Christmas Music
Kristen Ferrara
Editoral Writer
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, for some people. For others, incessant Christmas music brings out the inner Grinch. This is understandable as Christmas music is overplayed, annoying, and unrelated to the true meaning of the season.
Christmas music is overplayed. When listening to the radio, one cannot escape Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, or even the simple jingling of sleigh bells. Even worse, these songs are played a month before Christmas even begins. My family was listening to Christmas music on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving! Not only is this a distraction from the holiday at hand but it prolongs the period of time Americans will be pestered with these songs.
It may not be that Christmas music is annoying, just that people hear it so often they begin to despise it. Or the songs are actually annoying. The repetition of the same lines again and again, the sleigh bells in the background, the unsuccessful attempts of artists differentiate their music from others, the list goes on and on. In “Jingle Bells,” a short ballad, the phrase “jingle bells” is repeated SIXTEEN times. Even more annoying is the fact that most Christmas music has the same tune, so there is no variety. In addition, popular Christmas music is literally artists (unsuccessfully) remaking the same songs over and over again. “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” by Mariah Carey, has been covered thirty five times since its release.
Perhaps the worst aspect of Christmas music is the fact that it deviates from the true meaning of Christmas. With the exception of “Silent Night,” “Mary Did You Know,” and a couple of other songs, Christmas music focuses strictly on holiday cheer and activities. According to the Billboard Holliday Top 100. only six of one hundred songs relate to the birth of Jesus. The purpose of Christmas, traditionally, was to bring families together so they could celebrate each others’ company and the beginnings of Jesus’s life. Does music that focuses on trees and gifts and Santa Claus fulfil this meaning? Not really.
Despite the facts that Christmas music is annoying and unrelated to the true meaning of the season, radio stations play the tunes repetitively and before the proper time frame. An excellent solution to this issue would be either limiting the amount of Christmas music played by intertwining it with popular music or completely removing Christmas music from radio stations until about two weeks before the actual holiday. In my ideal world, the latter would be the best option; however, the former is more viable at this point in time. Maybe at least that would prevent some from becoming “as cuddly as a cactus, or as charming as an eel.”
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