Category: the Rant Board
All right, so I have a rant about music during this season. It has nothing to do with any of you. Pardon my ramblings, but I'll try to make as much sence as possible. First off, I have nothing against christmas music. I must say that some of it is very grand. I understand how publick schools, and some private ones, don't allow religious music, and ah well that's fine too. I mean, the heck, I'm not at all religious. Ok but seriously, shoot me! Right now! Come on! Why the fuck do people choos the most shitty lame music for holiday shows? Music that is too stupid, and only rimes but makes no sence? What does "yummi Christmas for sweethearts, you can walk with your favorite girl, and it's a sugar date" have to do with Christmas! What does it even have to do with little kids? Seriously, what were these "composers" smokin? Cause I'd certainly love to try that, to see if I can enhance the Christmas Repertoire! aaaaaaaah Damn! Why have kids learn a stupid song, without even bothering to explain what the words mean? Why, the, fuck? I'm so outraged! Music is not just teaching kids the words to a song, and la-deh-dii-da-dih-da, like singing robots! In my opinion, they have to be able to understand what they're singing. And who's fucking job is that? You guessed, the teachers! Ok you can't have religious music in schools, but this is so inconsistent! Christmas and other holidays are related to religion. And while they have these "brilliant" pieces like the ones that are heard every year, it's not like if kids will automaticly be converted to the religion of christmas after singing. Heck, they're being befouled with religion by they're very own members of society. I'm so Sorry delicate ears. But that's beside the point. Why this stupid shit is going on is way beyond me. Now, I'm not trying to control anyone or their actions. I can't control everything. What I can't seem to understand, is why these very issues. Ok sorry, just had to get it out there. Rant over.
It's not a conspiracy. The Santa with reindeer and the sleigh, the Santa Bay and similar songs, came out of a far more materialistic era than either you or your parents really understand.
In the 40s, the flying reindeer was an innovation of I think Montgomery Wards Company, though it may have been Macie's.
Anyway, it sells product. It keeps kids fed and grown-ups paying for the lights and the shoes.
And as to the romance part, I haven't heard the song in question, but Walking In A Winter Wonderland and Let It Snow and similar songs are talking about real experiences real lovebirds have. Be they young new passionate lovebirds, or older birds like me and the Chick now having some more fun with the house to ourselves.
We're human: we like holidays to extend and celebrate this stuff. We're also human in a western Christo-capitalist society. So, you could say, all those songs are indeed Christian because they support the economy Christianity depends upon, and would not even exist without.
Like you, I do enjoy the power and majesty of a lot of songs, whether it's Manheim Steamroller, or a brass quintette, or even Handel's Messiah. Just as an aside, The great Christian free-market Queen Victoria, the archetype of Christianity Version x.x from the 1800s, declared that work profane when it came out. But it later has come to resemble great and deep meaning among those in parts of that faith.
But the pop pulp stuff is all about the sales that produce the dollars that pay for your expenses right now, whether you're on scholarship or mom and dad are sprining thing for you, or a combo of each. And especially if you are working during the holidays. I did that quite a bit in college. I'm glad for the materialistic types because it usually meant I could pay for next term's books. I don't much care for Santa Baby, or Hippopotamus or a bunch of those, but you personally got a lot of loot over the years because of it, stuff you both enjoyed and appreciated.
Of course, at the core, no matter your beliefs, holidays are not about the grub and the loot, it's always been about people coming together when they otherwise might not, setting aside time to actually do things for people you might otherwise put off doing, make some memories, and have a lot of fun while you're at it.
I'll go so far as to say the most poppy pulpy songs of materialism could be said to be the most Christian of songs, because that is how the Religion gets paid for. All those places where they say it thrives under persecution? It thrives there because the West sends them aid, that's why. After they tell you it thrives, they ask you for donations. And no matter your beliefs, you probably tossed some in because you're human and don't want to see people left out in the cold. I'm not saying right or wrong, just dumpster-diving past the usual lawyer-wrangly doublespeak that goes on about that stuff.
So yeah, go to the grand halls and see the grand shows, and support the poor Classical Music artists, who usually rehearse till they near about drop dead. I know I have. But they're poor not because they don't work hard. They're just not the ones selling to the masses, which is precisely why it is grand or classical. I don't even compare the two sets of music. When you're in the malls, that ain't bell they're jingling, or you're jingling, for that matter.
