Don’t you just absolutely hate it when you are walking around a store or mall and speakers are blaring “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey for the thousandth time? Or some weird, off-key cover of it? I know I certainly do. It’s always so distracting to hear Carey’s obnoxious high notes over and over again. 

It feels as if there hasn’t been any originality to the Christmas genre since the 1950s. With titles like “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” and “Jingle Bell Rock,” the era of original Christmas music was certainly the best. However, as the music industry progressed and practically everything became a weird combination of the pop genre, the music for the holiday season started to become way too tacky. 

Many people consider Mariah Carey to be the queen of Christmas music, and with many memes about her appearing and reappearing daily –like “Mariah is defrosting!”– it’s hard for many people to think otherwise.

Personally, I could get behind one of those livestream yule log videos that has an instrumental version of any and every Christmas song. Even some songs that have lyrics can be on the playlist just as long as it has no loud and annoying parts to it. 

            Maybe I don’t like this particular type of music because it tends to have a chaotic rhythm to it. I believe that since the holiday season is already very chaotic, with many people going far from home in order to celebrate, that the music that they turn to listen to should be a bit more relaxing. While I know that the melody is written in a specific way to hype people up for the holiday, I don’t think it’s needed. 

             I know that whenever I feel a certain emotion and I listen to music it makes me become overwhelmed with the emotion and then it becomes too much. Sometimes, listening to fast-paced music when you are anxious or stressed just heightens that emotion more than necessary. Oftentimes, it gives people a bad outlook on the holidays because they receive such intense emotions from the chaos that occurs from all that revolves around the time.

             Another reason that many people don’t find Christmas music good is because it is, more or less, all happy and cheery. Many don’t enjoy the music because a lot of people suffer from Seasonal Depression (Seasonal Affective Disorder) which causes people in different seasons (most commonly during the summer and around the Thanksgiving to Christmas holidays). So many people aren’t looking for an upbeat song, they just want something mellow that isn’t obnoxious.

              So, overall, Christmas music sucks and is way too overrated. Instrumental versions for me all holiday season, thank you.