Wonderful Christmastime is the worst Christmas song? Eh, I’ve heard worse |
There is a recent sentiment that Paul McCartney's 1979 festive hit Wonderful Christmastime is the worst Christmas song ever made. Not so fast, writes Derek McArthur.
Some people love Christmas songs. Most people hate them, however.
Be any retail worker, a non-celebrator, or a purveyor of good taste, and you really hate them. They’re mostly schmaltzy, forcefully sentimental, and constantly cross the boundaries of fun, uplifting times into an almost mocking cringe of such times.
There’s also something to be said about the arrogance of music designed to tell you how to feel, what mood you’re supposed to be in, and what you should be celebrating. A peculiar annual social conditioning that happens over a shop tannoy.
Any backlash to Christmas music can easily be filed away under Grinch-like behaviour, but who among us has not found themselves hopelessly depressed at this time of year, trapped within a never-ending Groundhog Day vortex of Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday?
When was the last time you knew what was number one on the charts?
But Christmas songs are a lucrative business for artists and record companies, with a potluck of songs being added to the yearly rotation remaining quite........