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Christmas music on the radio

Started by roadman, November 30, 2018, 01:36:14 PM

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roadman

So, we're into that season where radio stations are playing non-stop Christmas music.

Our office manager - who is on the opposite side of my cubicle wall - has one of those stations on most of the day.  She keeps the volume low, so it's not a huge annoyance to others.  And I decided several years ago to mostly ignore the music.

However, I've noticed that this particular station will play different versions of the same song within a short (half hour to hour) time frame.  Anybody else think this is a totally idiotic format.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)


Scott5114

As the years go by, I find myself more and more annoyed by Christmas music. There's only about 20 Christmas songs, so to fill time they have to play different covers of the same songs. It gets incredibly repetitive, especially if you're somewhere you can't leave or change the station, like at work or in a store.

Thus, in the moments where I do have control over my surroundings, I avoid it altogether. None of those 24/7 Christmas stations, and once the non 24/7 ones start slipping them in I just switch over to what's on my phone to avoid it completely. (There's only one Christmas song on my phone, Jonathan Coulton's "Chiron Beta Prime", which is hilarious enough I'm fine with it coming on in June.)
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

hotdogPi

Quote from: roadman on November 30, 2018, 01:36:14 PM
However, I've noticed that this particular station will play different versions of the same song within a short (half hour to hour) time frame.  Anybody else think this is a totally idiotic format.

Most stations do that with Christmas songs.

When I made a tally a few years ago, the station I listen to played 77 songs. Add about 20 for the religious ones they don't play (they play a few religious ones but not many), 5 for the "funny" ones (Chipmunk, Hippopotamus, and a few others) which most stations play but this one didn't, and you have about 100 without any particularly obscure ones. Even 130 is possible. You can go at least 2 hours without repeats, even if some are much more common than others.
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

vdeane

One of the stations on my presets in the car does that, leaving a "hole" in the radio corridor along the Thruway (around Rochester, no less) for a month and a half or so.  It's not the fact that it plays Christmas music non-stop per se (although I would prefer they didn't; many stations will just intersperse Christmas stuff in with their regular playlist and I think it works quite well), or even that they start before Thanksgiving.  It's that the majority of the songs they play aren't my preferred style of music.  It's mostly the same stuff that has been played since the boomer and silent generations were young.

This issue of it creating a "hole" in my radio coverage is relatively recent.  Back when my preset radio corridor only went from Albany to Rochester, it basically amounted to chopping off one end to Syracuse.  Now that I've decided to fill out my FM 1 presets by adding stations from Buffalo and the Hudson Valley, it creates a true hole, which is a little annoying.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

kphoger

This is the time of year when I stop listening to the car radio.  Thank God for CDs...
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

roadman

#5
Quote from: 1 on November 30, 2018, 01:49:47 PM
Quote from: roadman on November 30, 2018, 01:36:14 PM
However, I've noticed that this particular station will play different versions of the same song within a short (half hour to hour) time frame.  Anybody else think this is a totally idiotic format.

Most stations do that with Christmas songs.

When I made a tally a few years ago, the station I listen to played 77 songs. Add about 20 for the religious ones they don't play (they play a few religious ones but not many), 5 for the "funny" ones (Chipmunk, Hippopotamus, and a few others) which most stations play but this one didn't, and you have about 100 without any particularly obscure ones. Even 130 is possible. You can go at least 2 hours without repeats, even if some are much more common than others.
There are more than five "funny" Christmas songs that aren't considered obscure.  And, based on your song count, there appears to be no reason to play multiple "covers" of the same song within a 30 minute period.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

roadman

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:01:59 PM
This is the time of year when I stop listening to the car radio.  Thank God for CDs...
I hardly listen to the car radio anymore.  Even easier to do since I got my 2012 Focus.  USB input for my 16gb mP3 player, and I can change songs or albums with simple voice commands.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

kphoger

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:01:59 PM
This is the time of year when I stop listening to the car radio.  Thank God for CDs...

A - a - a - and . . . I just found out I'm going to need to start using a different restroom at work for a few weeks.  The ladies up front have Christmas radio going already.  Sorry, but I can't handle the Chipmunks in November.




