If you were full Billy on the street and start running with strangers through the streets of a random American city to ask them to name a Christmas song, you’ll probably get a pretty wide range of answers. (Don’t do that, folks, it’s a pandemic and all that.) But it’s also likely that people who didn’t tell you to walk away from them with that microphone will call a song from before 1950. , or he would say “All I want for Christmas is you”, which is completely understandable.
So why, when Mariah Carey isn’t involved, do contemporary Christmas songs tend to disappear from our collective cultural consciousness faster than those Reese peanut butter trees? Surprisingly, nostalgia has a lot to do with it.
This Cheddar explainer breaks down the rise of secular Christmas music, from Irving Berlin’s inspiration for “White Christmas” to the inclusion of songs like The Waitresses and, yes, Mariah in the Christmas canon. Recognizes the emotional and contextual layers involved, as well as the complexities of the recorded music industry. It’s a lot, but the video breaks it down clearly and captivatingly. It’s worth your time. Now go ahead and bring your arguments for the seasonal contributions of artists like Britney Spears and Destiny’s Child in the comments.
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