And, for what it's worth, my opinion is the grand stuff you talk about will always be there. it's irreplaceable precisely because it is not really subject to the free market, not most times. Sure, Chip Davis and his group Manheim Steamroller have done really well. So has Trans Siberian Orchestra. But for the most part, nobody makes money playing Joy to the World, and so nobody is going to replace Joy To the World with a newer younger model.
Don't fret over the grand stuff, enjoy it, it's not being done away with by the market. It's not on the market. It usually gets its financial support by donors, like you or me. So it does reap the benefits of the Market of course, and without the jingly pop and resultant sales, it might also not exist. But both will remain.
The only way you will ever truly fight materialism is to invent an economic system that is not scarcity-based. That has not yet been done, because resources to this point are and always have been scarce, and there's no incentive to unscarce them.
Eh, not everything is so sacred as all that, sadly. There are indeed newer, hipper, and therefore horrible, versions of grander songs out there. Just listen to a Glee cover of virtually any Christmas song. But you are right in that those sacred songs never really die. You won't hear a lot of the jingly pop songs people create to fill up a Christmas album in ten years, but you'll still hear the old favourites. I don't think of religion when I hear "O Come All Ye Faithful" or "O Holy Night". I think of what mankind is capable of--of the kindness we occasionally display--and of the transcendence of music that beautiful. If you hear a really good choir singing one of the old hymns, it's not the wonder of God you're hearing, but the wonder of the beauty humans can create. It happens less and less now, in music anyway, but it's there.
Ok all, pardon me. Perhaps I made no sence. I understand that some of these things help the econemy, that not all music is grand, it doesn't have to be, and that we're all human. I never suggested the opposite. My biggest anger was just how even if some of the music is a bit horrible, how teachers don't even bother explaining to kids to their students what they're singing for music programs. Like I said I'm not trying to control or impose anything. Forgive me.
Why not explain it to us then? Are you a music educator? For most of us, we just did music class at aschool where you had to do plays and stuff, and maybe did some cutting up like in eggshellsees gayo or something. Trust me on this one, kids will be irreverent with anything you throw at them.
How many Christmas songs of your misspent youth do you remember the backdoor versions as well as the real versions? You know, when you and your friends would put the words you hoped the teacher never heard to it?
Your point is well taken, but I do wonder what more a teacher might be expected to do with 30 kids. But teacher I am not. I am most respectful of that community, being the Chick is one although her area is different.
The song that OP mentions is called Marshmallow World and I happen to love it-in fact, I just bought a Dean Martin Christmas CD primarily because it contained that song.
You could say it's a seasonal song rather than a Christmas song and it is indeed about enjoying love in the winter season.
What are your thoughts on Suzy Snowflake? (Another favorite of mine.) LOL
I like plenty of classics and plenty of pop Christmas songs.
It sounds like Dolce is talking about a young kids music program? I'm not really sure it's necessary for kids to understand exactly what they are singing about. They are there to entertain and are probably bnot going to grasp the more serious intensities of the "grand" classics. I do remember singing "Away in a Manger" in first grade and it did feel very special and I suppose I understood as well as any first grader could what the meaning of the song was.
We also sang "Up on the Rooftop" and had lots of fun.
In high school, we sang a Yiddish song in our Christmas concert called (forgive me if I misspell it) "Ya Ba Bom" and it meant, "there shall be peace". That was the only line we had the translation for the whole song. The choir instructor never coached us on what each line meant-it was just there for a different style of music as well as to include other spiritual views.
BTW, two of my favorite modern Christmas songs are "Father Christmas" by the Kinks (or many others who covered it) and a very very different "Father Christmas" by Greg Palmer of Emerson Lake and Palmer. Both very poignant songs.
Hey Santa Claus you cunt! Where's me fuckin' bike!
I still say the Bob and Doug McKenzie version of that song 12 days of christmas is the best. And trust me, kids did that in school while they were supposed to be singing about three fringed hens and two curly doves.
Lol Imp! Leo, I'm not a music educater, but I live with one, I was musically educated as a kid and am studying to be a music educater. Every teacher is different. But I still say that if kids are being tought songs it wouldn't hurt to explain it to them. I'm not talking about a group of 30, but a small group of 5+. That's all.
so, then, how would you go about pulling a small group of five kids out, to educate them about these song meanings, when you actually have a class of 30 kids?
just asking, cause the world doesn't really work that way.
In answer to your question, Chelsea, she wouldn't pick us fools who were cutting up in the back row. lol.