Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” is rumoured to make the band the equivalent of $600,000 a year. mollylangmuir looks at the secret economics of our favourite festive tunes
, were of central importance. The Gospel of Luke describes angels singing; the Gospel of Matthew depicts the three kings offering frankincense. Fast-forward 19 centuries and, according to a study by the– the very existence of which testifies to how secular and materialistic the holiday has become – playing Christmas music in shops and filling their air with seasonal aromas leads shoppers to spend more money than they otherwise would.
Not all 19th-century carols are nativity-focused. “Jingle Bells”, from 1857, concentrates on revelry, though maybe that’s because it was originally meant to be sung at Thanksgiving. But in one way it belonged to Christmas from the start: Southern historians claim it was written by James Pierpont, a native of Massachusetts, probably during a snowless winter he spent in Savannah, Georgia, meaning that it was sparked – as with so many other Christmas tunes – by nostalgia.
Christmas music is famously cyclical. Come December, we want to hear the same music as adults that was played for us as children. But though this helps explain why the Christmas canon is so difficult to break into, it also offers hope that current songs might gradually become incorporated – every one of today’s classics, after all, was once new.
It wasn’t just her livelihood at stake, but the orienting principle of her life: the spirit of Christmas itself What made Carey’s song so successful? In 1994 it was somewhat unusual for a young pop star – Carey was 25 – to release a Christmas album, but her large fan base helped prompt radio stations to play the track; the song’s growth was juiced a decade later, when it was included on the soundtrack of blockbuster Christmas rom-com “Love Actually”.
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