hammerm16 – Snopes

It travels the airwaves for 25% of the year. The subliminal messaging has mixed effects – sheer joy and utter disgust. It overwhelms us, forcing its tune into some hearts, but all minds – yes, it’s Christmas music. To some, the boy’s choirs sound as jolly as one of the “Saw” movies, to others, it warms them from the Christmas cold spreading cheer to all. The infidelity depicted in “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” one might argue, is not the best message to be sending to adolescents. “Oh Holy Night” has become Christmas’ solemn anthem. There is a certain serious sadness inflicted by some of the Christmas ballads; they sound almost depressing about one of the supposed happiest times of the year. But then, *song ends* and up next is “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.” It is difficult to reconcile the joy and grief that are spread from the infectious music.

Why is there a need for music in the first place? Isn’t the whole point to be celebrating the holiness of the day, and is that by any means lost when we are decking the halls? Kimberly Moore’s three-part article, “A Brief History of Holiday Music” argues that, “Music is an integral part of our holiday experience.” Moore divides the melodies by time period. The majority of the earlier Christmas songs were in veneration of the religious part of the day; think: “The First Noel,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “Silent Night.” They are more serious and less likely to facilitate a dance around a Christmas tree. These hymns are more contemplative and allow the singers and listeners to ponder the religious significance of the holiday season. For years Christmas was a solemn holiday.

Joy, celebration and song became a part of the Christmas season in 1840 when German Prince Albert married English Queen Victoria. In Germany, Christmas means Yuletide, a joyous celebration including songs, celebration, gifts, and more marketable forms of Christmas celebration. As the celebration of Yule caught on, “Jingle Bells,” “Up on the Housetop,” and “Jolly Old St. Nicholas” became the songs of the season. Christmas became commercialized and became more about the celebration than the religious sentiments of the season.

Christmas tunes remained consistent until the Great Depression when Americans became the songwriters, commercializing Christmas as a holiday for everyone rather than a strictly religious day. Songs became more about celebration than about spirituality. In addition, the music industry employed famous singers to gain popularity for the new genre of songs. Christmas hits were also debuted in movies, inviting a new audience to enjoy the upbeat music.

Something that has occurred to me while the reverberating beats of “Little Drummer Boy” bump through my car: why Christmas? What I mean is, why is Christmas the only holiday permitted songs to play on the radio? What about Arbor Day? Easter? There are plenty of other holidays worthy of broadcasted music, yet we preempt a single day with 3 months of loud, proud holiday music. Why does Christmas deserve that more than any other day? I find Thanksgiving to be pretty important, can we celebrate that with a song? The attention and importance allotted to Christmas seems unfair, particularly when a large part of America’s population does not even celebrate the day. While Christmas monopolizes the radio, Kwanza and Hanukkah’s songs are without airtime. With the new novelty and lightheartedness of Christmas, everyone is able to enjoy the celebration, regardless of religious affiliation, subjecting us all to the unending holiday cheer.

First, I would like to mention the forum in which I am publishing this “post” – a blog. That is, I am publishing this opinion-driven, critical analysis of blogs onto a web blog itself.

I would consider myself a connoisseur of blogs. It all began with my Pinterest obsession. I seeded, watered and nurtured my boards until they each grew into a well-categorized garden of pins. Pinterest only whet my appetite. It became too soft for me; it no long satiated my interests for random and creative pictures. I started to move onto the harder stuff – blogs. Rather than surfing Pinterest for unfamiliar people with likeable pinboards, I uncovered a world of domains. These domains were owned by anyone from a mother catering to her son’s peanut, gluten, soy, dairy, fructose, and air allergies to a young girl posting Lilly Pulitzer picture after sorority craft after cakeball. What made this unchartered territory – unlike Pinterest – was the tab sitting on the floating menu above the posts, labeled “About Me.” I could now peek into the lives of the blogging elite.

A few niche boards

There is a blog for everyone. As my family and I sit around the TV at night, we spend our time searching the internet for personal interest blogs. My dad surfs for running gear review blogs, my mom visits her favorite design blogger’s sites, my sister sifts through young fashionista’s blogs, and I take a moment to appreciate the quiet and then redirect my attention to my own mixture of recipe, fashion, and review blogs. Lee Odden, author of Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing, argues that, “A blog is only as interesting as the interest shown in others.”

One thing that I love about blogs is the forum that it provides for the writer. He or she is able to express himself or herself, or not. “Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining ‘Blog’ is a fool’s errand” according to blogger, Michael Conniff. The blogger has the opportunity to get emotional, and no one can criticize them to their face – the blogger can even remove the “Comment” section if he or she so chooses. This makes me question, who is this blog for? Is the blogger censoring the reader’s freedom of speech by disabling this function? And, what is the point of hiding from others’ opinions? It makes it seem as though the blogger is hiding behind a computer screen.

All of this raises the question, with bloggers hiding behind their computer screens, and readers doing the same, are we resigning ourselves to a socially averse world? Do these people fear face-to-face, tangible relationships? I begin to wonder whether these people would be able to sustain conversation with others without taking time to cultivate, edit and contemplate their message before pressing “Post.” Also, consider, many times the blogger enables the moderation function. This means that the blogger is able to look at the comment and decide whether it is worthy of sharing with his or her readers – is this not censorship?

The blogging world has recently taken a very strong foothold within society. As blogger Luke Langford says, “The term ‘Professional Blogger’ is no longer an oxymoron.” I anticipate seeing where it leads and how people take advantage of the new forum. It can make for a light, thoughtless afternoon or a contemplative, epiphany invoking one. Make of it what you will.

‘Tis the Season

Blogging: an insider’s critical analysis