Holiday Music Drives Me Crazy… Does anybody else feel this way?
OK, I’ll be honest: all of this holiday music is killing me. I can’t stand it dude!!
christmas… source: unsplash // annie spratt
There is a time and a place for holiday music. However, every single day starting in mid-November is not that time or place. That is way too much time, way too many places.
All Christmas Music is like a Bad Sitcom
I get the same feeling hearing a lot of Christmas music as I do when I watch an old cheesy sitcom. It’s the sonic equivalent of a bunch of people on a camera forcing smiles, delivering half-baked one-liners, with a laugh track to reinforce the supposed funny.
All of these Christmas songs are all so saccharine. Come on in, it’s cold outside, sit by the fire, we’ll all wait for saint Nicholas… IDK, I can’t be in that mood for a month and a half.
I guess a lot of people don’t notice it. For me though, sitting at the coffeeshop on my laptop, I am exposed to the rotating Christmas playlist all day every day, lol. It’s too much!!
Does Anybody Love All This Christmas Music?
Are there some people out there who get excited to hear the same 10 classic xmas jams for a month and a half? On December 3rd, a few weeks in, with so much more holiday music to go, are they stoked about it?
Can’t we just listen to something else? We can do a different theme across society. Let’s all listen to death metal or bebop for a few months. Let’s change it up without going full Xmas.
The most conspiratorial / negative view of it would be to assume that the holiday music is a commercial influence. It’s reminding us to go out and spend money on all the holiday necessities. Spend money on gifts, eat cake. Be merry, or else.
The Best Musicians Don’t Make Holiday Music
There are probably exceptions. But most of the people who are making holiday music do it because they have to do it, not because they want to… it’s just a day job to them. They don’t really care I feel like, the performances are often pretty bad.
It wouldn’t be such a big deal but I usually go to the coffeeshop to write for 4 hours a day, and they are playing so much holiday music. The one plus side is the playlist seems to get updated every few weeks, so now there’s some new stuff on there..
What do you think? Any other haters out there?
I think I remember when 'holiday' season was only a few days or a couple of weeks.
times have changed.
WE SHOULD GO BACK
I think that it's incredibly stupid myself.
oddly enough what I think doesn't make a whole lot of difference.
I wish it could be Christmas everyday!!!
I agree it gets a bit much. I get annoyed by the whole Christmas thing. I’m not a Scrooge but even I ( a devout atheist) get annoyed by the commercialisation of a pagan festival dressed up as a christian holiday!!
But I get time off and can eat and drink too much so shouldn’t complain!!
The holiday itself is great. Its just the celebrating it for 1.5 months that seems excessive to me lol
The holiday itself is only great as you get time off and are expected to eat and drink too much!
The Wife loves Christmas music and everything about Christmas. And after 20 years of retail, I can't stand it. Of course it's commercial. You've got to be reminded, every time you go out, that you'd better buy more stuff for your loved ones - or else they might not love you back!
I hate the way it gets stuck in my head like advertising jingles.
We have compromised on a few albums. Sufjan Stevens has some albums that he manages to make sound original. The Squirrel Nut Zippers had a good one fifteen years ago that's still a lot of fun if you don't play it too much. And I can't bring myself to hate the Peanuts' Christmas Album even if I've heard it a thousand times.
The Peanuts one is amazing lol I'm never gonna hate on that one! And Sufjan is another good example, he has ten albums of holiday music or something ridiculous like that...
I guess when your wife loves the holidays, you have to learn some compromise. Hopefully I'll find somebody who shares my cantankerous nature regarding xmas...
You'll just have to marry a Jew or a Jehovah's Witness.
I didn't realize Sufjan was up to 10 Christmas albums. I guess he's still doing one every year. Time to check out the new one.
You MONSTER how can you not love all those classic songs!
Joke! but I do like hearing them. Here in our Country as we really don't do Halloween (Yet! It is starting to catch on though). Months ending in "ber" is already a christmass season so you can already start hearing those songs...
So might not be the best idea for you to visit our country at those times :p
NOPE. I will visit in March when the holidays are absolutely as distant as they can be. At least there are no Easter songs.
Hahah! Looks Like someone does Know about Jesus Christ Superstar!
Haha, I love my first listen of Michael Buble's Christmas album at the beginning of December each year, but beyond that I'm in agreement!
As far as holiday music in general goes, I was super surprised by Chris Thile's "Elephant in the Room" Thanksgiving-themed song this year - I loved it on first listen!
Bublé is reasonable, I accept him. At least he's a legitimately incredible singer and seems to genuinely enjoy the holiday spirit
Oh oh oh oh oh!! I’ve got a bunch of mixes that might be of interest. I absolutely agree with your sentiment to - the - letter, so I sought out something different to listen to. I found these:
https://m.mixcloud.com/chrisreadsubstance/merry-chrismixx-worlds-greatest-christmas-mix/
https://soundcloud.com/marchype/marc-hype-the-worlds-greatest
They’ve done a few but I always stick these on at Christmas.
I might actually slap a post up about it...
OK maybe but I don't really want to hear any more christmas music TBH
Leave it a week maybe! Or hijack a soundsystem that is destroying your soul...
When you've heard the originals once, you've heard them all. I don't care who's singing or playing the guitar, these songs are over played for the sake of a broken nostalgia.
The best way to drive me mad would be to strap me to a chair, feed me caffeine pills to inhibit sleep, and play christmas music.
You and I think the same way. Maybe even more than broken nostalgia, its just a crass consumerism. But I know I'd go to any place that made a point of not playing holiday music at this point.
Most Christmas music is terrible, especially the hip new remakes by trendy flash-in-the-pan stars of pop. And what is being piped through the tinny speakers of every store this time of year?
The hip new remakes are the worst! I feel like most of them are just a label telling a band to learn a random song, so phoned in
cristmas songs suck. rest of xmas you make it self nice .
I can't stand it. I drop radio stations from my cars "preselects" like crazy at this time of year. I'm not sure about your conspiracy theory but its an interesting thought. Personally, I think its a money grab for artists. They can sing 10 songs that were already written decades ago, tweak a few words and then make a few 100 thousand dollars.
Yea it's a great deal for the record labels who can monetize recordings from like 60 years ago... that's a good point.