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Christmas songs are holiday mysteries, as far as I’m concerned. Some are spiritual, some are nostalgic, some are joyous. Some mix and match. Then, there’s our relationship to them, which is entirely subjective based on where we grew up and how we grew up. This doesn’t sound much different than most popular music except, unlike most popular music, very few new Christmas songs have managed to become standards over the past fifty years or so (I recently wrote about one that did, by the way: “One Surreal Christmas Day in 1977: When Bing Crosby Met David Bowie”).
I have zero mathematical evidence to support this, but I’d wager 99% of the Christmas songs we listen to every season were composed between 1800 and 1970. What happened to kill the Christmas song? Was it the death of the big band era and the songwriters who fueled it and the musicals centered around its superstar performers? Was it the death of relentless optimism in the West that succeeded World War II? Let’s muse about this a bit, in any way you feel like, with the following question as a prompt:
What makes a great Christmas song anymore?
By the way, if you want my vote for a great new Christmas song, look no further than Elton John and Ed Sheeran’s “Merry Christmas”, which manages to be nostalgic, joyous, and even romantic as it subtly calls for us to come together and be grateful for surviving a global pandemic. I adore it.
Me again - sorry! I have a new take on this having spent yesterday listening to “alternative” Christmas songs. Some of them were great but by the end of it I felt surprisingly “unchristmassy” I think modern cynicism makes it hard to write songs now which capture the joy of Christmas without feeling like you are cashing in or retreading old ground. Maybe it’s better that the older classics are the ones that endure. Perhaps they remind people of a simpler time? I also think the way people listen to new music now makes it harder for something to enter the public consciousness and become popular in the same way. I still stand by my post-1970 Christmas playlist but I concede your point.
Fair enough! Have you listened to the Ed Sheerhan/Elton John song I shared? I love it very much, but especially because it's actually fixed in time at the tail end of the pandemic. The lyrics hit hard, but the song itself is so fun.
I have, yes, and I know exactly what you mean. It has all the elements a good Christmas song needs and it’s very warming to listen to if that makes sense, while not ignoring the fact that the pandemic was a tough time for a lot of people. In many ways that is when you need a good Christmas song the most. I’m not sure, for me though, that it’s one that will achieve classic status.
I love a classic Christmas song and grew up with Christmas hits from Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Mel Torme and Brenda Lee to name a few (there will never be a better version of “Winter Wonderland” imo) but I’m not sure I agree that these are the only songs that endure at Christmas. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” has surely achieved classic status by now. My Christmas playlist features a selection of older and more modern songs as well as some recent covers of accepted classics. One of my favourites of recent years is the Sia Christmas album. I wouldn’t malign the death of the Christmas song just yet!
I don't think the Christmas song is dead, but we're currently at a time of year when, as I point out, 99% of the songs we listen to were composed before 1970 or so. If we get one classic even every five years since then -- and the number is closer to every two to three years, I think -- it's a terrible ratio. For every "All I Want for Christmas", there's a legion of failed attempts. (In fact, I just looked the song up and found a New Yorker quote about it being one of the few worth additions to the holiday canon, so I'm not alone here in feeling like Christmas songs aren't what they used to be. And even when they're good, most of the time they don't find a way to truly cross over. For what it's worth, I don't count covers. I'm talking the origination of Christmas songs here.
That’s fair. I agree that there are certainly less new Christmas songs getting into the mainstream consciousness now - although (and I have nothing to back this up other than gut feeling) I think the situation in recent(ish) years is better in terms of the quality of new Christmas songs produced than it was in say the late 80s or the 90s. I know I could make a playlist I was very happy with consisting only of Christmas songs written after 1970 and perhaps that is all I need. You might have inspired me to go away and make that playlist actually.
Me again - sorry! I have a new take on this having spent yesterday listening to “alternative” Christmas songs. Some of them were great but by the end of it I felt surprisingly “unchristmassy” I think modern cynicism makes it hard to write songs now which capture the joy of Christmas without feeling like you are cashing in or retreading old ground. Maybe it’s better that the older classics are the ones that endure. Perhaps they remind people of a simpler time? I also think the way people listen to new music now makes it harder for something to enter the public consciousness and become popular in the same way. I still stand by my post-1970 Christmas playlist but I concede your point.
Fair enough! Have you listened to the Ed Sheerhan/Elton John song I shared? I love it very much, but especially because it's actually fixed in time at the tail end of the pandemic. The lyrics hit hard, but the song itself is so fun.
I have, yes, and I know exactly what you mean. It has all the elements a good Christmas song needs and it’s very warming to listen to if that makes sense, while not ignoring the fact that the pandemic was a tough time for a lot of people. In many ways that is when you need a good Christmas song the most. I’m not sure, for me though, that it’s one that will achieve classic status.
I love a classic Christmas song and grew up with Christmas hits from Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Mel Torme and Brenda Lee to name a few (there will never be a better version of “Winter Wonderland” imo) but I’m not sure I agree that these are the only songs that endure at Christmas. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” has surely achieved classic status by now. My Christmas playlist features a selection of older and more modern songs as well as some recent covers of accepted classics. One of my favourites of recent years is the Sia Christmas album. I wouldn’t malign the death of the Christmas song just yet!
I don't think the Christmas song is dead, but we're currently at a time of year when, as I point out, 99% of the songs we listen to were composed before 1970 or so. If we get one classic even every five years since then -- and the number is closer to every two to three years, I think -- it's a terrible ratio. For every "All I Want for Christmas", there's a legion of failed attempts. (In fact, I just looked the song up and found a New Yorker quote about it being one of the few worth additions to the holiday canon, so I'm not alone here in feeling like Christmas songs aren't what they used to be. And even when they're good, most of the time they don't find a way to truly cross over. For what it's worth, I don't count covers. I'm talking the origination of Christmas songs here.
That’s fair. I agree that there are certainly less new Christmas songs getting into the mainstream consciousness now - although (and I have nothing to back this up other than gut feeling) I think the situation in recent(ish) years is better in terms of the quality of new Christmas songs produced than it was in say the late 80s or the 90s. I know I could make a playlist I was very happy with consisting only of Christmas songs written after 1970 and perhaps that is all I need. You might have inspired me to go away and make that playlist actually.