What annoys me the most is the abrupt end to both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  As soon as Black Friday rolls around–BAM! everyone's putting up lights and decorations and the tree.  No break between the holidays, no chance to just sit back and enjoy turkey leftovers and take a breath.  And then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over–like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

roadman

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PM

What annoys me the most is the abrupt end to both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  As soon as Black Friday rolls around—BAM! everyone's putting up lights and decorations and the tree.  No break between the holidays, no chance to just sit back and enjoy turkey leftovers and take a breath.  And then, once December 26 comes around—BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over—like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.

Agree with you 100% on this.
"And ninety-five is the route you were on.  It was not the speed limit sign."  - Jim Croce (from Speedball Tucker)

"My life has been a tapestry
Of years of roads and highway signs" (with apologies to Carole King and Tom Rush)

PHLBOS

Quote from: roadman on November 30, 2018, 02:33:16 PM
Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PM

What annoys me the most is the abrupt end to both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  As soon as Black Friday rolls around–BAM! everyone's putting up lights and decorations and the tree.  No break between the holidays, no chance to just sit back and enjoy turkey leftovers and take a breath.  And then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over–like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.

Agree with you 100% on this.
Ditto as well. 

One would think that given the calendar arrangement for this year providing an additional week between Thanksgiving & Christmas; there would be a bit of a breather so to speak... nope.

Tid-bit: next year with Thanksgiving being on the 28th, the shortest period between that & Christmas Day.
GPS does NOT equal GOD

english si

Quote from: Scott5114 on November 30, 2018, 01:45:07 PMThere's only about 20 Christmas songs
That's probably the radio station, rather than you being sheltered, but there's way more.

Also 20 songs is an hour non-stop, making half-hourly intervals between different versions really silly.
Quote from: 1 on November 30, 2018, 01:49:47 PMWhen I made a tally a few years ago, the station I listen to played 77 songs.
That sounds more accurate, given they don't have religious songs either.

And there's loads more when you include Christmas-adjacent songs like Bohemian Rhapsody - Xmas #1 in the UK in both 1975 and 1991 - and due to film tie-in, Carnaby Street's Christmas lights this year.* Or, perhaps more commonly in compilations/playlists, stuff like Auld Langs Syne or Abba's Happy New Year.

*as can be seen in this video - it's mostly lines of the song put in neon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shNY3q44Hbg

----

Radio Christmas (https://www.radiochristmas.co.uk/), my local Christmas pop-up charity radio station, has rules about not playing too many Christmas songs too early in December - sure, by the last few days, it will all be Christmas, but I imagine the hour and a half the youth group I help out with* has on Tuesday night will be allowed 3 Christmas songs at most - it's just too early in the season.

In previous years I've listened to it, and felt I had to switch to the online-only non-stop Christmas feed (24-7-365) as it was mid-December and the weekday stuff was fine, but not the Christmas music I wanted - there were whole hours without a single Xmas song, back to back with other ones.

*Where I lost the Pogue's game that Tom Scott plays on Tuesday - it's November dammit, you can't hear some Irish scumbag (as the song he wrote calls him) drunkenly slur out of a speaker "It's Christmas eve'ing innnnn the drunk tank..." - it makes no sense without that Christmas spirit December brings behind it.

---
Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PMAnd then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.
Lightweights. At least wait until the New Year, even if you can't stomach Twelfth Night.

kphoger

Quote from: english si on November 30, 2018, 03:05:22 PM
Lightweights. At least wait until the New Year, even if you can't stomach Twelfth Night.

In my family, I grudgingly allow my wife to put the tree up on December 1–but you can bet your socks that we'll be putting it up ON the 1st and not a day later, because she's already itchy by the time Thanksgiving rolls around.  We leave the house decorated and one present unopened until Epiphany, and on Epiphany we have a big family holiday dinner and open the remaining present.  Then, after that, the decorations come down.

As for music, she knows to have the Christmas music turned off in the house by the time I get home, unless it's sufficiently close to Christmas and I've told her it's all right.  I've started teaching my sons some Advent hymns (I grew up in a liturgical church but the church we attend is not like that) in the weeks leading up to Christmas, as well as Epiphany hymns on the 6th.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

english si

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 03:18:33 PMWe leave the house decorated
Well you guys aren't lightweights, unlike your compatriots you bemoan in the post I quoted.

kphoger

Quote from: english si on November 30, 2018, 03:43:39 PM
Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 03:18:33 PMWe leave the house decorated
Well you guys aren't lightweights, unlike your compatriots you bemoan in the post I quoted.

