Holiday Music

Every year holiday music is covered by many music artists, but many artists who create original songs do not gain as much popularity. 

We’ve already heard the song 30 times, who wants to hear John Legend do it again? Every year holiday music is covered by many music artists, but many artists who create original songs do not gain as much popularity. 

For the purpose of this article, a classic song is a song that was created more than 25 years ago and has gained a substantial amount of listeners. Almost no one should be surprised that Spotify says Mariah Cary’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” is the most popular holiday song. The other top songs are also classic songs or covers of classic songs. No wonder people just keep making covers, they have a chance to be one of the most popular artists. Silent Night has been covered at least 700 times over the last 40 years alone. Who wants to hear that many versions? Not me! Sophomore Abbie Kapfer agrees. Kapfer claimed, “There are too many [song] covers, so I don’t like Christmas music.”

Most traditional holiday music is slow, which can get really boring. I don’t want to have slow music playing while I’m doing a fun, fast Christmas activity. New holiday music brings a fun and new song into the mix, something people do not know the lyrics to. One of my new favorite holiday songs is “Officially Christmas” by Dan + Shay. This song has a nice beat and keeps up the tempo while still talking about all of the things the other Christmas songs do. 

Senior Mia Schulte enjoys Pentatonix covers, one of the only exceptions to classic music covers. Schulte expressed, “I prefer classic remade music, but I like some new music, like Kelly Clarkson.” One of the new bands mentioned by Kapfer was Pentatonix. Pentatonix makes good covers. They make the music sound cool and enjoyable with acapella and body percussion.

Something else wrong with Christmas music is the length. Don’t get me wrong, the slow classic music is fine to listen to at a religious service, but it’s not great to have anywhere else. It can be good to sing at the services because everyone knows the songs, but at home, people are not looking to listen to a slow song in the middle of a party. 

Singing covers can also get artists lost in the wave of new music. When someone sings a cover of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”, it starts at the bottom of the charts, so no one notices it when “Winter Wonderland” gets looked up. Whereas new Christmas music becomes original and starts out easier to find. Sorry John, covers just are not it! Sophomore Lily Severson said, “I like covers, but I feel like covers are sometimes too similar to others, and it’s better when they mix it up.”