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Driving into work this morning listening to the radio and was, as is usual at this time of year, bombarded with the same Christmas songs that we've all been listening to since we were kids.
The thought occured to me that these are predominantly British artists who weren't particularly successful outside the UK.
If you make a list in your head of the most commonly heard Christmas tunes, other than Mariah Carey, the Waitresses or stuff that predates the 70's it's almost all Brits.
Do visitors to the UK appear at Christmas time and wonder who Noddy Holder is?
Is Roy Wood and Wizzard a fresh, new sound to visiting Americans?
Are Chris Rea and Shaky known in the far reaches of the world as Christmas one hit wonders?
What is the Christmas music landscape like in exotic lands?
A few artists have covered [i]Please Come Home for Christmas[/i] since Charles Brown released it (e.g. The Eagles)
Hopefully, for them, they don't get the same shit we do!
Who do the shops/radio stations etc play it for? I don't know anyone who would complain if they stopped playing the same old crap over and over.
Went in my local Tesco Express the other day and it was so ****ing loud I walked straight out again.
Then in Morrisons last night there was a right mixture, in amongst the Christmas songs were things like This Charming Man and a Billy Joel song. Imagine working in a shop at Christmas! You'd go mental. (Well, I would)
Bah humbug.
(Still not heard Fairytale of New York this year)
[i]Santa Claus is Coming to Town[/i] - Bruce Springsteen. I'm guessing there are a few others but also that British pop music still has a fairly global reach so UK artists will feature everywhere.
Driving Home for Christmas didn’t perform well in the UK though?
They’re all cheesey crap and the continent loves cheesey crap.
Still not heard Fairytale of New York this year)
Walking out of shops probably helps.
Do visitors to the UK appear at Christmas time and wonder who Noddy Holder is?Is Roy Wood and Wizzard a fresh, new sound to visiting Americans?
Are Chris Rea and Shaky known in the far reaches of the world as Christmas one hit wonders?
In order: no, no, and no.
I'm no longer a visitor to the UK, but every time I most of the above, my ears start to bleed. In historical terms, the carols of Britain are some of the finest in Europe; in contemporary terms, the Christmas music that has been pumped out of British studios has been some of the most appalling shite ever to have been produced on synthesizer. And that's saying something.
The most-played stuff over in Canada must be:
Boney M
Bing Crosby
and the typical pop covers such as you might find on 'A Very Special Christmas' or whatever
I’ve just got back from a weekend in Berlin.
Same cheesy Xmas sh*te as here. RoyWood/Wizzard, Elvis, Wham, Slade Mariah Carey etc
It’s a small world, our noise travels further than you might think
[i]Walking out of shops probably helps[/i]
A shop 🙂
If only one of the biggest streaming services put up some data about it 😀
[url= https://insights.spotify.com/ar/2017/12/18/christmas-listening-data/ ]https://insights.spotify.com/ar/2017/12/18/christmas-listening-data/[/url]
Although even the UK top streams has a lot of non-UK artists in it.
In Angola we get a mix of translated into Portuguese and English singing.
Have heard the waitresses translated and Mariah Carey.
Not heard fairy tail of New York here yet though haha.
Tend not to hear the really annoying repetitive tunes so much here in germany (DTKIC, Wham, Slade,...)
Will let you know when I hear Fairy Tale of New York for the first time this year.
Was a little concerned the other day when Youtube put BoneyM 2018 Christmas Tunes at the top of the recommendations list. Jeez are they really still going?
More likely to hear those repetitive songs played by kids in the street on their recorder or clarinet, than in the shops.
If only one of the biggest streaming services put up some data about ithttps://insights.spotify.com/ar/2017/12/18/christmas-listening-data/
Although even the UK top streams has a lot of non-UK artists in it.
Sorry? People [i]choose[/i] to listen to this stuff? On their Spotify? Holy mary mother of gawd.
[i]Jeez are they really still going?[/i]
No.
