To repeat, November freakin’ 1. I figure by the time Christmas rolls around, I’ll kill the first person who tries to do Andy Williams, or my liver will have failed.
Right now, it’s neck and neck.
-Waste
Who is wondering, “Where are all the fucking Arbor Day songs? Or Columbus Day songs? Any goddamned thing but more Christmas music!”
When I was shopping in Ohio for my parent’s anniversary present, all the department stores were putting up Christmas displays, trees, decorations, etc. On September 22nd.
I reiterate: You gotta be shitting me!
Nope. Mind you, it wasn’t that they had decorated the stores yet - they were putting up displays of trees and so on for sale. But still, I mean, jeez.
Yeah, that’s our doing. We absolutely LOVE Christmas music unless it mentions Jesus. :rolleyes:
<opens eyes wide> There are Christmas songs about Jesus?
Who knew?
Heh.
Absolutely! Part of the reason the music gets so annoying is that they limit it so much. The best of it never gets heard, because it’s religious. The mix could be so much more varied, not to mention so much better musically, but they won’t do it. At the store where I work we had about four different versions of “Santa Baby” last year, but not one actual Christmas hymn. And I don’t really think most people would be bothered by them. In fact, I think most people who like Christmas music at all would like to hear them; they are the songs that are most connected with Christmas traditions.
But even so, one holiday at a time is enough. The day after Thanksgiving is soon enough for the 24 hour Christmas music.
. . .and the quaaludes?
Yes. And the vodka.
I agree. When shopping at my favorite department store, I want to hear hymns playing from the loudspeakers. :rolleyes:
Seriously, religious music might be seen as offensive by both those who aren’t Christians, and by Christians who don’t necessarily want to see the adoration of Christ associated with consumerism. Would it be appropriate to play “Jesus Christ Has Risen Today?” in a candy store around Easter?
Isn’t it better to be inclusive rather than exclusive?
If you think it bothers you, what about the poor DJ’s at such stations. They generally get put on unpaid leave during this time.
First, it isn’t the ultra-PC brigade that determines the appropriateness of music, it’s a business decision. Very few stores want to risk offending anyone who wishes to spend money there, so they keep the music seasonal but not religious. In fact, I and several Jewish friends have a semi-boycott going of stores that do play religious music during the holiday season; many of them are smaller businesses and we let them know that their music preferences are costing them business.
And the major reason Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah songs don’t get played is because there are lyrics that most people don’t feel comfortable playing in public. In the first song, he sings “And smoke your marijuana-ka”; in the third, he sings “one funky bad-ass Jew”. I can’t think of many businesses that would tolerate them played in their establishments.
If you want to hear all these great hymns and Hanukkah songs, I suggest you get an iPod and listen to your heart’s delight.
Robin
I burned a CD last year, so I’m all set. 
Give. Me. A. Break. There is not a rolleyes in cyberspace big enough for this post. Let me try anyway:
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Nope, five in a row doesn’t even do it. We get Jesus stuffed down our throats almost constantly here in the most religious 1st-World country on the planet and it’s DOUBLE around Xmas time and you still don’t think it’s Jesusy enough? Cry me a river. Silent Night, anyone?
I’m not decrying the lack of religion. What bothers me is that the secular-only playlists are even more repetitive than Christmas playlists were in years past. And many of the secular songs are, frankly, dreck.
When I hear AWHHOH or whatever, I don’t focus on the religious theme; I focus on the melody, the harmony, the tonality. I am not saying that Christmas music has to be Jesusy to be good. What I am saying is that there’s a lot of fine music that doesn’t get played simply because it’s Jesusy.
Cite?
I would hope they get unemployment benefits.
…I go thrifting every weekend, as part of my ‘get out of the house and stay sane’ routine, and the weekend after Hallowe’en, the local Value Village was playing all-Christmas-Music-All-The-Time the whole time I was there. I heard at least 3 version of ‘Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer’. Gawd.
I guess a lot of people must have complained, because the next weekend they had a really great mix of 80’s and 90’s pop.
I get so sick of the rising flood of “Christmas” music. It reaches a shrieking, frantic crescendo the last week before Christmas. You can’t avoid it anywhere, unless you’re at home or in your car. Some years I have found refuge and solace in one of the local Christian stations (which I can’t bear listening to at any other time), because on Dec. 24 they have sometimes set up 24 hours of peaceful instrumental Christmas hymns while their employees take a day off with their families. But last year the music was … well, they tried to hop it up a bit. 
I really hate the whole Christmas season. If I could, I would ignore it entirely, including my birthday which is the 24th. The best I ever manage is to just downplay it as much as I can, to a degree I can tolerate.
I was in a Lowe’s home center on Saturday, and after only 10 minutes of being exposed to the Xmas tunes coming from the Cute Little Holiday Village display, I was already predisposed to manslaughter.
Official reaching of holiday music gag limit: November 11, 2006.
Note: Tom Petty’s “It’s Christmas All Over Again” is not a bad song, but I really don’t need to hear it more than once every three years.
That’s all very well and good, but some of us don’t focus on the music. I don’t care how good the music is, if I don’t like the message, I don’t want to listen to the song. If I’m in a public place, that means I leave the store. And I know I’m not the only one.
That said, Christmas symbolism and music has been used as a weapon to ostracize and hurt. If I hear Christmas religious hymns played in a store, I feel unwelcome and unwanted as a customer. If the store feels it can do without my business, then they don’t get my business. Sucks to be them.
Robin
Do you also refuse to visit St. Louis, San Diego, and Los Angeles?
These “Jesusy” songs that I like are generations old. Millions of people have listened to them without being coerced into abandoning their own religion, or even feeling insulted. This notion that one cannot be true to one’s own beliefs unless everyone else suppresses theirs is a very new concept. Playing “Silent Night” on a store PA system is not sending a message. If you choose to find a message in it and be offended, that’s on you.