So apparently there's some bitter people out there who don't like Christmas music. Moreover, he maintains that NO ONE actually likes Christmas music. Even if you claim that you do, it's only because you are misguided and having Santa's woolly beard pulled over your eyes by the excitement of the season. If you were to listen to the music with different words at a different time of the year, you'd find it insipid and vomit-inducing. (These were not his actual words; I made him more poetic and intelligent-sounding.)I think this "argument" shows a decisive lack of understanding of the appeal of Christmas music. To base like or dislike of the music solely upon the score itself is short-sighted. You cannot separate the notes from the intent. It's Christmas music. That is the whole point. I like Christmas music even though I am fully aware that it's kitschy and overdone and sappily sentimental (see my earlier post for my thoughts on this, entitled Christmas Cheese). For the short time between Thanksgiving and New Year's, I revel in music that is purely optimistic, unrepentently good-humored, and simplistic in tone, message, and delivery. At other times of the year and in other genres, I would find this unacceptable. Does this mean that I truly don't like Christmas music, because my standards for it are different from my typical listening preferences? Absolutely not. I enjoy Christmas music in the context and will tell anyone, when asked, that I adore Christmas music without getting into the finer points of its relative criteria.
What I find most appalling about this person's argument is not the idea that Christmas music should be judged the same as other music. It is perfectly within one's right to decide that. However, to tell me that I don't actually like Christmas music is ludicrous. That insinuates that somehow I've failed to notice the simple chords and repetetive lyrics. Like if someone showed me the sheet music, I'd be absolutely floored. "That's what 'Jingle Bells' really is? I can never listen to it again!"
No. I accept Christmas music's deficits along with its many benefits in full awareness that my standards for this genre are different and, in some ways, more lax. And I will continue to say "I love Christmas music" to anyone that asks. I would appreciate it, Scrooge, if you would not disparage Christmas music on my behalf and that of other Christmas music afficionados, and tell the world that we don't actually love Christmas music; if only we realized what we were saying, we would renounce it. I will not be renouncing Christmas music or my love affair with it at any point in this lifetime.
Long live Bing and White Christmas!