It's not just us...
Give me Wizard any day
Here in Sweden its a fair few of the classics but also quite a few from Scandinavia
Tänd ett ljus is the slade of Sweden, in that it's played so much. But its decent
A lot of them were new to my wife when she moved over here from the US. They have Wham over there though.
I love pretty much all of them, and would get sad if I didn't hear them in the shops. We have a CD at work with about 20 of the classics on that we've had twice a day throughout December and everyone here seems to enjoy it in an ironic sort of way.
It’s just one of those awful things we do for Christmas but in a good way. Crap songs that everyone sings along to and knows, indulgence even though we know it’s wrong and just enjoying life.
Oh, and obviously America has the amazing "Christmas in Hollis" by Run DMC which never gets played over here.
We spent last Christmas in Hall in Tirol, Austria. Not one shop felt it had to play crappy Xmas hits. Not one. Any Christmas music was performed live, in the market square, by a choir or a brass band. At lunchtime on Christmas Eve everyone made their way into the square, shook hands with their friends, toasted each other in wine or gluwein and enjoyed the atmosphere. No drunkenness, no houses covered in tacky lights, and best of all NO BLOODY WIZZARD!
Frosticles.
In America, you get crooners and endless covers by God knows who of:
Frosty the Snowman
Let it Snow
Jingle Bells
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
And by cover I mean ever more overwrought warbling at an ever slower tempo until it sounds like some kind of tone generator connected to a random number machine; a cross between a computer effect from a 50s movie and an animal screaming.
Nothing religious though. Which is bonkers.
some kind of tone generator connected to a random number machine; a cross between a computer effect from a 50s movie and an animal screaming
that gives me an idea for a track
BTW can I suggest that anyone who thinks they dislike Xmas music listen to this. A splendid palette cleanser after all that saccharine shite.
Heard the band do it live last year at fairly deafening volume - it cleaned my head right out 😀
"Christmas in Hollis" by Run DMC which never gets played over here.
It does on Radio 6, but they're down with the kids. The kids from the 1980s :).
Australia has this travesty by our very own Pedorolf
The Germans are really good at sickly sweet Xmas music.
I don't like to generalise... but every single French person knows the words to this.
Snoopy vs the Red Baron, by the Royal Guardsman [s]very popular[/s] played a lot in NZ- growing up I assumed it was british due to the band's name- apparently not - not sure I've ever heard it played over here.
quite like Seiler und Speer, particularly this:
Steklovata, from Russia.
How come I can't post my YouTube links like them ones up there? ^^
Has anyone else noticed the penny pinching going on with Christmas songs in the shops? Went to the bullring in Birmingham last week and none of the shops were playing the original versions, all covers by unknown artists, was quite disappointed as I do like the 'traditional' songs by Wizzard and Slade et al
Silent Night by Kelly Clarkson.... is my favorite.
This is an interesting post, in fact I wonder why Eddie Mair on the R4 PM programme hasn't covered the subject as it's exactly the sort of thing PM likes.
I guess it's mostly confined to Britain and its former colonies. In Britain Christmas was mostly invented by the Victorians, who, luckily, wrote some rather nice carols as SaxonRider mentions above. The same Victorians invented Scottishness and all the heritage England, London and Dickens claptrap that brings in tourists. So in the same way as we still use Victorian engineering every day as we travel around and flush our toilets, we are still living off Victorian popular pap.
Nordic countries already had their own Christmas traditions, which had endured for centuries so they didn't need to invent and in any case they didn't go through the extraordinary cultural phenomenon of our Victorian age. I'd guess that Nordic tradition includes a fair amount of folklore that 19th century Anglicans and Catholics would have considered heathen and wanted to eradicate.
🙄'traditional' songs by Wizzard and Slade et al
Early 1600's:
There was an interesting programe on Steam Radio this morning about Icelandic Xmas legends which are coming back into fashion. If kids aren't good, they get abducted by the trolls and eaten.