Music Note: Classic Christmas Charm

niamhequinn

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Dec 4

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4–5 minutes

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Niamh Quinn Music

Merry Christmas All!

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Christmas Merch!

What makes the perfect Christmas song?

What is Christmas?

Birth of Jesus, duh! Except Jesus was not born in December, and the holiday was around long before Christianity existed. Different cultures and religions all over the world celebrate some form of winter holiday. The winter solstice in it’s different forms have marked the darkest, coldest days of the year since the beginning of mankind. Feasting and present giving have been staples in many celebrations, but there have been some variations. For example, during the Roman holiday of Saturnalia the social roles were reversed whereby the servants/slaves would be waited on by their masters! Music has always been a key part of these holidays.

The History of Christmas Music

The ‘Christmas carol’ can be traced back hundreds of years. Long before Christianity, midwinter songs were played and sung along with dances, plays and feasts to lift people’s spirits during the darker months. As Christianity spread across Europe from the fourth to the 14th centuries, the first carols were produced by Franciscan friars. 15th century carols are the best-preserved aspect of English medieval music. Initially the different seasonal carols were paired with their own dances but these seemed to die out. Ronald Hutton believes that the oldest surviving carol is “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night”, a 16th-century tune with 17th-century words. Although they were not put together securely until the 19th century. The oldest complete carol that is still popular is “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

The 20th century brought with it a musical transformation. Fuelled by the developing recording industry, traditional carols were updated and recorded by the biggest stars of the time, who would forge what we now think of as classic Christmas music. Many enduring hits come from the 40s/60s era, originating from iconic artists like Bing Crosby, Eartha Kitt, Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, and Elvis Presley. With the success of songs like “White Christmas” and TVs beginning to become present in most households, Christmas music became commercialised until the sound of Mariah Carey in December brought dread to every shop worker in the western world.

What makes a song a Christmas Classic?

More than 80 years later, Bing Crosby’s recording of White Christmas is still one of the most-listened to on the 24th and 25th of December. Nostalgia is admittedly a big part of Christmas and therefore generation after generation returns to the same seasonal songs they grew up with. When you think of Christmas charm, chances are the images that are summoned consist of domestic themes such as family, fireplaces, presents under the tree and having fun with friends at a party or in the snow. Therefore, the lyrics to your favourite Christmas songs would ideally follow these concepts. Sleigh bells and tubular bells are also a staple of the genre because of course they remind us all of the face of materialised Christmas – Father Christmas (or Santa Claus for the American minded).

Your favourite seasonal songs from the late 20th and the 21st centuries mostly make either lyrical or stylistic references to the classics of the 50s and 60s. Mariah’s 1994 hit uses mid-90s recording techniques to do a 60s pop song a la Phil Spector (great producer, not so great person). Michael Bublé, the king of modern Christmas music, frequently pays homage to the 1950s big-band sound that accompanied the previous ruler, Bing Crosby. This isn’t to say that good Christmas music can’t exist in other genres like hip-hop or rock, but with the exception of the Jackson 5’s pop-disco version of Santa Claus is Coming To Town, these songs don’t tend to do as well as ones that resemble the style that made Christmas music popular. Whilst men have dominated the winter music charts in the past, modern songs are increasingly being sung by women which has directly led to an incline in the ‘danceability’ of Christmas songs as women’s vocal range is higher.

Whilst a few in the population might listen to music from the 40s-60s year-round, the majority of people do not. Universal music nostalgia seems to be a uniquely Christmas thing. Whether its the common lyrical themes, the iconically Christmas sounds like sleigh bells or pure and simple nostalgia, year after year we all go back to the old classics that we were raised on, that our parents were raised on, and potentially even what our grandparents grew up with. New Christmas songs may come out every year, but I think I’ll stick to the classic Christmas charm of the 20th century.