posted
I had to be tormented with most of them working at Macy's. But, since my hours have been cut I only have to worry about hearing- frosty Rudolf Santa coming to town Elvis christmas songs (That guy's vocal inflections are annoying for Christmas songs!) and all of those on television.
At least Macy's does not play the Little Drummer Boy because I despise and hate and loathe and detest that song especially since it's probably NOT ACCURATE at all. And drums are not SOOTHING! I'm sure they had harps and flutes back then. Unless it's a reference to the extradinariness of baby Jesus that he can tolerate rum pum pum pum pum and actually smile about it instead of grimacing and crying the way a normal baby would.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
Yes, that's another song they torment me with at Macy's over and over and over again. It's a rather silly song. I hate being drenched in xmas songs as it kills my Christmas spirit and makes me want to roast Rudolf on a spit after taking a blowtorch to Frosty and I love snowmen and reindeer too. No, the only Xmas songs I like the best are The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole and This Christmas by Donny Hathaway.
Also, I am totally tired of JingleBells. I hate Jingle Bells. No one rides around in a one horse open sleigh! How many times do I have to HEAR that song?
posted
Wow, lots of vitriol for Little Drummer Boy. That's actually one of the ones I like the most - and not because of the "christmas"-aspects of it.
It's more the story of a poor little boy who wants to give a great gift, but he has nothing to give, so he gives of himself instead. The "I played my drum for him/I played my best for him" lines are what gives it its strength, in my opinion. He gave everything he could, as best as he could, and it was as (or more) valuable than any of the expensive gifts being given.
It's the emotion there, not the "accuracy" or lackthereof, that makes the song.
Of course, some versions are better than others.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
"In the Bleak Midwinter" is one of my favorites. It is a similar story (but delves more deeply into the theology of incarnation) and it is similarly inaccurate. Not a lot of snow in Bethlehem, I am thinking. Great poetry, though, and a wonderful setting by Holst.
posted
"It's the most wonderful time of the year" and "We wish you a merry christmas" are my chief offenders.
Posts: 1314 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: "In the Bleak Midwinter" is one of my favorites. It is a similar story (but delves more deeply into the theology of incarnation) and it is similarly inaccurate. Not a lot of snow in Bethlehem, I am thinking. Great poetry, though, and a wonderful setting by Holst.
posted
Elvis- Blue Christmas drives me bananas but even worse is the Porky Pig version of Blue Christmas. This song makes my ears bleed! There is also a Debbie Gibson version of Sleigh Ride but that just makes me laugh at the cheese factor.
Posts: 204 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've got to second BB's choice. The same thoughts crossed my mind the other day when it came on the radio. Ugh.
I'd like to add that I have a personal aversion to "Santa Baby". Since I tend to avoid it like the plague, I don't know it well enough to put my finger on exactly why I dislike it so, but I do.
Posts: 691 | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I wonder if anything can actually be done about this? It seems to me that we have here a bit of an epic communication fail. Consider: Retailers, one assumes, play Christmas music to please their customers - whether in the spirit of the holiday season (retailers are human too) or to make them buy more stuff, or both. Yet I do not know of anyone who actually enjoys the dreadful, anodyne stuff that passes for Christmas music in stores; and as for what it does to the poor employees, whose morale and cheerfulness is surely a consideration for the owners, I shudder to think of it.
So, how did we get into this fix? Can the owners and managers really be ignorant of the problem that everyone hates the 'music' they play? Is it merely that they just play whatever's on the radio, and it happens to be this awful stuff? (Which raises the question, why do the radio stations play it?) Are they being misled by studies which, perhaps, asked people in June "Would you like to hear Christmas music in stores?" instead of the correct approach, which is to ask people in December "Did you like the music?" Or could it be that I'm mistaking my own taste for the public's, and the majority of people actually do like "Frosty the One-belled Chestnut?" (Absent gods help us.)
