Christmas music RAAAAGGEEE!!!

[ZOM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tYS4i8ChVQ

*NSFW* (I think)

[greg]

The only decent Christmas songs are the solemn, spiritual ones. O Holy Night has to be the best one. I can't stand the modern Christmas songs and how most of them came from a single Bing Crosby movie way back 70+ years ago or something. I'm sure there may be some decent ones, but I can't think of any. Any reference to snow and crap means little to someone who's been trapped living in Phoenix nearly his entire life.The worst are the Santa Claus/Rudolph songs. Santa Claus has become the embodiment of pure materialism, and I'm sure the real St. Nicholas would not approve of what his legend has become---all because of that idiot poem "The Night Before Christmas." What he did was real and selfless, but to turn him into some magical, God-like fairy as a tool for emotional blackmail for children is wrong. Giving is nice, but unrestrained materialism is wrong. Now look at Black Friday with people getting trampled and mothers getting into fist fights with each other over toys for their kids. It's sick.

Some family members (my mom and aunt particularly) are disappointed that I won't raise my daughter lying to her and telling her that Santa Claus is real. I was catching onto Santa Claus being fake when I was a child (most homes in Phoenix don't have chimneys, for example), and my parents insulted my intelligence by telling me that I was wrong and that Santa really did exist. So they perpetuated the lie until my older sister was in the 8th grade and was laughed by her classmates when they found out she still believed in Santa. She was hurt and mad, so she told me the truth. I then became mad at my parents for lying to me all those years, and even more years for my older sister.

If not for the religious signifigance, Christmas should at least just be about family, love, and a bit of giving. It'd be great if my family wouldn't bother with gifts, since most of the stuff my wife and I get we return to the store and just buy the junk we want instead. It would be great if we could just cook some nice food and enjoy the lights and have a nice time together. Christmas shouldn't be a stress-inducing event, but our society has allowed this to happen.

Now that my daughter is 2 years old, Christmas will get exciting again now that the experience will be more comprehendable for her. I won't barrage her with gifts like my mom did to me, but we'll enjoy giving her stuff and see her get excited. She doesn't need Santa to make Christmas special.

So anyway, that's my Christmas rant. And I'm not looking forward to the music my parents will play when everyone's at their house on Christmas day. It'll either be stupid Country music Christmas or those moronic Manheim Steamroller Christmas CDs (just because Rush Limbaugh has played their crap on his show for the past 15 years or so now). Bow, peeow, ba da ba bee bow yow STFU! I get a more euphoric, spiritual rush listening to trance music than this crap.

[Stormwatch]

Here's a great one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqTT_O1PIvM

It's in portuguese, so I'll sum up the lyrics: they want to kill Santa for being a capitalist pig who gives nothing to the poor.

[BulletMagnet]

Giving is nice, but unrestrained materialism is wrong.

Why do you hate America?

[CMoon]

[Stormwatch]

Here's a pretty good one: The Jethro Tull Christmas Album.

[greg]

It's in portuguese, so I'll sum up the lyrics: they want to kill Santa for being a capitalist pig who gives nothing to the poor.

Yeah, that was a big clue to me as a child. My dad was unemployed for several months, and suddenly Santa won't be providing me my gifts?

Giving is nice, but unrestrained materialism is wrong.

Why do you hate America?

What I mean by unrestrained materialism is the horror stories from Black Friday with pushing, shoving, fights, and Wal Mart employees getting trampled to death. I have a friend who hates Christmas because he worked retail at a toy store in the mall for a few years. Being screamed at by beligerent mothers using the F word at him in front of their own children is sick. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration.

Oh yeah, and I don't hate America; I just can't stand the people who live here (aka Americans).

[monkeyman]

It's in portuguese, so I'll sum up the lyrics: they want to kill Santa for being a capitalist pig who gives nothing to the poor.

Yeah, that was a big clue to me as a child. My dad was unemployed for several months, and suddenly Santa won't be providing me my gifts?

Giving is nice, but unrestrained materialism is wrong.

Why do you hate America?

What I mean by unrestrained materialism is the horror stories from Black Friday with pushing, shoving, fights, and Wal Mart employees getting trampled to death. I have a friend who hates Christmas because he worked retail at a toy store in the mall for a few years. Being screamed at by beligerent mothers using the F word at him in front of their own children is sick. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration.

Oh yeah, and I don't hate America; I just can't stand the people who live here (aka Americans).

Not just America, seems England gets that too (probably western nations in general?). My wife used to work at a Toys r Us and had many screaming parent come in with a broken toy their little darling had clearly been jumping on or banging against a wall all christmas day saying 'You (yes you personally) ruined my child's christmas' before going into a barrange of expletives. I think the pre christmas ruch seemed ok in comparison to the post christmas fallout when all traces of peace and goodwill are long gone.

