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When is it too early for Christmas music?

Christmas 105.9 and 100.7 in Myrtle Beach SC.

Also Bob FM is The Grand Strand's Holiday Station.

WMAG is The Triad's Christmas Station.

And Christmas K-104.7 Charlotte. Those are the only ones I check.
 
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KRWM's holiday flip this year on 11/10 (and KSWD as well) was probably the earliest Xmas music flip Seattle's ever seen. Yeah, too early for me. Albeit, KSWD is playing stuff that Warm will not. Like the Johnny Mathis 'Caroling, Caroling', and John Denver's version of 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'.
At least Yakima always does it right, and KARY-100.9 doesn't go to Christmas until early Black Friday morning.
Here in Ellensburg, KARY's signal is marginal at best. 99.5 KQBG also puts in a decent signal into Ellensburg, and they become the Wenatchee Valley's Christmas Station around Thanksgiving...two choices here.
I am of course looking forward to KARY's rather-wide holiday playlist...while turning them off every time I hear 'Text Me Merry Christmas' Straight No Chaser...YUCK!
KKRB Klamath Falls should be spinning Xmas stuff soon, and their playlist is incredible. WQPW Valdosta too, one I've listened to for years.
 
KQBG and KARY have great playlists again this year. Nice wide mix of the usual favorites + those that don't get a lot of airplay. KQBG seems to like Straight No Chaser - I've heard 'That's Why We Celebrate' about 3-4 times the past couple of days.
Already had to shut off Text Me Merry Christmas once. That was on 100.9. Yuck yuck yuck - shame on Straight No Chaser! They produce better stuff than that!
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
So-called artists?

Why not just shout at the kids to get off your lawn.

Newer artists are every bit as meaningful to today's audiences as were those that came before to their audiences.
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Meaningful?? Perhaps. Standing the test of time? Not much of a chance. That's why you still hear the older originals today. Would I prefer the 17th remake of "Feliz Navidad" by some one hit wonder from today which will be forgotten in a month or would I prefer the original by Jose, that has never been forgotten and HAS stood the test of time for nearly a half-century?? Take your pick. I'll stick with Jose.

And "White Christmas" from the 1940's, still played today. There ya go.

Never mess with the originals.

I don't think I'd ever wanna hear some lame remake of "Hey Jude" or "Rock Around the Clock".
 
I don't know whether it's something about my computer, but the sound quality is really poor on some of these classic recordings. I know the ones not made during the big band era sounded better than that on radio. It surprises me that the you g people who like the classics so much are willing to deal with the really poor sound quality of some of the recordings.
 
oldies76 said:
Meaningful?? Perhaps. Standing the test of time? Not much of a chance. That's why you still hear the older originals today. Would I prefer the 17th remake of "Feliz Navidad" by some one hit wonder from today which will be forgotten in a month or would I prefer the original by Jose, that has never been forgotten and HAS stood the test of time for nearly a half-century?? Take your pick. I'll stick with Jose.

And "White Christmas" from the 1940's, still played today. There ya go.

Never mess with the originals.

I don't think I'd ever wanna hear some lame remake of "Hey Jude" or "Rock Around the Clock".
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Yawn. Something can not stand the test of time until time passes. Beyond which, it’s an utterly irrelevant comparison.

Mariah Carey’s album was new and hadn’t stood the test of time when it was released either. Nor many of the “Very Special Christmas” tracks. They turned out pretty well.

Time to get out of the “Boomer” mindset.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Yawn. Something can not stand the test of time until time passes. Beyond which, it’s an utterly irrelevant comparison.

Mariah Carey’s album was new and hadn’t stood the test of time when it was released either. Nor many of the “Very Special Christmas” tracks. They turned out pretty well.

Time to get out of the “Boomer” mindset.
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Has any other generation had as inflated an opinion of its era's popular music than mine? It really is embarrassing. When I turned 55 and realized that I was STILL hearing songs on the radio that I was hearing when I was 11, my first reaction was to shake my head in disbelief, not to marvel at what great, timeless art that "I'm a Believer," "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "96 Tears" represented. That somehow, the teens of 2010 should be expected to appreciate such music struck me as a ridiculous notion. They had their own music. Styles had changed. If 44 years down the road, there were radio stations still playing the Four Tops and ? and the Mysterians, why wouldn't there be stations in 2054 still playing Taylor Swift and whatever one-hit wonder of today you could name?
 
X-ers and ‘80s music may at least give it a run for the money. Or the money for nothing.