Perhaps the simplest approach would be if all of us here agreed to complain about it in the actual stores? Ask to see a manager, tell them "Frosty really bothers me, can you please switch it off", and hope for a permanent effect?
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm putting in a vote for "A Christmas to Remember." What made it so bad for me was that I was listening to the station that plays all Christmas songs this month, and they have Delilah. People call in with requests - generally they tell Delilah their situation and she picks a song that will fit.
A woman called in - she and her husband just bought their first house. They are painting it before they put up the Christmas tree. They also had a baby boy born in February, so this is his first Christmas.
Delilah picked "A Christmas to Remember" for this woman. A song about two people who happened to meet in Tahoe at Christmastime.
quote:Strangers when we met, lovers as we leave
Yeah, I would love to associate that song with my child's first Christmas. Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
If you can't come up with a better rhyme than "Whoop-de-doo and dickety dock/ and don't forget to hang up your sock", please, don't record the song.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:and as for what it does to the poor employees, whose morale and cheerfulness is surely a consideration for the owners, I shudder to think of it.
When I was 16 I got a job working for a super-store (sells both GM and groceries) shortly before Christmas. When I left that job, I took a solemn and terrible oath before God that I would sooner starve than ever work a retail job during Christmas again.
It's unbelievable. Some employees claimed they were able to drown it out after awhile, but the "music" kept pounding into my head, curling around my brain and squeezing until I felt the urge to burn Christmas trees. Even when I got home to merciful silence, Jingle Bell Rock kept playing in my brain so loudly I could've sworn someone was holding a boombox up to my head. I started having Christmas nightmares.
Next time you see a sullen retail store employee, take pity on her hellish existence. Or maybe just shoot her and end the misery, it's what baby Jesus would want.
posted
Do you really think that Christmas music is more offensive than the standard muzak they play in stores?
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: Do you really think that Christmas music is more offensive than the standard muzak they play in stores?
Yeah. it is... I started working there when they were playing more poppy sort of music. Which was much better than the terrible poppy sort of music they play at Stop and Shop. Also when I first started I was lulled into a sense of false security sitting instead of standing in a place where I couldn't hear the tunes. That gradually ended with having to stand for 7 hours, or walk around because standing for that long is painful. Then I had to actually do retail sort of things that were from hell.
Then the Christmas nightmare began.... The same wretchedness I recalled from last year!
Next time I would like to work at Target as they do not play any music at all.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Really? Our Target plays Christmas music, I believe. I know they play music year-round. Wonder if that's decided at a store level.
Personally, I enjoy the Christmas music on the whole - provided it's started at a reasonable time, like, after Thanksgiving.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:And drums are not SOOTHING! I'm sure they had harps and flutes back then.
I think you'd be shocked at the things most newborns find soothing, for example vacuum cleaners and car engines. Most newborns find it very comforting to be held against a persons chest where they can hear the regular heart beat they heard continuously in the womb. I have my doubts about hard rock drum solos, but I'd be willing to bet that many infants would find a regular soft drum beat to be very soothing, probably more soothing than the sound of a harp of flute.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: Do you really think that Christmas music is more offensive than the standard muzak they play in stores?
Yeah. it is... I started working there when they were playing more poppy sort of music. Which was much better than the terrible poppy sort of music they play at Stop and Shop.
Hmm! What is it about the Christmas music that is so much more irritating than the poppy music they normally play? Do they play it louder, do they repeat the same tunes more often, is the style of music different or do you just have a loathing for Christmas music of any style. Christmas music come in so many styles spanning classical to country. Most stores I visit play Christmas music that is in more or less the same style as the music they play during other times of year so I have a hard time seeing that its all that much different.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
When I worked at my universities testing center Christmases were awful. The manager had some thing where the day after Halloween was the day we started listening to Christmas music. There actually was a radio station that would immediately start playing Christmas music and it was essentially the mall line up on repeat everyone is complaining about. I put up with it for two years in a row. The second year I came in one day and asked if for once I could choose the Christmas music and put my CD of The Cambridge Singers in.
