Categories of Carols
Dec. 17th, 2009 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatI haven't been listening to much holiday music on my own this month. Honestly, I haven't really been in the mood. I can't help hearing some of it on the radio and in businesses, however. In fact, at Chili's today, they played XTC's "Thanks for Christmas," one of the few XTC songs I've heard in public. Actually, it gets played quite a bit around the winter holidays. Anyway, I've been thinking a bit about it, and it seems like there are four basic categories of typical holiday songs:
1. Religious songs about the birth of Jesus. Most of these are the oldest and grandest ones you'll hear, but there are some that have been written in more recent years.
2. Songs about Santa Claus and related mythology.
3. Secular numbers about Christmas (or other holidays, but most often Christmas) as a time for goodwill, celebration, and togetherness. I think this category would also include songs about NOT enjoying the holidays for whatever reason, like "Blue Christmas," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," and the Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling."
4. Winter songs that don't actually mention Christmas or any other holiday, but for some reason get lumped in with the holiday music anyway. When you think about it, it would presumably make just as much sense to play "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" in January (well, in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway), but does that ever happen?
There is some overlap between these categories. "The Christmas Song" (you know, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and all that) is mostly a Category 3 song, but Santa gets a verse. On the face of it, "Frosty the Snowman" is Category 4, but the animated special featured Santa and Christmas heavily (and even changed the last line of the song so that it DID mention Christmas), so you could argue that it's a Category 2. You probably wouldn't argue this, though, because I doubt anyone but me has a desire to categorize Christmas carols.
1. Religious songs about the birth of Jesus. Most of these are the oldest and grandest ones you'll hear, but there are some that have been written in more recent years.
2. Songs about Santa Claus and related mythology.
3. Secular numbers about Christmas (or other holidays, but most often Christmas) as a time for goodwill, celebration, and togetherness. I think this category would also include songs about NOT enjoying the holidays for whatever reason, like "Blue Christmas," "I'll Be Home for Christmas," and the Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling."
4. Winter songs that don't actually mention Christmas or any other holiday, but for some reason get lumped in with the holiday music anyway. When you think about it, it would presumably make just as much sense to play "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland" in January (well, in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway), but does that ever happen?
There is some overlap between these categories. "The Christmas Song" (you know, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and all that) is mostly a Category 3 song, but Santa gets a verse. On the face of it, "Frosty the Snowman" is Category 4, but the animated special featured Santa and Christmas heavily (and even changed the last line of the song so that it DID mention Christmas), so you could argue that it's a Category 2. You probably wouldn't argue this, though, because I doubt anyone but me has a desire to categorize Christmas carols.
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Date: 2009-12-18 03:48 am (UTC)What about songs like Coventry Carol? It's about King Herod slaying babies, but IIRC it doesn't specifically mention Jesus or Christmas or anything anywhere in the song. I'm guessing that the context still makes it a Category 1 though.
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Date: 2009-12-18 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-19 04:04 pm (UTC)I think there should be a division between "classic old-fashioned carols" and "stuff written for the recording industry/ radio play" too, but of course both categories include songs from all the other categories. You'd have to make some sort of graph to show how they all fit.