Although Christmas is that indeterminable amount of time away – not this month, not tomorrow, [read: not for a while] – the hype, in true English fashion, has already begun. There are pros and cons and I’ve jumped on the chance to start a new theme. Welcome to the first in a series of Christmas Rants! You can follow the progress of this by going to the “Christmas Rants” category shown on the right, or by following this link.
Episode 1 – Music
This has become a bone of contention in recent years. There was a time when Christmas songs would be revered among the masses; the perfect way to bring in the good tidings. There was a time when Christmas songs were no more than hymns or carols sung in the church, or on your snow-pocked front porch. No more.
The first stage of irritation was the music charts going into overdrive during the commercial hotspot, each vying to be THE Christmas number one. Alongside these wannabe royals of pop there are the classics that are repeated day in day out for months on every radio station. If you were not anywhere near a fire that was “so delightful” you’d have to be prepared to feel an incomparible sense of anguish and lonliness whenever in earshot of ANY radio receiving device.
The next step was the reaction of our Simon: the don of SHOVING “reality tv” down our international throat. The X factor appeared to begin as a fresh take on talent shows and quickly became revealed as a money making monster that delivered it’s fire breathing swansong as the Christmas songs hit the market. This was the demise of the Christmas music scene as we knew it: suddenly we found ourselves clawing at our ears and preaching about the good old days of “the world on repeat”.
The most recent evolution of the music scene at Christmas is by far my favourite, and fast becoming a tradition – the grand overhaul. For the past three years we’ve been able to move as a visceral mass thanks to social media. Outvoting the money-wagon led by the dark lord himself, we’ve managed to throw down the holy hand grenade and vote for our most off-beat favourites. Last year ‘we’ managed to get Rage Against the Machine to overtake Simon Cowell. Well done everyone. I look forward to this phenomenon coming good again, even if it is the last time!
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