Within 20 seconds the room sounding something like this, bear in mind all my coworkers were Mormons.
"What is this?!" "Ewww church music" "Those girls sound funny" "Those aren't girls, they're trained young boys" "They sound awful" "I don't like this at all" "Yeah can we turn this off?" "Just 15 minutes, please, I can't take the same songs over and over again." "No, we're listening to real Christmas music." "I'm going into the other room to proctor the exams."
Dirty philistines. Simply having a wonderful Christmas time indeed.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
Make people appreciate Christmas music by making them endure something even worse. I applaud your ingenuity.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Mucus: Intriguing gambit.
Make people appreciate Christmas music by making them endure something even worse. I applaud your ingenuity.
Well played sir.
Incidentally I went to see a boys choir in Japan with my family at Christmas time. I was very impressed with the quality of the performance, they got a very enthusiastic standing ovation from everyone in the room when they were done.
I've always been kinda interested in figuring out how the Asian style of music developed, as well as studying how both Eastern and Western music sensibilities have permeated the other side of the world.
The Japanese for example have a rich orchestral tradition now, that feels like it has a strong kinship with The Romantic Period. That sensibility also carries over into their rock, both pop and other. Now obviously the Japanese are known for being sponge like in what comprises their culture, but there are some solid rock bands in China as well, that are even touring the US. Carsick Cars comes to mind. Mayday had a few songs that were interesting in how they combined traditional Chinese instruments with rock.
I wonder just how much traditional Chinese music has influenced Western musicians.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: Hmm! What is it about the Christmas music that is so much more irritating than the poppy music they normally play? Do they play it louder, do they repeat the same tunes more often, is the style of music different or do you just have a loathing for Christmas music of any style. Christmas music come in so many styles spanning classical to country. Most stores I visit play Christmas music that is in more or less the same style as the music they play during other times of year so I have a hard time seeing that its all that much different.
Speaking from my experience (which may or may not be the same as Synesthesia's), off season the store I worked at played slow, soothing soft rock from the 70s and 80s, with the occasional non-offensive modern soft rock/Coldplay song thrown in. It was calm, relaxing, and very easy to ignore. None of the notes were jarring, none of the vocals grating. I wouldn't call much of it "quality", but it's much easier to block out a quietly playing Bette Milder song than, say "rocking around the Christmas tree."
The Christmas music, OTOH:
A) Much smaller selection. I could go through an entire day or two off-season without hearing the same song twice. During Christmas, the playlist would repeat hourly.
B) The Christmas music is universally louder. I think they must double the volume on it, so even the shoppers who are hard of hearing can be saturated in Christmas joy.
C) In an attempt to be both inoffensive and to play songs that *everyone* who has ever lived has heard before (and thus saving people from the discomfort of hearing a new Christmas song) they only play a certain genre of songs. That is annoying pop renditions of "Frosty, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, the Christmas Song, Winter Wonderland, White Christmas, Let It Snow" and a few "Jesus light" songs like "Can You Hear What I Hear" and (of course) "The Little Drummer Boy." No hymns or traditional carols of course. Whether that's an attempt to avoid offending those of other religions, or simply because hymns are too slow and pleasing to one's ears, I don't know. If they did play them, they'd probably find a way to ruin them too.
Posts: 2222 | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged |
Instead, I found that the song (or rather the adaptation of it) has sufficiently maintained its presence in HK pop culture to survive as a cultural homage in 2001 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2hCW_g81VA
I suspected that it was adapted from an english version like the following which had different (less ribald) lyrics but the same title (according to Wikipedia anyways) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SjI6Wl175I
There is even a more formal Mandarin variant sung by Teresa Teng in 1968.
I found the whole cycle interesting because it underscores the speed of communication and diffusion of culture even in the 60s. Also, as the song (or rather the melody) moves from culture to culture it does take on some of the aspects that are unique to each culture.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm not a fan of "This Christmas". Its lyrics seem to be trying to be seductive, but they fail (for me). And how cliched is the phrase "a very special Christmas"? The music is good, but not good enough to overcome the lyrics.
