If the USA can’t convert to metric, despite passing laws to that affect, my belief that the world will adopt a new calendar system is less than non-existent.
I hate to scapegoat, but there are a bunch of odd things the US does because boomers like things the way they've always been.
Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? George Michael is dead, and Mariah Carey seemed touch and go for a while, and those are pretty much the last two people to create a successful Christmas song (and the less said about Do They Know It's Christmas, the better)
> Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since?
You are factually incorrect, and i suspect biased against country music, which is disproportionately (but not exclusively) where new original-and-popular Christmas music has come from.
If hinkley is not American he might not so much be biased against country music as wholly ignorant about it. That's one of the few cultural aspects of American culture you haven't managed to successfully export abroad (alongside American Football and the Ambrosia "salad").
As a foreigner I'm definitely familiar with the songs hinkley talks about, while I have no idea what a country Christmas song even sounds like.
Bof, Shania Twain habite chez nous. No need to import the music when we can just import the musicians.
I am having trouble coming up with chansons de noel country that aren't canadian. If they had been exported further, they'd sound something like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni29Fdct21M
Disney finally gave up that fight. Barring a last minute lobbying effort, Steamboat Willie will be in the public domain on 1 January 2023. Of course the trademarks on Mickey Mouse will be valid in perpetuity.
That doesn't seem to be the cause. Competition from out-of-copyright traditional or nineteenth-century songs didn't prevent pop songwriters from having new Christmas hits until the post-Carey slump, and most of those commercial Christmas hits haven't gone out of copyright themselves yet.
So, first, this is someone else's rant that I'm trying to recite from memory, because it sorta stuck with me. And second, I think you are talking about covers, while I am talking about original works.
GenX has the song rotation handed down from the Boomers, and then they barely got anything new to hand down, if you exclude satires. I kinda have my fingers crossed for a holiday music Renaissance over the next twenty years. Probably started by a 54 year old Lin Manuel Miranda, trying to rekindle youthful moments.
> Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? George Michael is dead, and Mariah Carey seemed touch and go for a while, and those are pretty much the last two people to create a successful Christmas song (and the less said about Do They Know It's Christmas, the better)
I don't see how the Boomers get the blame here. The two obvious suspects in the death of the Christmas song are, first, the general decline in the quality of Anglophone pop music over the past few decades (with the biggest arguable exception being the rise of hip-hop, not a genre that's an obviously good platform for Christmas-themed top-10s) and, second, a decline in the cultural resonance of Christmas. Boomers are (directly) driving those trends less than later generations are, I'd assume.
[1] not exactly christmas, but it's got family, decorated trees, vacation time, TV specials, and a guy in robes with a beard handing out presents. Porting should be trivial.
Go listen to it right now, but first imagine that you are tired of colonialism and exceptionalism from the West.
It is a condescending song, even without perhaps the worst line in charity history:
Well, tonight thank god it’s them, instead of you.
I had forgotten that line was in the song until I heard it again years later. What. The. Fuck.
Worse, this line is belted out by Bono, with an unusually tight closeup in his face. He is still trying to do work in Africa. Every time I think of this song, I wonder if he cringes remembering it.
Good bits by Boy George and George Micheal, but boy is the rest hard to listen to now.
The problem with charities like that is that they fill coffers of some corrupt middleman instead of the intended recipients, and even when this doesn't happen - they disrupt functional businesses in Africa by random price-dumping so you cannot plan years ahead because westerners can just flood your market for a year with free stuff out of the blue.
All the countries that went from developing to developed - did this not because of charity, but because of globalisation and business. The only charity that seemed to help was reduction of debt and cheap money for investment.
The song isn't a problem compared to that.
And BTW most of the condescending meaning is infered by western listeners. I'd like to hear the opinion of people from Africa, because often this kind of outrage on behalf of someone is a self-fulfilling prophesy:
"I think Africa is backward, poor and unhappy and there's nothing you can do - therefore when you sing about that it's rude, because you are pointing out the thing that can't be helped, like pointing a finger at a person on a wheelchair".
But if the song was about some poor part of USA you wouldn't have that problem, because you would assume it's temporary thing that will get fixed. And even if not - all these people can just move to other state, right?
Well maybe the problem is with your assumptions? People don't usually think of themselves as a lost cause.
As I have said elsewhere, it was written in 5 minutes on the back of napkin. The point was making money for charity, which it did. For that reason I doubt Geldof or Bono care.
And that line is condescending to the listener, surely. It's clearly not actually saying thank God it's not you.
If they had more time Midge Ure probably would've written something a bit less crap but they didn't.
However, they actually don't know it's Christmas (elsewhere) on Dec 25, because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church follows the Coptic calendar and celebrates Christmas on January 7th.
It was written in 5 minutes on the back of a napkin by midge ure (and sort of Bob Geldof), the lyrics don't really matter.
It was inspired by footage of and visits to (not sure on the chronology of Bob Geldof visiting) of thousands of dying children in tents - the idea was clearly the western idea of Christmas rather than the religious celebration.
Small anecdote: When the British song (aforementioned) was written, the musicians went out for fish and chips and got back to work, whereas the American equivalent (We are the world) was apparently catered with an enormous near-banquet for the stars.
