Bah, humbug.

[ecosophia]

 Is it just me, or is the holiday music this year even more vomitous than usual? Every time I go into a store these days, there's some chirpy vocalist (who wouldn't recognize a one-horse open sleigh if it ran her down) simpering about sleigh rides, followed by a choir dipped in sugar syrup caterwauling about an animated snowman in tones that make me dream of blowtorches, followed by -- well, you get the point. Here in Rhode Island, at least, all the older Christmas music seems to have been banished, presumably because its religious content might offend somebody. Um, folks, I'm a Druid, okay? I'd still rather listen to "O Holy Night" and "The First Noel" than to the kind of stickily sweet glurge that's being spattered from the loudspeakers this year. 

Thinking about the difference between the Christmas melodies I appreciate and the ones that make me want to physically tear sound systems apart with my bare hands, I notice a distinct difference in the sound. I may just have to break out my books on Renaissance Pythagorean music theory and see if I can identify a consistent pattern. In the meantime, a merry "Bah, humbug!" to all, and to all composers of holiday glurge, a sound thrashing with one of Krampus' birch rods! 

Comments

[dufu]

I recently heard the worst thing ever: a soulless cover of "Do They Know It's Christmas At All." Keep in mind that the original song was musical grift -- soliciting food donations that rotted on the ports of African cities for lack of a distribution mechanism, while people starved inland. The cover version was just some woman singing it to avoid all the celebrity royalties. I'm not Christian by any means but I'll be glad if all the stores close and we return to hymns.