Looking back at my post from Wednesday, it seems a little over the top. Cocky — arrogant, even. Hell, who am I kidding? Even as I wrote it, it felt a little much, but let’s chalk it up to a mix of adrenalin and testosterone.
I am a fierce devotee of Christmas music, even though I’m not such a big fan of the holiday itself. As I’ve mentioned before, Halloween is my big day. I can’t explain it precisely, but perhaps over the coming weeks, it will become clear.
Let’s get a few things out of the way. Over at Fox News, John Gibson and Bill O’Reilly are claiming a War on Christmas (Click here to see examples). What a load of crapola. It’s always amusing to see the dominant culture claim that it is under attack. Recently, at an event saluting women in my industry, two guys got on stage to claim a moment for the men in the room. I said later, “It’s not enough that you’re paid a third more in salary and you run the world?”
This notion that there’s a true meaning to Christmas is nonsense. All of the various aspects of Christmas, from the date to the decorations to the music, evolved over time. This page has a good rundown. And this page points out that American churches didn’t even initially support the celebration of Christmas.
Finally, let’s take a moment to set some terms. It really is more proper to speak of holiday music, because what we think of as Christmas music actually falls into a number of categories.
- Carols (“Silent Night”)
- Standards (“White Christmas”)
- Pop originals (“Little Saint Nick”)
- Winter (“Jingle Bells”)
It’s a sliding scale, with songs sometimes appearing under more than one category. Today’s one-shot original becomes tomorrow’s standard. Plus, there are sub-categories, such as Santa songs.
The idea of Christmas — that is, the celebration of the birth of Christ — began in the 4th Century. Most of our modern traditions, from Christmas cards to Christmas trees, appeared in the Victorian era. Maybe that’s part of what I like about Christmas music, that it’s a genre with a long historical background. After all, other than the universal theme of love, what else has been a consistent topic for so long?
Anyway, I guess I’m up to my usual tricks, pontificating on behalf of The Big Tent theory of culture. Just as the origins of Christmas are broad and varied, so are the origins of the music. I hope to post songs that cut a wide swath through the landscape. And unlike Kevin Drum, whose writing I generally like, we don’t have blinders on here.
2 Responses
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The Pop View » A Velvet Christmas Says:
[...] readers will recall that every year I post MP3s of Christmas music (or you can look at this post from 2005 for background). I’ve been collecting such works since the early Eighties; I always [...]
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The Pop View » What makes a Christmas song? Says:
[...] years ago, I laid out the four categories of Christmas songs. But let’s face it, most Christmas songs you think of as Christmas songs because that’s [...]