The Sounds of Christmas

Christmas is once again everywhere all at once. No supermarket shopper or television watcher is free from the sound of winter nostalgia and slay bells. Midwestern moms are spinning Nat King Cole vinyl while Mariah Carey is setting twitter aflame with her attempt to copyright the term “Queen of Christmas.” Its December and - even if you wanted to - you can’t escape the power of this season’s “fah lah lah lahs.”

December is interesting to me as a sort of yearly sonic reset. While multi-genre 15 second TikTok snippets from previously unknown artists proved ascendant in the year 2022, we cast them aside for something more familiar. The traditional music industry slows down with release cycles in favor of pushing forth Christmas tunes and holiday fare. Artists with Christmas songs already in their discography see a marked uptick in streams of they old holiday songs. When winter comes, listeners default to the sounds of Christmases past. 

Fo me, it’s almost like a palette cleanser. When I return to familiar records, I reground myself in more traditional forms of songwriting. I set aside the popular cord progressions of the current era in favor of those that dominate the Christmas season. In this time of increasingly niche listrening bases, there’s something beautiful about having the songs that transcend individual taste in favor of mass, multi-generational appeal.

So, with that in mind, I guess that I don’t mind the yearly resurgence of holiday songs. For me its a reset. For the masses, it’s a set of songs that we can agree on. For the supermarket shopper and television watcher its background noise. For Nat King Cole, it’s a voice revived and for Mariah Carey it’s a yearly return for an anointed diva. Indeed, the fah lah lah’s are here to stay!!!! And if you hate it, don’t worry, December 26th is right around the corner!