[Ed Oscuro]

but "Wonderful Christmastime" crosses way over that boundary

Haha, that is exactly the song I was thinking of when I opened the thread. I heard it on a ALL CHRISTMAS MUSIC station ( :O ) on my way to Joliet, Illinois last week. I actually listened to a couple songs and then moved on. I don't really care for "Christmas music" either.

The thing about that song is - good singing, but there's something odd about it at the same time. Hard to explain how it can be cute and infuriating (maybe, not for me really but I can see it) at the same time.

The only decent Christmas songs are the solemn, spiritual ones. O Holy Night has to be the best one

Opinions like buttholes and all that, but those are my least favorite. For me they conjure images of slush up my boots, the sound of cars driving by empty shops in more slush, dirty slush, and nothing else.

[Specineff]

Worst Christmas song ever: "Last Christmas" by Wham!

I knew there was a reason my MiniDisc player was crying blood. How that got in there, I'll never know.

[BrianC]

I'm not a fan of This Christmas by Macy Gray.

[Vexorg]

That McCartney song bugs the heck out of me whenever it's on, but I don't hear it too often these days. Another one I find especially annoying is that "We Need a Little Christmas, right this very minute" song you seem to hear all the time. It manages to make a whole town of happy villagers simultaneous sound like a bunch of impatient twits that need about 47 tons of coal dumped on them, right this very minute.

[drauch]

Yeah, that McCartney song makes me die a little bit inside every season.

[monkeyman]

Looks like Mariah Carey has had another stab at a christmas song this yr, can't remember what it was called but it was so bad, the radio station stopped the song after less than a minute. Made my morning.

[drboom]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ysfQjKK ... r_embedded

Make it your family's favorite. Oh, and probably NSFW if swears are not tolerated where you are working...

[Daigohji]

The only Christmas song that actually rocks my world is "father christmas" by the kinks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU6XZ2GQd48 your welcome

+1

"Sleigh Ride" has always made me want crack open the nearest persons head and feast on the goo inside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf9XK51OrWM

Oddly enough, while most versions of Sleigh Ride make me reach for the blood-stained ice pick, the version by The Ronettes is one of the few Christmas songs I like.

[Zeether]

Clearly the best Christmas song is Killing In The Name Of.

(UKers will know why)

[greg]

I saw something pretty awesome today. I work in downtown Phoenix, and I took a little walk away from my desk. There was an ice skating rink set up in a shopping plaza outside, which was weird in Phoenix 72 degree December weather. Anyhow, Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, a turkey, Abraham Lincoln, and a leprechaun were skating around. Santa had a baseball bat and he was pretending to beat the shit out of everyone with the bat. It was obviously some photo op. I wish I was closer, because my camera doesn't have zoom. I shot it with my cell phone, which can only record in 12 second segments. Still, it's pretty funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJkoll-f7Po

[Square King]

NPR ran a cool piece on overplayed xmas songs yesterday. They opted to showcase some traditional Hungarian (IIRC) vocal singers. Neat ambient-style stuff and pretty fitting for the season.

Also, The Night Santa Went Crazy by Weird Al.

[Jeneki]

Out of curiosity, if Rudolph is the most famous reindeer of all, why would we not recall him? A better question would be, what did those other bozos do besides play games?

[rancor]

Comedy, wit, and sentimentality all in one -

I present you the greatest Xmas song of all time:

Run DMC - Xmas in Hollis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0xWdoQJxMM

[Ed Oscuro]

For some odd reason, when the Christmas music is in a level of Killing Floor (they've remixed all the zombies to fit the theme, pretty neat), it's actually passable! It's all instrumental however.

I saw something pretty awesome today. [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJkoll-f7Po

Can't see what's going on, but somebody got REALLY into it

If it's a photo op, where's the camera crew?

[greg]

If it's a photo op, where's the camera crew?

I know it's hard to see, but the guy who is crouching in front of the action is the guy who had the big camera, taking photos. They were moving in slow motion in order for the guy to take the pictures. It was such a bizarre, cynical sense of humor... the sort of thing I often think of, but I don't have the people to follow along with my goofball ideas. If I had my regular camera, the one I used to take videos in Japan and other vids on my channel, then it would've looked a lot better. You can still see Santa swinging the bat in slow motion and the other guys falling over though.

[gct]

It's that time of the year again, but something seems strange.

