Z's Music Corner - Christmas Edition

[cw5523729]

 

[YmaOHyd]

A beautiful nested-loop construction by Stefano Barone:

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Twisted Sister - Heavy Metal Christmas

So yeah, it's the 12th and this is a thing

It may only be me, but it took me a long time to hear that the thing they want every time is "A tattoo of Ozzy" (Osborne)

 

[YmaOHyd]

 

[KTrout23]

I came across this version of “Frosty the Snowman” by Cocteau Twins a few years ago. It was originally released in 1993.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

I came across this version of “Frosty the Snowman” by Cocteau Twins a few years ago. It was originally released in 1993.

This video shows as entirely unavailable (not just can't be embedded) for me.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

The Night Santa Went Crazy by Weird Al

Weird Al, you know him. He was here on December 1st by way of @Bamagan.
Well he made more than one Christmas song.

 

[Off_base]

Not a song post, an observation/question.
Why are most Christmas carols, from 60-70 years ago or longer?
Was there a global cutoff date for writing new ones?
I'm not talking about Mariah Carey recording a single, or that type of song, I mean the songs that carolers sing.
Did Frank Sinatra call everyone and say "no more Christmas carols!"

The same goes for nursery rhymes. It's either a well kept secret conspiracy, or they were just all quitters.

 

[iwatchus]

Carolers want to sing songs that everyone knows. That people expect carolers to sing. Songs your grandmother liked. They might have been new when your grandmother was a kid, but from your perspective they are now classics. In fifty years, I suspect it will still be 70 years ago. Although I can't think of anything from the 90's or 00's that's likely to catch on like that.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

In addition to what iwatchus said, it's also just not a style of music that's very popular currently. You can make songs that lend themselves well to people singing them together while going caroling or around the tree, you can make songs which work well singing to your children. You won't make a lot of money on it, however, and not a ton of people will listen to it. So not a lot are made, and the ones which are don't get the reach to become widely adopted.

 

[alohadave]

Carolers want to sing songs that everyone knows. That people expect carolers to sing. Songs your grandmother liked. They might have been new when your grandmother was a kid, but from your perspective they are now classics. In fifty years, I suspect it will still be 70 years ago. Although I can't think of anything from the 90's or 00's that's likely to catch on like that.

And those songs are vocal/choral and can be sung without instruments.

 

[Bamagan]

The way people 'consume' music has undergone a massive shift since the days when carolers were commonplace. The 'classics' were made at a time when there were only a handful of avenues to reach an audience, so the audience reached was relatively monolithic. In the last decade or two, the number of avenues has expanded, which has caused an explosion of artists now that many barriers to recording and distributing music have eroded.

That's good in some ways, but it has the effect of generally reducing the cultural impact of any particular artist or song. Even the biggest stars in music these days, with legions of devoted fans, never reach the ears of a substantial portion of the population. It's easy for us to find and concentrate only on the stuff we like the most, instead of listening to the radio for hours for the two or three tunes we love. Incidentally, that's something Weird Al mentioned in an interview, asking why he doesn't do many parodies anymore. His answer was more or less what I just said: there are far fewer songs these days that transcend the barriers we put up against styles or messages we don't like.

 

[Off_base]

Thanks for all the replies!
Creation in this genre, if that's what it can be called, seems to have mostly been during one generation, even though they're still some of the most popular songs of all time.
Not just the carols, but classic songs as mentioned, Rudolph, jingle bells, white Christmas, Santa clause is coming, frosty, etc.
The same goes for nursery rhymes.
I love all of this stuff and just wonder how it still goes on, even though people stopped making up new ones, years ago.

 

[KTrout23]

This video shows as entirely unavailable (not just can't be embedded) for me.

How about this one?

 

[YmaOHyd]

My favorite performance of "Finnegan's Wake," the street ballad that inspired James Joyce's novel. Paddy Clancy introduces the song, Tom Clancy recites a selection from the novel and Liam Clancy plays guitar.

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem were on the leading edge of the folk revival in Ireland, England and the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, and it's tough to imagine how big a deal they were now. They outsold Elvis in Ireland; in one year, a third of all records sold in Ireland were Clancy Brothers records. They performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and for President Kennedy. Tracked exports of the Aran sweaters they wore increased 700% (and it was more than that, as most were exported unofficially). The Clancy-organized record label Tradition started the career of Odetta, and they helped launch the Newport Folk Festival.

Their biggest influence was on Bob Dylan, who used their arrangements of Irish folk ballads as melodies in his own work. Dylan was a regular guest when the Clancies played in Greenwich Village, and Dylan would later say that Liam Clancy was the greatest ballad singer he'd ever heard. The Clancy Brothers performed at Dylan's 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden, and at the afterparty Liam Clancy asked Dylan if, perhaps, the Clancies could record an album of some of Dylan's music, mostly songs like "Ramblin Gamblin Willie," which was derived from the Clancy Brothers version of "Brennan on the Moor." Dylan enthusiastically agreed, saying "Liam, you don't realize, do you, man? You're my fuckin' hero."

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Not Another Christmas Song by blink-182

This one is for the people who are tired of Christmas.