BY NICK JONES

Everybody thinks they love Christmas music. But I’m telling you.  They are wrong. When December 1st rolls around, everybody is excited for the holidays. The holiday season brings happiness and friendship, but also Christmas music. Now, I’m not saying Christmas music is the worst music in the world (K-pop), but it is definitely not the best. It is my theory, that nobody enjoys listening to Christmas music, but instead the pressure of society to stay the course and continue to play the sounds of the seasons over and over.

A possible solution to this would be for new artists to make new Christmas songs, that way there are more Christmas songs being played than those by the Jackson 5 and Michael Bublé. This has been tried multiple times, and unsurprisingly, it has failed multiple times. Stars like CeeLo Green, Sia, and even David Hasselhoff have attempted to make new Christmas songs and none of them have ever sold well. The three albums averaged a 5.8-star rating, and Hasselhoff’s album was described as one that spreads “Christmas fear instead of cheer.” For whatever reason, new Christmas songs or even new spins on old Christmas songs never work.

The reason for this is because people don’t actually like Christmas music. The reason that people tolerate it during the holidays because it reminds them of memories that they’ve had of past Christmases. It is merely the nostalgia of the Christmas music in the background of their favorite Christmas memory: unwrapping their new bicycle, or taking a bite of that delicious Honey Baked Black Forest Ham (not sponsored). The songs don’t actually have to be good, as long as they make you feel good. The song has to feel like Christmas.

There is always an exception.

Coming off of his recent album, My World 2.0 (2010), which eventually went double platinum, Justin Beiber released Under the Mistletoe (2011). The album debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 and 1,510,000 copies. It was a very fast growing Christmas album, maybe because it has no competition, but also because Justin Beiber actually made a good Christmas album, a feat that had not been done since the 90s.