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: Do you really think that Christmas music is more offensive than the standard muzak they play in stores?
Muzak in the literal sense is generally wordless. A human voice grabs your attention in a hardwired way; it is far more difficult to - hah - tune out. This is also why I find TV noise much more annoying than, say, vacuum cleaner noise, even though the latter can be much louder. There's an obvious evolutionary explanation which I won't bother with.
Muzak in the sense of flavour-of-the-minute pop music is still annoying, but at least it doesn't repeat every year; the lyrics are not engraved on your brain. Also, the tunes tend to be rather less peppily mock-cheerful.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Dogbreath: C) In an attempt to be both inoffensive and to play songs that *everyone* who has ever lived has heard before (and thus saving people from the discomfort of hearing a new Christmas song) they only play a certain genre of songs. That is annoying pop renditions of "Frosty, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, the Christmas Song, Winter Wonderland, White Christmas, Let It Snow" and a few "Jesus light" songs like "Can You Hear What I Hear" and (of course) "The Little Drummer Boy." No hymns or traditional carols of course. Whether that's an attempt to avoid offending those of other religions, or simply because hymns are too slow and pleasing to one's ears, I don't know. If they did play them, they'd probably find a way to ruin them too.
My sister and I were just talking about this the other week, when my family was putting up our tree. She commented on the fact that almost all of our Christmas cd's have the same dang songs on them, at different tempos and in different keys (the exception being "Looking for Christmas" by Clint Black, and some of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra stuff). She and I both agree that we'd like to here a good version of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" played every once in a while on a Christmas radio station. Gorgeous piece.
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: Do you really think that Christmas music is more offensive than the standard muzak they play in stores?
Yeah. it is... I started working there when they were playing more poppy sort of music. Which was much better than the terrible poppy sort of music they play at Stop and Shop.
Hmm! What is it about the Christmas music that is so much more irritating than the poppy music they normally play? Do they play it louder, do they repeat the same tunes more often, is the style of music different or do you just have a loathing for Christmas music of any style. Christmas music come in so many styles spanning classical to country. Most stores I visit play Christmas music that is in more or less the same style as the music they play during other times of year so I have a hard time seeing that its all that much different.
Pop music can be annoying, but I am no longer being tormented at Stop and Shop by Coldplay and Five for Fighting and all of those emo-y angsty sort of songs that make me want to scream into the night, but Xmas stuff is waaaaaaaay worse because HOW MANY TIMES CAN THEY PLAY FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, RUDOLF AND STUFF ABOUT SANTA CLAUS? Plus it's the same BLOODY SONGS over and over and over and over and over. Each version is worse than the last! The cheesiness of it all! Even the warm soothing cashmere voice of Ella Fitzgerald isn't enough to make Frosty and Rudolf less annoying. I pretty much LOATHE all of the Santa songs and I really would rather hear latin liturgical masses then hear another poppy peppy XMAS SONG!!! Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: Incidentally I went to see a boys choir in Japan with my family at Christmas time. I was very impressed with the quality of the performance, they got a very enthusiastic standing ovation from everyone in the room when they were done.
On a related note, I went to the Vienna Boys Choir Christmas concert the Christmas I spent in Vienna. It was marvelous.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Rabbit, I am very jealous that you got to see that concert. My parents had a christmas record (!) they did in late 70's/early 80's. So beautiful!
Posts: 204 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: Incidentally I went to see a boys choir in Japan with my family at Christmas time. I was very impressed with the quality of the performance, they got a very enthusiastic standing ovation from everyone in the room when they were done.
On a related note, I went to the Vienna Boys Choir Christmas concert the Christmas I spent in Vienna. It was marvelous.
That's got to be something else.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[The Wave]](graemlins/thewave.gif)
(for Holst's general awesomeness)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
