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Post by kds on Nov 2, 2020 14:11:32 GMT
Saturday morning, Target was all Christmas decorations and music. They can't even get to Halloween without hitting the Christmas stuff, much less Thanksgiving! I've gotten to the point where I can give the box stores a bit of a pass for early Christmas. Thanksgiving's not a much money maker, but for the love of Christ, as least wait until Halloween is over. I love Christmas music, but I really don't want to be bored with it before we even get to December.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 2, 2020 14:20:39 GMT
The Comcast / Xfinity Music Choice Sounds of the Season channel didn't even wait for the jack o lantern outside to begin to rot. They started with their Christmas music yesterday. I flipped over for a second to see if they'd leave the Halloween music up through the weekend, or maybe through the Day of the Dead or Guy Fawkes Day. Nope. And the first thing I heard was one of those pointless Michael Buble songs, his note for note cover of Jingle Bells. Every year I celebrate the Music Choice Sounds Of The Season channel switching over from Halloween/fall music to Christmas music at 12:00 Midnight, the minute Halloween night is over. However - and I say this every year - whoever is responsible for Music Choice's Sounds Of The Season (Christmas music) channel, well, they ruined it. They used to have two Christmas music channels, one for the oldies (50's, 60's, and 70's) and a second channel with the newer Christmas music. Needless to say I was glued to the Christmas oldies channel, and I discovered numerous gems, really great music from the Golden Age Of Christmas Music. I never went near the other channel which was full of Mariah Carey, Hanson, Justin Bieber, and Ariana Grande. A few years ago some genius decided it would be a good idea to combine the two channels. No. Just no. Bing Crosby doesn't belong next to Britney Spears. Karen Carpenter doesn't sound right next to screamin' Kelly Clarkson. Andy Williams blows away Usher. And, nobody today can carry Johnny Mathis's microphone. Ugh. Give me Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and...Phil Spector. I'm trying to listen to this year's Sounds Of The Season channel and I don't last ten minutes. I'll play my own. Happy Holidays!
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Post by kds on Nov 2, 2020 14:25:18 GMT
The Comcast / Xfinity Music Choice Sounds of the Season channel didn't even wait for the jack o lantern outside to begin to rot. They started with their Christmas music yesterday. I flipped over for a second to see if they'd leave the Halloween music up through the weekend, or maybe through the Day of the Dead or Guy Fawkes Day. Nope. And the first thing I heard was one of those pointless Michael Buble songs, his note for note cover of Jingle Bells. Every year I celebrate the Music Choice channel switching over from Halloween/fall music to Christmas music at 12:00 Midnight, the minute Halloween night is over. However - and I say this every year - whoever is responsible for Music Choice's Sounds Of The Season (Christmas music) channel, well, they ruined it. They used to have two Christmas music channels, one for the oldies (50's, 60's, and 70's) and a second channel with the newer Christmas music. Needless to say I was glued to the Christmas oldies channel, and I discovered numerous gems, really great music from the Golden Age Of Christmas Music. I never went near the other channel which was full of Mariah Carey, Hanson, Justin Bieber, and Ariana Grande. A few years ago some genius decided it would be a good idea to combine the two channels. No. Just no. Bing Crosby doesn't belong next to Britney Spears. Karen Carpenter doesn't sound right next to screamin' Kelly Clarkson. Andy Williams blows away Usher. And nobody today can carry Johnny Mathis's microphone. Ugh. Give me Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and...Phil Spector. I'm trying to listen to this year's Sounds Of The Season channel and I don't last ten minutes. I'll play my own. Happy Holidays! I remember that. I think they put one of them over where "Soft Rock" usually lives. But, I couldn't agree more, the combining of the two was a horrid decision, and now the channel resembles the extremely unimaginative playlist that populates our light rock FM station when they switch to all Christmas mid month. Of course, the blending of contemporary and classic wouldn't be so bad if the contemporary Christmas music weren't such shit. Although, that follows the trend of modern pop, so it makes sense I guess.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 2, 2020 14:32:10 GMT
Somewhere--on TikTok, on Discord, or on some company's Slack channel--people are complaining about that merger, too. "Now I have to sit through three minutes of some old guy singing Christmas carols just to get to Meghan Trainor's new Christmas song!"
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 2, 2020 14:33:30 GMT
Every year I celebrate the Music Choice channel switching over from Halloween/fall music to Christmas music at 12:00 Midnight, the minute Halloween night is over. However - and I say this every year - whoever is responsible for Music Choice's Sounds Of The Season (Christmas music) channel, well, they ruined it. They used to have two Christmas music channels, one for the oldies (50's, 60's, and 70's) and a second channel with the newer Christmas music. Needless to say I was glued to the Christmas oldies channel, and I discovered numerous gems, really great music from the Golden Age Of Christmas Music. I never went near the other channel which was full of Mariah Carey, Hanson, Justin Bieber, and Ariana Grande. A few years ago some genius decided it would be a good idea to combine the two channels. No. Just no. Bing Crosby doesn't belong next to Britney Spears. Karen Carpenter doesn't sound right next to screamin' Kelly Clarkson. Andy Williams blows away Usher. And nobody today can carry Johnny Mathis's microphone. Ugh. Give me Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and...Phil Spector. I'm trying to listen to this year's Sounds Of The Season channel and I don't last ten minutes. I'll play my own. Happy Holidays! I remember that. I think they put one of them over where "Soft Rock" usually lives. But, I couldn't agree more, the combining of the two was a horrid decision, and now the channel resembles the extremely unimaginative playlist that populates our light rock FM station when they switch to all Christmas mid month. Of course, the blending of contemporary and classic wouldn't be so bad if the contemporary Christmas music weren't such shit. Although, that follows the trend of modern pop, so it makes sense I guess. I'm really surprised Music Choice continued with this format. I thought they would've gotten numerous complaints from several generations. I went on their website and tried to issue a complaint. It was difficult just signing onto the site, harder to figure out the messaging system, and after sending a respectful but negative message, I never heard back from them, not even a "thank you" for your interest. Again, I tried a few times over the weekend to enjoy the channel and I only lasted a couple of songs each time. I think this is the least amount of oldies they ever had in the mix.
