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Christian Christmas music?

C

CrankyYankee

I don't usually look at this board and have posted here but a few times.

However an article I ran across gave me the thought about how Christmas music by contemporary Christian artists is handled/promoted/programmed these days.

Let me again state this is not a board I frequent so I did a quick look back on the postings to see if this topic had been addressed and seeing it had not, I thought I'd throw it out.

Just wondering, that's all, I have no hidden agenda here folks!

BTW, the article that got me to thinking about this is here:

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50831
 
Welcome, Yankee. With all due respect to my fellow posters, many of us listen too critically to the radio to enjoy "the business," which you'll probably also find on many or most of the board's other formats, IMHO.

As on the non-Religious/Contemporary Christian boards, many of us long for more traditional versions of Christmas classics (myself included more often than not). But there ARE valid remakes worth hearing and buying. So the constant challenge becomes, "Why am I playing this?" Is it pushing an unworthy effort by a popular act, or might it be groundbreaking and unique? Why is this relevant? Does my audience need to be introduced to "the next big thing"?

What helps me is putting myself in the listeners' shoes, and allowing that to steer me. For instance, I never got Spacehog's "In the Meantime" back in my Rock days, but listener feedback (and an eventual car commercial) confirm that it needed to be played at the time.
 
Here's what were playing in terms of Christmas Music:

Currents
Britt Nicole - Last Christmas
Carried Away - Snow Falls
Jars of Clay - Peace is Here
Jump5 - Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Jump5 - He is Born
MxPx - Gimmi Christmas
Number One Gun - This Holiday
Relient K - Merry Christmas (Here's to Many More)
Stellar Kart - Punk the Halls

Recurrents
Aly & AJ - Greatest Time of Year
The Ambassador - Came Down
BarlowGirl - O Holy Night
Building 429 - We Three Kings
Cross Movement - Wisemen
Flyleaf - Do You Hear What I Hear
The Fold - Oh Holy Night
Hawk Nelson - Alleluia
Hawk Nelson - I Heard the Bells
Inhabited - Angels Sing
Jessie Daniels - Little Drummer Boy
Jump5 - Joy to the World
LA Symphony - Christmas Song
LA Symphony - It's Christmas
Mary Mary - 'Tis the Season
Relient K - Angels We Have Heard on High
Relient K - I Celebrate the Day
Spoken - Mary Did You Know
Stacie Orrico - O Come All Ye Faithful
Starfield - O Come All Ye Faithful
Switchfoot - Evergreen
tobyMac - O Come All Ye Faithful
tobyMac - This Christmas
V3 - O Come All Ye Faithful
ZOEgirl - What Child is This
 
I am partial to Mary Mary's California Christmas. It's a really nice laid back Christmas song, and has an interesting point of view, rather than traditional references to snow, cold, etc.
 
And to Johnathan's point, Christmas carols nouveau are usually great for sales. When Donny Hathaway came out with "This Christmas," sales went through the roof. The classic carols are timeless, but unfortunately, can get old. If you find a gifted writer or band of writers (e.g. SCC, Jars of Clay, Third Day, Switchfoot) that can capture the wonder of Christmas without the herald angels singing, the tannenbaum and discussing the yuletide 12 days, you have a winner.
 
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