Being a non-Christmas keeper, it’s always fun to have to wade through the amount of folk songs that come out this time of year. However, I often notice that some song associated with the Christmas season aren’t necessarily about Christmas; instead, they’re just about Winter in general. Two examples come readily to mind: Jingle Bells and Let It Snow.
So here’s my question: Since there four seasons, why aren’t there folk songs for Spring, Summer, and Fall? And if there are songs, why don’t they get airplay at the appropriate time of year?
Scott
P.S. I don’t count the Beach Boys as folk artists.
You just don’t listen to the folk radio stations. Folk music isn’t particularly commercial, so it doesn’t get played on your standard R&R station. Lots of seasonal songs do get played on the folk radio stations, although it takes a real purist to get into the Morris Dancing and other springtime fertility rites
I’d be hard pressed to call “Let it snow” a folk song, and even “Jingle Bells” is pushing it a bit, seeing as we know who wrote it. “Traditional” might be a better word.
Okay, so use “traditional” instead of “folk”. My original question still remains: “Jingle Bells” and “Let It Snow” get plenty of air time on most popular radio stations around here. Why don’t any comparable songs from other seasons get airplay? Is winter more commercially viable than all the other seasons?
They do. Every summer, for example, the DJs drag out Mungo Jerry’s “In the SummerTime”. This is now a “traditional” summer song, that’s suitable for a Rock format. In autumn, you can pretty much expect to hear a few renditions of either Joni Mitchell or Tom Rush singing “Urge for Going” (as well as seasonal favorites such as the Monster Mash :-). I can’t offhand think of a good pop music song celebrating springtime, but I’m sure there are a few.
Now note that there’s no big commercial holiday in the Spring or Summer (and XMas is the biggest, baddest commercial holiday of them all), so there’s no reason to saturate the airwaves with thematic music. (Just try to find “Jingle Bells” playing on a radio station on December 26th). So if you want the real “Spring is icumen in” sort of folk music, you pretty much have to track down shows like Susan Forbe Hanson’s Valley Folk (in New England).