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Post by kds on Nov 2, 2020 14:36:33 GMT
I remember that. I think they put one of them over where "Soft Rock" usually lives. But, I couldn't agree more, the combining of the two was a horrid decision, and now the channel resembles the extremely unimaginative playlist that populates our light rock FM station when they switch to all Christmas mid month. Of course, the blending of contemporary and classic wouldn't be so bad if the contemporary Christmas music weren't such shit. Although, that follows the trend of modern pop, so it makes sense I guess. I'm really surprised Music Choice continued with this format. I thought they would've gotten numerous complaints from several generations. I went on their website and tried to issue a complaint. It was difficult just signing onto the site, harder to figure out the messaging system, and after sending a respectful but negative message, I never heard back from them, not even a "thank you" for your interest. Again, I tried a few times over the weekend to enjoy the channel and I only lasted a couple of songs each time. I think this is the least amount of oldies they ever had in the mix. I honestly think that with streaming and the ability to control playlists, people tend to care far less about the predictable playlists on Music Choice and FM radio. And, for reasons I'll never even begin to understand, some people actually like hearing Mariah Carey's music songs every day for two months. Probably the same poor souls who think that Hocus Pocus is the pinnacle of Halloween cinema.
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Post by kds on Nov 13, 2020 19:00:51 GMT
And then, I just saw Blackmore's Night is releasing a few new Christmas songs digitally. Their Winter Carols album has become one of my all time favorite Christmas albums, so I'll look forward to this, even if it's only digital. Bumping my own comment. For the first time ever, I have pre ordered something. My copy of the Blackmore's Night Christmas EP will arrive Dec 4. I preordered because CD copies are limited to 5,000.
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Post by kds on Nov 16, 2020 15:03:00 GMT
Baltimore's light / variety station flipped over to Christmas music this past Friday. A little early, but with the shit show 2020 has been why not start the holiday cheer a little soon?
We put it on for a total of maybe 30-45 minutes throughout the late morning / early afternoon yesterday while running errands. No exaggeration, Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas played three times, and The Jackson Five's Santa Claus is Coming to Town played twice.
There is, what, 75-80 years of recorded Christmas music available, so there's really no excuse for that level of repetition.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 16, 2020 15:05:38 GMT
That's the worst part of almost ALL radio, but with holiday music, absolutely that's even more so.
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Post by kds on Nov 16, 2020 15:09:15 GMT
That's the worst part of almost ALL radio, but with holiday music, absolutely that's even more so.
I don't like it, but I do at least understand it with ordinary time programming. You gotta push the new shit, and play the same old songs that the people want to hear. But, one would think that the Christmas format would have a little more flexibility and less repetition.
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zinczag
The Surfer Moon
Posts: 151
Likes: 90
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Post by zinczag on Nov 16, 2020 15:42:56 GMT
why not start the holiday cheer a little soon? The Jackson Five's Santa Claus is Coming to Town played twice. Christmas music can easily be played around entire year, yep summer too.✊👊👍 Wait what? It ain't even the best Jackson 5 Christmas. Your local station is stupid haha. They should play instead "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". THE BEST cover. Michael sings it phenomenally! AND it's festive than stale "...Coming To Town".
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Nov 16, 2020 16:31:05 GMT
It seems Christmas stations have really been leaning into newer Christmas music over the past few years. Really disappointing, but I'm a little surprised it didn't happen sooner.
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Post by kds on Nov 16, 2020 16:38:49 GMT
It seems Christmas stations have really been leaning into newer Christmas music over the past few years. Really disappointing, but I'm a little surprised it didn't happen sooner. Our local FM station does a pretty good job balancing the different eras. I just wish they expanded the playlist. I think Sheriff was the first to point out that the Comcast Music Choice Sounds of the Season channel does tend to skew more modern lately.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 16, 2020 16:52:56 GMT
It seems Christmas stations have really been leaning into newer Christmas music over the past few years. Really disappointing, but I'm a little surprised it didn't happen sooner. I think that's true. Following up on my rant about the Comcast cable-tv channel, Music Choice - Sounds Of The Season, I did send them another message, or specifically, another complaint. To their credit, the website is now more user-friendly, and they actually responded promptly to my message. I basically told them that following Bing Crosby with Justin Beiber and Karen Carpenter with Jessica Simpson and Johnny Mathis with Britney Spears was taking away my Christmas spirit. They thanked me and said they would refer it to the proper department or something...
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Post by kds on Nov 16, 2020 17:00:56 GMT
It seems Christmas stations have really been leaning into newer Christmas music over the past few years. Really disappointing, but I'm a little surprised it didn't happen sooner. I think that's true. Following up on my rant about the Comcast cable-tv channel, Music Choice - Sounds Of The Season, I did send them another message, or specifically, another complaint. To their credit, the website is now more user-friendly, and they actually responded promptly to my message. I basically told them that following Bing Crosby with Justin Beiber and Karen Carpenter with Jessica Simpson and Johnny Mathis with Britney Spears was taking away my Christmas spirit. They thanked me and said they would refer it to the proper department or something... Unfortunately, the "proper department" is probably the trash can icon on the computer. Luckily, unlike most of my CDs, my Christmas CDs are pretty easily accessible, so I can play those while we decorate the tree, wrap presents, etc.
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