Standing the test of time is not just highly subjective, as artistry inherently is, it’s a meaningless vanity metric. If today’s audiences don’t want to continue to hear Post Malone or Camilla Cabello decades from now, it means nothing. It could be a a generational difference that they don’t become as ossified in their musical tastes as many members of past generations.

I don’t deny I love a wide swath of ‘80s music myself. Some cheesy, some earnest, some just weird. But I’m not going to sit here and say that because a half dozen stations in a given market may be playing Whitesnake in 2019 that it means it’s better because today’s music can’t claim the same (which is the absurdity that argument boils down to). Nor am I going to pretend to know four decades hence what will or won’t still be played.
 
Oh I don't know. I think the Celine Dion 'Feliz Navidad' is very festive. "White Christmas"? Speaking of Celine, I think the cover with David Foster & Friends (including Celine, BeBe/CeCe Winans, Natalie Cole, etc.) is top-notch. I hate hearing Sia and Ariana Grande on my Christmas stations, however...
Yesterday KARY was playing that garbage called Barking Dogs. I shut it off within FIVE seconds. That Jingle Bells song should never be played on the radio. I mean, KARY has some great songs this year but enough of these old and stale fads.
 
Jingle Bells has been done a million (figuratively) times, but I’d put the more recent Gwen Stefani version up against many of them.
A toe-tapping rendition that is every bit as good as those that came before. New does not equal bad.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Yawn. Something can not stand the test of time until time passes. Beyond which, it’s an utterly irrelevant comparison.

Mariah Carey’s album was new and hadn’t stood the test of time when it was released either. Nor many of the “Very Special Christmas” tracks. They turned out pretty well.

Time to get out of the “Boomer” mindset.
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Like I said, if a song from eons ago is being played today or are enjoyed today in people's homes, it has stood the test of time. Many older Christmas songs fit that category. Check back in a couple decades and see which songs are played then. I guarantee it won't be the seasonal one-hit blunders from the 90's and 00's. Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr. and the like may be the only exceptions. Remember quality is key.
 
oldies76 said:
Like I said, if a song from eons ago is being played today or are enjoyed today in people's homes, it has stood the test of time. Many older Christmas songs fit that category. Check back in a couple decades and see which songs are played then. I guarantee it won't be the seasonal one-hit blunders from the 90's and 00's. Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr. and the like may be the only exceptions. Remember quality is key.
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Tin Pan Alley treacle as the standard of "quality." Thanks for providing me a hearty Santa-esque seasonal laugh. Ho-ho-ho-ho-HO!
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Jingle Bells has been done a million (figuratively) times, but I’d put the more recent Gwen Stefani version up against many of them.
A toe-tapping rendition that is every bit as good as those that came before. New does not equal bad.
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I meant the Barking Dogs version. That particular recording should be banned forever from radio. Like Text Me Merry Christmas, the original Spike Jones 'All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth' and The Christmas Shoes, it reeks in the bowels of holiday garbage. I love Harry Connick Jr.'s version of Jingle Bells, and I don't even mind Buble's. And Natalie Cole's is awesome! 'One! Horse! Opennn...Sleighhhhhh!'
 
Singing Dogs, not Barking -- although barking is what they're doing. I don't hate it as much as crainbebo; in fact, it's still an amusing novelty to me, but I haven't heard it on any station up this way for at least a half-dozen years. WDRC-FM used to give it a spin every Christmas Eve when they'd throw everything out there, including Chris DeBurgh's "A Spaceman Came Travelling," a UK Christmas standard that casts baby Jesus as a visitor from another world and the star over Bethlehem as his spaceship. Another holiday oddity was Da Yoopers' "Rusty Chevrolet," a song sung to the Jingle Bells tune about driving a jalopy through the snow. Basically, I'm willing to put up with just about all seasonal novelty songs but "Dominick The Donkey," which is probably too ethnic (Italian) to get much play in the Pacific Northwest, right?

Oh, and I'd rather hear the traditional carols in traditional arrangements AND the aforementioned novelties rather than the saccharine schlock some consider classics. The lines "Right down Santa Claus Lane" and "Christmas comes this time each year" stand out for their overarching idiocy, but the moronic conversation with Parson Brown the snowman comes mighty close.
 
I heard Dominic the Donkey on KRWM Seattle a few years ago. But it's very rare to hear it up this way. Regional differences are why that song gets played in Northeastern states like Massachusetts and Connecticut, but songs like 'Stop the Calvary' Cory Band (a UK song to boot!) and 'Sippin in Seattle's Latte-Land' Duffy Bishop are Northwest exclusives. Yet 106.9 hardly ever plays them anymore...in fact last 8 hours of playlist don't show those songs at all, nor 'Christmas in the Northwest' by Brenda White which used to get a lot of spins years ago. Tis the time for change I guess with the female soccer mom with 2 kids in the backseat audience.
I have never heard Stop the Calvary on ANY other station other than KRWM.

