Addison, great article. Please consider The Kasey Musgraves Christmas special that Amazon put out a few years ago. It’s styled as an old-fashioned variety show, with lots of celebrity cameos, duets, old classics, and catchy originals. Pitch perfect. Highly recommend!
instead of mocking Dan + Shay's glowing tree, we should be lionizing the scientists who developed a sapling that contains multicolored lights in its DNA
Perhaps The Bulwark could do a deep dive into all of the AI slop currently filling all of Amazon's Movers and Shakers and Bestsellers categories in digital music.
There's just a shit-ton of digital albums with album covers usually featuring fruit or food that are nothing but instrumental AI slop, with either no starred reviews or reviews that are obviously fake. It's annoying and these albums are obviously not outselling Taylor Swift even though many of them are ranked higher by sales. Anyhoo, it's a pet peeve of mine that we're having all of this slop being forced upon us and no one seems to be paying attention to it.
We should remember Sturgeon's Law (ninety percent of science fiction is crud, and ninety percent of everything is crud). There were many Christmas songs in the 1940s, the 1950s, and the 1960s; we remember (and play) the best ten percent. The ninety percent that are "below the Sturgeon line" are filed away in attics and basements. Future generations will look back and happily play the best ten percent from the 2020s.
In terms of newer Christmas songs, I've liked Lindsey Stirling's "Warmer in the Winter" (2017). I think part of what works for it is that she's clearly someone who really loves Christmas-time. It's not just a bit that's being thrown together because a publisher is paying them to make a Christmas single.
The big tech strategy is to throw money at a market, overwhelm the competition with an inferior yet acceptable replacement and make a ton of money. This is just a play out of that playbook.
I’m sure Dolly Parton has original Xmas songs, but I can’t think of any. What I like about her stuff is how original her voice can make a song I’ve heard by 100 other artists sound.
I always appreciate when the Bulwark has your writing. Everyone should give your substack a look. Your views on a single building or a mall or just random things are always interesting and a wonderful diversion from politics.
Addison, great article. Please consider The Kasey Musgraves Christmas special that Amazon put out a few years ago. It’s styled as an old-fashioned variety show, with lots of celebrity cameos, duets, old classics, and catchy originals. Pitch perfect. Highly recommend!
Oh cool, I will check that out!
instead of mocking Dan + Shay's glowing tree, we should be lionizing the scientists who developed a sapling that contains multicolored lights in its DNA
Perhaps The Bulwark could do a deep dive into all of the AI slop currently filling all of Amazon's Movers and Shakers and Bestsellers categories in digital music.
There's just a shit-ton of digital albums with album covers usually featuring fruit or food that are nothing but instrumental AI slop, with either no starred reviews or reviews that are obviously fake. It's annoying and these albums are obviously not outselling Taylor Swift even though many of them are ranked higher by sales. Anyhoo, it's a pet peeve of mine that we're having all of this slop being forced upon us and no one seems to be paying attention to it.
We should remember Sturgeon's Law (ninety percent of science fiction is crud, and ninety percent of everything is crud). There were many Christmas songs in the 1940s, the 1950s, and the 1960s; we remember (and play) the best ten percent. The ninety percent that are "below the Sturgeon line" are filed away in attics and basements. Future generations will look back and happily play the best ten percent from the 2020s.
In terms of newer Christmas songs, I've liked Lindsey Stirling's "Warmer in the Winter" (2017). I think part of what works for it is that she's clearly someone who really loves Christmas-time. It's not just a bit that's being thrown together because a publisher is paying them to make a Christmas single.
That's a good point. Her pieces are nice, several of them play on the radio now.
Christmas music is a morass. I can't wait for January.
The big tech strategy is to throw money at a market, overwhelm the competition with an inferior yet acceptable replacement and make a ton of money. This is just a play out of that playbook.
I’m sure Dolly Parton has original Xmas songs, but I can’t think of any. What I like about her stuff is how original her voice can make a song I’ve heard by 100 other artists sound.
I always appreciate when the Bulwark has your writing. Everyone should give your substack a look. Your views on a single building or a mall or just random things are always interesting and a wonderful diversion from politics.
hard candy christmas would probably count. its one of my favorites
Coat of Many Colors should count.
My favorite new Christmas record is J D McPherson’s “Socks!”:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l4rKAWgX9RWQtU-XdqWZo6a3yxm10h-6c&si=9qTVzozQBTSybre0
The entire album is Christmas gold.
It’s witty and it rocks! What more could anyone ask for?!