Why do we need holiday music?
After reading a great article in the Wall Street Journal about holiday music, I thought back to a few days ago when I was finishing up my seasonal shopping. As I heard the 50th version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” cycle through on the store’s speakers after being there for only a few minutes, I wondered what it would be like to have to hear that for about 7 hours a day. “Does that drive you nuts?” I asked a sales clerk. She couldn’t even answer- she just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
The WSJ article does go some way to explain the tradition of communal songs and why we like them (though we say we hate them) but I lean much more towards “hate” when I hear these tunes too much. One reason that I love to shop online now isn’t just because I don’t have to deal with the crowds but also because I don’t have to deal with the same holiday music again and again.
Don’t get me wrong- I don’t hate holiday music. I actually like to write about it and I always collect holiday albums. In this week’s edition of Time Out New York (print edition), I wrote about a heavy metal Xmas album, a singing saw Xmas album (from Merge Records), a movie star’s band doing Xmas music (Billy Bob Thorton’s Boxmasters), a garage-rock Xmas album (Fleshtones) and a collection of festive humorous Jewish music.
The common thread is that this ain’t music that you’re gonna hear in malls and stores and that’s exactly why I enjoy it (also try out this mash-up holiday music). As the WSJ article points out, the mush they play in stores is purposely generic so it’ll appeal to the most people. Not to me though- I’ll try to block out that music and eventually just leave a store if I can’t and not even buy the present I wanted there. It’s kind of a horrible reminder about everything that we hate about the holidays- how commercial it is, how sickly sentimental it is, how we have to buy into someone else’s version of being happy that time of year. It can actually get pretty damn depressing when you think about it and the same ol’ music doesn’t help.
So why can’t stores be just a little more adventurous and try something other than the sappy, syrupy garbage that they belch out every year? You might even attract some customers in this crummy buying season.
If you need some other ideas for alternative holiday music, Other Music has thoughtfully provided some good downloads.
Comments
Back when they were more than a reissue arm of Warner’s, Rhino released a great series of, um, “alternative” Christmas collections (punk, new wave, doo wop, blues, novelty, 70’s super-hit, reggae(!), etc.). My favorite was -Bummed Out Christmas-, which rounded up a fine set of bleak holiday tunes (my favorite being the Everly Brothers’ genuinely moving “Christmas Eve Can Kill You.”). There was a George Jones tune as well, that I recall, but to lighten things up (slightly), I’m pretty sure the Sonics’ “Don’t Believe In Christmas” was included, too.
Comment by James — December 17, 2008 @ 6:13 am
I’m glad you have sympathy for the clerk, but I must say, it’s not just the Christmas music that kills them. Some study needs to be done on the vast psychological torture that the monotonous music of retail has on its employees. I’ll never forget working in a Barnes and Noble and being forced to endure an endless recycling of 2 or 3 CDs per month of the blandest sub-mediocre piffle ever unearthed upon the world. I can’t erase these songs from my head. Some of them I’ve listened to even more than my favorite albums of all time, which saddens me greatly.
It’s not unsurprising that corporate environments would choose the safest music possible for their holiday or year-round in store music. However, there has never been a single place that I’ve worked where the staff isn’t infinitely more qualified to soundtrack their surroundings than whoever it is that winds up deciding these things from way up above. It seems like it would be pretty easy to establish a basic set of rules (no profanity, no harsh subject matter, nothing too loud) that would make both shopping and working in a store a more pleasant experience.
Comment by Timothy Gabriele — December 17, 2008 @ 8:27 am