DO YOU LOVE CHRISTMAS SONGS? WELL, MANY HATE THEM!

 

 

 

Here we are! Christmas is back and with it the "catchphrases" of the traditional Christmas songs that pervade the shopping streets,  the stores, our homes. But not all people love them, of course. What about you ? Do  you love or hate Christmas songs?

I personally  love the Christmas atmosphere , the  gifts,  the lights, the decorations, the cakes and the traditional melodies, the  concerts,  but I found out that there are some people  who feel deeply irritated as soon as on the radio or on television they listen to the first classic Christmas songs, from Jingle Bells to All I Want for Christmas, probably the most widely popular  Christmas song  since it was released in 1994.

Most people say that they are annoyed because they are so repetitive, others instead are annoyed by the loud volume and some recognize that they simply hate this kind of music. Curiously, some have also indicated that listening to many Christmas songs has the opposite effect: it takes away their desire to celebrate and puts them in a bad mood , it is  the so-called “effect too much”.

Some psychologists and musicologists have tried to explain why Christmas music arouses positive emotions in some people and hate in others, coming to some interesting conclusions: there are memories and emotions which they evoke that are conflictual.

Nate Sloan, Musicology Researcher at the University of Southern California, explained that there are some elements in Christmas songs such as the typical ringing of Santa’s sleigh bells, the refrains -  "the timpani" as the English call them - that enter our heads and struggle to get them out, with the result that we cannot stop humming or have them in mind and this provokes a bit of  stress because we feel imprisoned in an endless loop.

The purpose of Christmas songs is to tell us that a period is coming which will be  full of joy, and this can be reassuring,   however, for others these songs can become a torment since perceived as excessive, because, after a while,  we get bored if not  annoyed.

Music, Hyman explains  in an article in the magazine Psychology Today, «is very effective in creating nostalgia», which in turn «is both an emotional response and a memory experience» connected to the sensations perceived in a certain period. It is the same reason why we generally love the songs of our adolescence even in adulthood. Another psychologist,  Linda Blair,  claims that Christmas music can be interpreted as a stimulus  that reminds our brain «something that must be done, something that has been lost, or something that in one way or another creates pressure», becoming a source of stress. To give a few examples, if we know we have to buy gifts and, maybe,  we don’t have the money to do that, or if we know we have to meet someone we don’t particularly love, our brain puts itself in the position of having to do something to please other people or to maintain a good reputation, but not to satisfy one’s desire.

 

 

THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS SONGS

Christmas melodies became popular  during the Second World War and in the following years. They were the soundtrack for  the soldiers that were so far from home  because they reminded them about  their place and families and the desire to be together. "White Christmas",  composed by Irving Berlin, who lived in warm Southern California,  soon became the symbol of the soldiers' nostalgia at the front. Christmas means peace, reunion, connection with those who are far away. So  those Christmas songs don’t simply create the Christmas atmosphere,   but they  recreate the spirit of a special moment in America history

 

AGNESE, 4sc