As has been usual for the last few years I am still working 16-22 hour days in academia so I haven't actually been out much lately.... but my wife is really into the spirit and she turns on Youtube and the cable tuner to Christmas channels while I'm working at home. The jazz instrumental stuff is OK, pretty cool even, and although I hear a lot of Wham! and utterly cringey arrangements of rrrrrrRRRRRRaaaaapa-pammmm-pAAAAAAAMMMMM, I have been inescapably exposed to this stuff for several hours a day for the last 3 weeks, and I have not heard Wonderful Christmastime, not a single time.

Did something happen? Or maybe the cable network just decided they didn't want to pay royalties to Sir Paul for this piece of shit? But on the very few occasions I have been out these days, I didn't hear it either, either at shops or on the car radio when my wife tunes in...

Is it possible I can make it through this entire season without hearing that song?

[The Coop]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctTVcYMYXLA -"We Three Kings" Rob Halford

As for me, I worked retail for a while and yeah, Christmas is the pits when at work. How many versions of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer do yo need? Man singing, woman singing, man and woman singing, choir singing, kid singing, kids singing, instrumental... and they'd all play within a six hour period. And that, my friends, is why people walk into Burger King in January with a machete and starting swinging.

[gameoverDude]

I was out shopping lately, and the store had gone to an all-Christmas music format. Why can't they break it up a little and have 1 Christmas song to every 2 regular ones? 60 straight minutes of it is a little much. Wonderful Christmastime is truly a cheesy song. I hate winter, so you already know what I think of Winter Wonderland. Pity the store's staff for listening to nothing but Christmas music all day.

Exchanging gifts doesn't matter much to me. I give gifts of about $20 or so to those on my list, because I guess the occasion calls for a little something. That said, it wouldn't offend me to not receive a gift. Family and love are what matters on Christmas.

Forget Black Friday. The supposed bargains are not worth the major bullshit.

[GaijinPunch]

Best Xmas Song ever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnGoH-TMIs8

[Marc]

I can't stand it anymore. There are Christmas songs that just annoy me and wish they would just go away, but "Wonderful Christmastime" crosses way over that boundary. Whenever I hear that song it sends me into an animalistic rage and I just want to murder Sir McCartney with my bare hands and teeth.

IMO it's not just the worst Christmas song in the history of the human race, it's terrible musically and lyrically. From that synth that drives me crazy, wongwongwongwong wangwangwangwang wongwongwongwong wangwangwangwang boopbeepboopbeepboopbeepboopbeepboopbeepboopbeep boopboopboopboop wangwangwangwang, the repetitive chorus of Hell "siiiimply, haaAAAAAAaaaving, a WONderful Christmastime", and the rest of the lyrics where absolutely no effort was made to fit the natural inflections of the syllables to the rhythm of the "music"... one cannot help but wonder what the Hell was going on when Sir Paul played back his creation prior to publication and thought "I've made a right gem here"

Ding dong ding dong

Oh my God please I just wish an asteroid would crash into this planet... Having worked in a grocery store a few years back, my heart extends to our friends who are working in retail and service, who understand all too well that hearing these God-awful Christmas tunes all day long does anything but promote Christmas cheer.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate everything to do with Christmas - while I am not religious, I find the religious-themed songs such as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing to be much more inspired and uplifting than many of these heartless modern creations. "We all want some figgy pudding, we won't leave until we've had some so bring some out here" - what kind of guest manners are these? I'll tell you where to stuff your damned figgy pudding, you ungrateful bastards. GTFO of my house.

So, what songs make your blood boil? Vent here!

Ha, it's funny, I only posted on FB last weekend that this song sounds as though it was written by someone that has grasped the concept of Christmas, but never actually had one. Take away the sleigh bells, and it's actually pretty creepy... I can imagine Jeff Dahmer chilling to this, with little cardboard antlers stapled to his ears and a head boiling away nicely on the stove.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

I have a friend who hates Christmas because he worked retail at a toy store in the mall for a few years. Being screamed at by beligerent mothers using the F word at him in front of their own children is sick

Many moons ago I worked at a call centre for the catalogue shopping company Argos. This was the Christmas that the Wii was released and Nintendo didn't produce enough consoles to fulfil their pre-orders. Every day I went in to work and received call after call from furious mums and dads screaming at me that I'd ruined their Christmas and their kids would be heartbroken. That was a shitty, shitty job.

[Marc]

I have a friend who hates Christmas because he worked retail at a toy store in the mall for a few years. Being screamed at by beligerent mothers using the F word at him in front of their own children is sick

Many moons ago I worked at a call centre for the catalogue shopping company Argos. This was the Christmas that the Wii was released and Nintendo didn't produce enough consoles to fulfil their pre-orders. Every day I went in to work and received call after call from furious mums and dads screaming at me that I'd ruined their Christmas and their kids would be heartbroken. That was a shitty, shitty job.

People actually do that?