I know some of you don’t like the playing of Christmas music in early and mid-November either because you want to get past Thanksgiving and even a few of you want to recognize Advent before we get to Christmas itself. Well, the musicians don’t have that luxury. They have to prepare early even before the fall. Most Christmas recordings are recorded in early and mid-July (talk about Christmas In July). I like to recognize Thanksgiving before Christmas myself and sure Christmas is a commercial racket as Lucy Van Pelt tells Charlie Brown. Thank goodness her brother and Charles’s best friend Linus recites the Gospel of Luke to keep the season in focus even if Jesus Christ was not born around the Winter Solstice. With that said, I welcome the radio stations that have been known to do an all Christmas Music format. With the way contemporary pop music has evolved (and not in a good way), I welcome it even right after Halloween.
The stations that mostly go all Christmas usually broadcast year around what the radio industry calls Adult Contemporary (Variety, Workday stations). Other formats that do all Christmas as well include Classic Hits, Christian Adult Contemporary (Family Friendly, Positive, Faith), and even Country music stations are known to go all Christmas.
So Don, why do you like Christmas music before Thanksgiving? Can’t we just get past that before the Christmas music gets rammed down our throat? I feel you, and I felt the same way years ago. But times do change, and to be honest ladies (since most the above radio formats I listed target a 25-54 female) your tastes in music for the most part suck. Sadly many of the great popular artists of the past, we have pigeoned holed into the Christmas genre. While Johnny Mathis is content on that fact he is not alone. What other time do you hear the following on radio? Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett? Unless you have a Jazz station that will throw in Sinatra, Cole, or Bennett you hear these artists less and less, and stations that did play them which was called by the industry Adult Standards has all but completely died. This was the music of your grandparents if not your great-grandparents.
I was born in the early 1970’s, and I was not one of the lucky kids who had their MTV. You know what, that doesn’t bug me at all. I also gravitated to what was popular on Adult Contemporary radio back in the 1980’s (did listen to Top 40 too) and I loved it a whole lot than what AC has become. I am not like the women in my peer group who overdosed on Madonna and Michael Jackson, and now enjoys the likes of Taylor Swift, P!nk, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, One Direction, and Lady Gaga which their daughters have latched on too. Me, I found comfort in James Taylor although it would be many years till I would buy a record from Sweet Baby James. My first record was his Christmas release for Sony Music and his final recording for the respected company as well.
So my reason for embracing Holiday Music is based more on quality than the commercialism of Christmas. Granted not every song that tests well in the Christmas radio format I love with all my heart. I personally would prefer The Jackson 5’s version of “Frosty The Snowman” (which is done as an ensemble number) over their takes on “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” or “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” Has nothing to with Santa, but the reason they test well? Re-read my paragraph about women in my peer group and their musical tastes growing up. I did say the name Michael Jackson, and a very young Michael dominates those very covers with his solo, and getting himself into trouble with his family (laughs). The Jacksons were raised Jehovah’s Witness so they never had a Christmas growing up. Good ole Berry Gordy knew how to milk the J5 quite well, and who knew back then that MJ would become the King of Pop.
Another thing about Christmas is that it forces us as a people to look at the past. That is one thing progressive statists want us to erase. However, you’re erasing much more than a time in which people were free to dream and think. You’re erasing quality and art. We truly are, and for what? The trill of the moment? The here and the now? Just to forget the past and let the tyrants rule over us as if they always did? Shame on us.
Rick Dees, I get it. People love the 4/4 time signature and yes I heard you say recently on your long-running “Weekly Top 40” program that people also love music going at 150 bpm’s too. I enjoy some of that too, especially back in the day, but pop went in a direction that did not click with me.
You may not want to hear Frank Sinatra sing the Christmas Waltz or Nat King Cole sing about those “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” or Johnny Mathis singing about a “Winter Wonderland.” But I would rather hear those nuggets after hearing year around songs about “California Gurls,” being ‘Hot and Cold’ and ‘Teenage Dreams’ from Katy Perry. Or ‘Shaking It Off,’ and telling us what we made Taylor Swift ‘Do.’ Don’t care for her ‘Wild Dreams’ either.
For the record, I lost my father on Christmas Day 2015. With the culture going the way it is, I don’t want to be a Grinch. I do have one request, Santa Baby. I prefer the Catwoman over the Material Girl.
P.S. The current musical trends of the day may push quality aside, but don’t let Liberty, Freedom, and Federalism ever go out of fashion. NOQ Report is here to make sure that happens but we do need your help. Read this statement from JD Rucker to find out how.
Further Reading
Too Soon? Christmas Decorations, Music Already Here
While some are crying “too soon” for anything Christmas-related, businesses just can’t get enough of it, even though Halloween is barely over.
There’s no dispute over the beauty at the Macy’s holiday window displays.
But it’s the timing that troubles some on State Street.
“Let’s have Thanksgiving first. Let’s let Thanksgiving have its day,” David Laws says.
Don’t fight the Christmas spirit
I know you feel it. I know because I feel it too. For a couple weeks now, the idea of Christmas has been slowly creeping into your conscience. You’ve seen the Christmas sections already on display at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, and the grocery store. You’ve commented on Facebook about how ridiculous it is that Christmas stuff was out before Halloween!
What is it about Christmas that always makes us feel so good, and why is it we can only have that feeling once a year? Why shouldn’t we feel that way all the time?
Millennials really love Christmas music
Music aficionados aged between 18 to 34 now account for a whopping 36 percent of holiday music fans — a chunk that’s more than 40 percent larger than the corresponding pool of Christmas-jingling baby boomers, according to a study by Nielsen.
“Boomers & Beyond,” which is how Nielsen describes the 55-plus crowd, make up only 25 percent of the holiday fan base. That even trails the 31 percent who are Gen Xers aged 35 to 54.