I'm only about 115 pounds, but my wife is about twice that (a little less).  So you be the judge on whether we're lightweights or not.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

english si

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 04:21:30 PMI'm only about 115 pounds
And here's me thinking my 125lbs is light.  :-o

...though I meant it into the unserious, unable to endure, etc sort of fashion rather than about how much force pulls you towards the earth.

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PM
And then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over–like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.

Tradition in my house that the tree doesn't come down until February, sometimes...

Brandon

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 30, 2018, 04:46:48 PM
Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PM
And then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over–like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.

Tradition in my house that the tree doesn't come down until February, sometimes...

How dry does that tree get!?!  :-o
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: Brandon on November 30, 2018, 04:47:48 PM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 30, 2018, 04:46:48 PM
Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PM
And then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over–like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.
Tradition in my house that the tree doesn't come down until February, sometimes...
How dry does that tree get!?!  :-o

Haha, it's an artificial tree, so it doesn't. It's not like I'm sitting around with a giant fire hazard in my living room. :-D

kphoger

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 30, 2018, 04:46:48 PM
Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PM
And then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over–like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.

Tradition in my house that the tree doesn't come down until February, sometimes...

There's an old tradition to leave to leave the decorations up until Candlemas (February 2), and also an accompanying tradition that it's bad luck to leave it up after that.  In order to avoid the bad luck, one would then leave it up until the following Christmas (Candlemas).
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 04:51:30 PM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 30, 2018, 04:46:48 PM
Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 02:22:56 PM
And then, once December 26 comes around–BAM! all the decorations come down, all the Christmas music abruptly stops, nobody even mentions the holiday again for another ten or eleven months.  It's as if, rather than looking forward to holidays, everyone is super-glad they're over–like they just couldn't wait for it to be over.
Tradition in my house that the tree doesn't come down until February, sometimes...
There's an old tradition to leave to leave the decorations up until Candlemas (February 2), and also an accompanying tradition that it's bad luck to leave it up after that.  In order to avoid the bad luck, one would then leave it up until the following Christmas (Candlemas).

Huh, never heard of that before. I was referring to my "tradition" sarcastically, since mine only (sometimes) stays up that long due to laziness.

kphoger

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 30, 2018, 04:55:37 PM
Huh, never heard of that before. I was referring to my "tradition" sarcastically, since mine only (sometimes) stays up that long due to laziness.

Oh, I know.  I just thought you might enjoy being able to tell people it's actually tradition.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

MNHighwayMan

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 04:57:11 PM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 30, 2018, 04:55:37 PM
Huh, never heard of that before. I was referring to my "tradition" sarcastically, since mine only (sometimes) stays up that long due to laziness.
Oh, I know.  I just thought you might enjoy being able to tell people it's actually tradition.

Just what a lazy person needs: a legitimate excuse! :)

abefroman329

Quote from: roadman on November 30, 2018, 01:36:14 PMAnybody else think this is a totally idiotic format.
Not enough people, or they wouldn't do it.

I have a Pandora Christmas music station, which means I don't have to godawful shite like Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime or, worse, Christmas Shoes.

jon daly

Quote from: kphoger on November 30, 2018, 04:57:11 PM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on November 30, 2018, 04:55:37 PM
Huh, never heard of that before. I was referring to my "tradition" sarcastically, since mine only (sometimes) stays up that long due to laziness.

Oh, I know.  I just thought you might enjoy being able to tell people it's actually tradition.

We usually took the tree down around Three King's Day, but I'm not sure when we put it up.

Do any of these stations play "Santa and His Old Lady" or is that just rock stations? I think it is my favorite secular Christmas song.

adventurernumber1

#24
There really are tons of Christmas songs, more than you might think, so I agree that it is a little peculiar to play different covers of the same song in just 30 minutes on a radio station. Hell, artists like Merle Haggard, and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys were writing tons of original Christmas songs for their own Christmas albums, along with performing other classic holiday standards that are more well-known.

Interestingly, Christmas time is the one time of the year when I can handle listening to radio stations that play primarily modern pop music. Otherwise, the rest of the year, I only listen to the radio if it is Classic Rock or plays a variety of music that is primarily older. However, even with that said, most of my Christmas music listening is still done not via the radio, but on personally chosen albums through stuff like YouTube or CD's. I always loved using Pandora back when I had the app, but I haven't had it in forever (I deleted it a few years ago due to maxed out storage, but I had never remembered to get it back afterward). I should look into getting Pandora again, and also trying out its Christmas music stations as well.


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