Whether you adore them or despise them, Christmas songs have become indispensable during the holiday season. They play on repeat on the radio and in stores, much to the delight of Mariah Carey fans and the dismay of everyone else. Here are 5 things to know about these seasonal hits.
It's hard to escape this musical phenomenon during the holiday season: starting December 1st, Christmas songs are on a continuous loop in stores, on the radio, and... in everyone's heads!
If you're not a big fan of Mariah Carey, you might wonder why these end-of-year hits remain embedded in your memory. The answer is simple: these tracks are specially formatted to be easy to remember and sing along to.
Moreover, if you think all these Christmas hits sound alike, you're not entirely wrong. Much like Christmas cookies, they all follow the same recipe and are based on a simple and fairly short melody. These songs also have a repetitive aspect, as evidenced by the classic "O Christmas Tree" in French or "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in English. That's why they're so easy to memorize, sometimes despite ourselves!
These titles are anchored in our collective memory because we hear the classics from the Christmas repertoire year after year from our earliest childhood. Their return every year in December explains why they are all in our ears and in our heads.
Not only do Christmas songs have a catchy, even obsessive quality, but they also act on our memory like a Proustian madeleine because they evoke emotion.
Most of these songs are written in a major key, a generally cheerful tone that suggests the joy of the holiday season. They feature a usually fast tempo, a predictable melody, and repetitive lyrics that are easy to sing along to. These various characteristics partly explain why they stick in our heads.
But their musical structure is not the only reason. We also tend to remember information more easily when it's associated with a personal memory. And for many people, the end-of-year holidays are filled with emotional and memorable moments. So just hearing a Christmas song can bring all those memories flooding back.
For those who associate the holiday season with happy memories, Christmas songs act as a delightful Proustian madeleine and their seasonal return on the radio marks the beginning of the festivities.
However, for people who have painful memories associated with past Christmases, they often loathe these songs. They feel that these joyful tunes ring hollow, and being bombarded with them everywhere can be annoying or worse.
In either case, these songs stir up strong emotions and provoke very polarized reactions. The moral of the story: if you don't want to spoil the Christmas Eve atmosphere, it's better to ask your guests for their consent before playing your favorite Christmas playlist.
Whether you like them or not, you're far from done hearing Christmas songs. This tradition that emerged in the 16th century is still very much alive, especially since Christmas classics are often covered by contemporary artists in jazz, pop, or rock versions.
The undisputed queen of the genre is singer Mariah Carey since 1994 with the release of her hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You". Already popular in the 1990s and 2000s, this song's popularity skyrocketed after being featured on the soundtrack of the movie Love Actually in 2003.
With this song regularly ranked among the most listened-to tracks worldwide in December, Mariah Carey has become the Christmas diva. The pop star has even built part of her brand image around this song, which profits were estimated at over $60 million in 2017.
During the holiday season, the song All I Want for Christmas Is You has consistently held the number one spot in the top 100 most-played songs in the United States since 2019, the Billboard’s Hot 100.
In a shocking twist in the wonderful world of Christmas, this seemingly unshakable title was dethroned in 2023 by another Christmas song: Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.
This song by Brenda Lee, released in 1958, climbed to the top of the charts with 34.9 million streams. The 78-year-old artist also earned the title of the oldest singer to reach the number one spot in the top in the United States.
Author Audrey on 20 December 2011
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