It may be just me, but i HATE modern xmas songs. For me Christmas sounds like christmas when the music is from 1970s and backwards. Anybody else feel this way. Old timey xmas music just hit different.

28 comments

  1. You associate those with your childhood, most likely. I do kind of enjoy the lo-fi speaker popping sounds of the old stuff, just seems nostalgic. I’m also just sick of that one Mariah Carey song.

  2. Old songs conjure up a Norman Rockwell-esque Christmas of friends and family and community.

    New songs conjure up cold commercialism when the Christmas decorations come out at Target on October 1st.

  3. Yeah. Old ones are cosy and twinkly, and I’m being serious but a lot of the ones from ‘modern‘ times kinda make me wanna drink myself into a stupor until Christmas is over.

    They are miserable – *So This is Christmas* is the worst! and *I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day* makes me depressed as well!

    The only modern one I actually like is *Don’t Let the Bells End* by the Darkness. That slaps.

  4. Because that’s how it sounded growing up.

    The same reason my grandmothers pot roast tastes the best, when arguably she over-salted it and cooked it too long.

  5. I’m in the camp of new music sounding cold and commercial.

    I see it this way – as more Christmas music is made, it becomes harder to find Christmas music that brings forth the spirit we associate with Christmas. We all have the classics we know and love, so all the new material has to be a cut above to compete with “traditional” music.

    Music developers still churn out Christmas songs because they want to be the one to have the next big hit. Most of the work falls short and you just get another soundtrack for the Target commercials that play while you’re trying to YouTube how to put out an electrical fire or bake gingerbread.

  8. Nostalgia. Wham and Marriah Carey were already Christmas staples when I was growing up so they’ll stay forever classics. When I have kids they’ll probably think the same about Ariana Grande or someone

  9. * Childhood nostalgia

    * A lot of older Christmas songs were re-recorded and re-mastered in mid 20th century when audio technology got better. So what seems like a huge explosion in good Christmas songs from that time period is really just harvesting the backlog

    * The fact that there were all these classic Christmas songs from that time period means that it gets the status of Definitive Christmassy Sound, everything else seems fake now to the extent inconsistent therewith

    * Music sucks now

  10. Nostalgia. You grew up with the older music and that’s why they remind you of Christmas

  12. I think it is the nostalgia factor. Listening to the old stuff, I feel like a kid again watching the Peanuts or sitting in front of a fire, drinking hot chocolate during a snow day.

  13. Your right it does. As much as I hate the overuse of that one Mariah Carey song it still sounds more christmas than all the ones from the 80s that if they didnt have the lyrics of Christmas I wouldn’t know it had to do with that holiday

  16. I think it’s because when the music first came out, it was original, and it brings out the feeling of an old-time Rockerfeller style Christmas. The style of Christmas meant to bring people together and give what you have with cheer.

    The new modern music, I guess, just doesn’t have that feel to them and often are forgotten about after the seasons end. It feels more of the commercialism aspect of society about me, me, me!

  17. The *really* old stuff has a nice, handmade feel to it. Not a synth or a loop or autotune in sight. The sound mix on, say, a Nat King Cole album has not a bit of compression on it and has a warm tone to it.

    Technical stuff aside, it’s usually whatever reminds you of the better parts of your childhood. (For me, it’s the album “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector”- the one that “All I Want For Christmas Is You” tries to sound like.)

  18. It’s interesting to me that so many people want to hear the sweater acts sing Christmas music, but not any of their other recordings. I know it’s music that is often 60+ years old, but Nat King Cole recorded a bunch of albums in the laid back style of The Christmas Song.

  20. There was a time when jazz was pop, which coincided with the big band & swing era, a time which included the growth of the middle class, the Second World War and the start of the baby boom. This meant a huge portion of the population grew up with a deep experience of that style and the seemingly limitless pursuit of happiness that went with it.

    That musical style is artistically rich, with classical modulations, challenging structures, lush arrangements, and orchestral voicings. Pop today doesn’t do much of that (groups like AJR are an exception).

    What’s interesting is that the style is older than one would think, using formulas popularized by Bach and Mozart. I could suggest that their western classical formula, used for a ton of liturgical work, including carols, is a subtle reminder that these songs are fundamentally Christian in origin. Even Mariah Carey’s pop tune, beyond the chimes, and the minor fourth everyone talks about, also has these modulations in it.

    So in short: it’s because religious boomers like it that way.

  23. I mean I’m more into advent and Christmas hymns, which are way older. O Come O Come Emmanuel is from the 9th century AD if I remember correctly. “Savior of the Nations Come” is attributed to Ambrose of Milan in the 5th century AD, but was translated and added to by Martin Luther in the 16th century. “O Come all ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)” dates to the mid 18th century. “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” also dates to the mid 18th century.

  24. Super old ones sound the best because they were the best. They’ve stood the test of time and are still widely loved

    The music of today? We’re getting the whole sea… Pearls, gems, shit and all… End result is you hear the bad (the stuff many won’t even hear due to no/little radio play), the meh (sausage roll bullshit), the okay/Christmas background noise (Bieber’s Mistletoe, not bad, not great) and the future classics…

    The future classics will be the best of the best… The ones that ultimately stand the test of time.

    I think the Christmas song with the greatest potential from recent years is Ed Sheeran & Elton John’s Merry Christmas… I don’t think I could think of any more that’ve really stood out. It is early ‘days’ for the song though… This’ll be its 3rd Christmas… But personally, I think it’s the 3rd of many more to come.

    The old timey stuff we hear today wasn’t the only attempt at Christmas songs at the time. Very few artists wouldn’t dream of a spicey Christmas hit that comes back year after year. It’s simply what survived.

    You also have to consider childhood memories… Many of these older songs, you grew up listening to, filled with excitement for the day Santa dropped by. You associate those songs with those memories, further boosting your enjoyment of those songs. So any Christmas song that gets played year after year after year only solidifies its spot as the coming generation associates that with all those feelings, then their kids, then their kids… Then suddenly it’s 2073 and we’ve got Dean Martin one moment, then Elton John, Mariah Carey, Ed Sheeran and Elton John, Bing Cosby and David Bowie, whatever new bangers come out between now and then, etc…

  27. Because your brain associates when you were happy around Christmas time with what you heard growing up and in movies and tv signalling Christmas.

  28. Here’s the article that probably answers your question:

    https://slate.com/culture/2015/12/mariah-careys-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-a-musicological-explanation-of-why-the-song-sounds-so-christmassy.html

    The TLDR:
    Chord structure of old time Christmas music is more complicated, and more like jazz than modern rock music. Rock music tends to be comparatively simple. To put it in numbers, rock music tends to sit around 4 chords (four chords and the truth for the Dylan fans out there). The Christmas music cited in the article was like 17 or something, and Mariah Carrie’s song has something like 23.

    So, couple that less limited format with some nostalgia and you get Christmas music that slaps.

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