The Chris DeBurgh song, I've never heard.

Listened to the wide and mighty holiday playlist on KKRB Klamath Falls earlier this week. In an hour's span, I heard Jeffrey Osborne's version of 'This Christmas,' which I haven't heard since at least, late last decade. That's the R&B singer known for 'On the Wings of Love'. Also 'Christmas Time Without You' by Michael Damian, well-known on The Young & The Restless as Danny, and he also did the hit cover of 'Rock On' in 1989. And a rare instrumental from Amy Grant called 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring', one of Bach's classical pieces. I had no idea her holiday album had an instrumental portion.

Las Vegas also has a great station with KVGQ 'Q106.9', normally CHR. Listened to 45 minutes of them the other day - and heard a LIVE version of Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad with a female choir! Very festive example of the song. Also covers from Babyface and Brian McKnight which are rare to hear. Both did fantastic holiday albums. I personally love Babyface's version of 'White Christmas' and Brian McKnight's original song 'Home for the Holidays'. Which speaking of, R&B and Smooth Jazz holiday stuff can be heard on WNWV Cleveland all the way up to Christmas. The 72 Hours of Christmas have been popular enough...now they flipped to 24/7 Christmas just before Thanksgiving.
 
crainbebo said:
I heard Dominic the Donkey on KRWM Seattle a few years ago. But it's very rare to hear it up this way. Regional differences are why that song gets played in Northeastern states like Massachusetts and Connecticut, but songs like 'Stop the Calvary' Cory Band (a UK song to boot!) and 'Sippin in Seattle's Latte-Land' Duffy Bishop are Northwest exclusives. Yet 106.9 hardly ever plays them anymore...in fact last 8 hours of playlist don't show those songs at all, nor 'Christmas in the Northwest' by Brenda White which used to get a lot of spins years ago. Tis the time for change I guess with the female soccer mom with 2 kids in the backseat audience.
I have never heard Stop the Calvary on ANY other station other than KRWM.
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"Stop The Calvary"? Shouldn't that be a Good Friday song?

Entercom's WRCH has "Dominick" in its regular Christmas rotation, that's how much of a Christmas staple that particular novelty song is in Connecticut, which I read some years back is, by percentage, the most Italian state in the nation.

TheBigA: So, at least here, there's enough female support for that novelty song to keep it around, unlike the Singing Dogs. "Grandma" gets played here, too. I see "Snoopy's Christmas" on playlists nationwide -- is that considered a novelty song, or does its "peace on earth" message make it just a traditional Christmas song in cartoon trappings?
 
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crainbebo said:
The Chris DeBurgh song, I've never heard.
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First verse:
A spaceman came traveling on his ship from afar
'Twas light years of time since his mission did start
And over a village, he halted his craft
And it hung in the sky like a star, just like a star
He followed a light and came down to a shed
Where a mother and child were lying there on a bed
A bright light of silver shone round his head
And he had the face of an angel and they were afraid
Then the stranger spoke, he said, do not fear
I come from a planet a long way from here
And I bring a message for mankind to hear
And suddenly the sweetest music filled the air.

So maybe the spaceman was an angel rather than Jesus, but the reference is still clear and continues to the end, when he promises to come back in 2,000 years. Which, as anyone with a grasp of science will tell you, is NOT measured in "light years." (See second line.)
 
oldies76 said:
Like I said, if a song from eons ago is being played today or are enjoyed today in people's homes, it has stood the test of time. Many older Christmas songs fit that category. Check back in a couple decades and see which songs are played then. I guarantee it won't be the seasonal one-hit blunders from the 90's and 00's. Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr. and the like may be the only exceptions. Remember quality is key.
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And we’re going to pretend there wasn’t a proverbial s**t-ton of dreck back in the day? Or that the Chipmunks are quality? Or that seasonal one-hit oddities aren’t still being played today? Just how thick are those rose-colored glasses.

A similar mindset would have dismissed as horrid versions of treasured classics, or forgettable new entries, songs by flash-in-the-pan artists who would never be played decades down the road in the era of Wham, Springsteen, Bryan Adams, the Eurythmics, Mellencamp et al. Guess what? We ARE decades later and those songs are established parts of the Christmas format.

I’d recommend trying to live in the modern world. It’s a good place.
 
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