen to a given piece of Christmas music as much because it is tradition to listen to it as because they deem it nice music. “Sleigh Ride” is not Leroy Anderson’s best work; but are you familiar with “The Typewriter”, “The Waltzing Cat”, “Bugler’s Holiday”, “Sandpaper Ballet”, etc, as you are with “Sleigh Ride”? Do you hear the others as often?
And name the Bing Crosby hits you hear most often — I bet you’d recognize “White Christmas” and you might know that “Little Drummer Boy” duet he did with David Bowie, but which of his other songs comes to mind when I mention his name? “Swingin’ on a Star” perhaps? But you’re not as tired of that one because you don’t hear it as often, right?
The conservatism of Christmas music works against the culling of songs that are just kinda good (or worse) and of songs that we’ve worn out and are ready to move on from.
For the most part, I don’t want a whole lot of things to change around Christmas. That means nobody wants your stupid kale salad, Stacy! Which I know is folly because the only time culture doesn’t change is when it’s dead. But in the last few years, I’ve noticed that the variety of Christmas songs played on the radio has diminished seriously here in Little Rock. It’s been years since I’ve heard the Waistresses “Christmas Wrapping” and the only version of Carol of the Bells I heard was from Trans-Siberian Railroad. A few years back I used to hear a wider variety of Christmas songs but it’s like the radio stations here really shortened their playlist for some reason.
For what it’s worth, some places have repetitive music anyway, whether it’s the radio or some kind of automatic tape, or Pandora-type thing.
Xmas music might be a relief for a short while. I know it would have been when I worked at a restaurant and the same tape was played for 3 weeks straight every day.
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That means nobody wants your stupid kale salad, Stacy!
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If you put mayonaisse on your Kale, it makes it easier to scrape it into the garbage.
There is plenty of Christmas music I like, especially when I’m driving around looking at lights or something. A fair bit of it is stuff I heard as a kid, like Johnny Mathis’ Christmas album. (I actually think HIS version of “The Christmas Song” has a little bit of an edge over Nat’s.)
But I’m not as crazy about a lot of the stuff I hear on the radio, for the reasons several posters have given above…it’s the same stuff over and over, and they start the 24/7 business way too early. (One station started it on ELECTION DAY this year!) When I was a kid, stations mixed Christmas music with their regular programming starting on Black Friday. They only did 24-hour music on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So it didn’t seem so repetitive.
And the content they choose…well, as some of you guys have said, it’s mainly the same covers of the same dozen or so songs. I do enjoy it when selections from A Charlie Brown Christmas pop up on the radio, or “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch”, or anything from John Denver And The Muppets, or TSO’s “Christmas Canon”. But so much of the rest seems rather monotonous, and I’d rather listen to my own downloaded stuff. Like The Nutcracker. Or one CD I have of a chamber orchestra and chorus doing old English carols. Or anything orchestral, choral, or brass.
And there’s a reason my own cobbled-together playlist is mostly stuff you don’t hear on the radio every day. Like Pavarotti’s “Gesu Bambino”. Or the Monkees’ “Riu Chiu”. Or Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “A-Soalin”, which used to get airplay but I never hear on the radio anymore.
But as much as I do honestly like a lot of Christmas music, I’d rather stations go back to the practice of (A) not playing it until Black Friday, and (B) mixing it in with their regular programming until the holiday itself.