Corporate media describes America as downright depressed and too broke to even buy a sock-darning kit to fix the holes in our footwear. But yesterday, the Wall Street Journal ran an encouraging story headlined, “Why Christmas Music Is More Popular Than Ever.” The sub-headline added the jolly news, “One music manager described a holiday hit as a ‘little ATM machine.’”
Just how merry is America? If you ask Democrats, we are practically in the Great Depression II, where students must Uber nineteen miles to school in a frigid blizzard, and even though their school is only a mile away. (Because of the terrible economy, they must ride back and forth eight times, each way.)
But if you ask the popular a capella Christmas band Pentatonix, you’ll get a different answer. This year, the group considered moving their annual holiday concert schedule up some. One member suggested starting the holiday tour as early as November 8th. “We’re like, ‘well, we don’t know if somebody in Utah is going to want to purchase a ticket for a Christmas concert on Nov. 8, but let’s try it,’” said Sara Baczewski, a relentless optimist who co-manages the group.
Guess what? Even starting so early, the 26-date arena tour has been going “super well,” Sara said. “The world is really looking for this,” she added. That remarkable accomplishment defies the obvious fact that, as the Journal drily noted, “a capella music is not usually commercially successful.”
Americans seem even more jovial this year than before the pandemic. On December 1st, 2019, 14 of Spotify’s top 50 US singles were holiday songs. On the same date this year, the tally was already up to 30. By the 10th, 20 of Spotify’s top 25 tracks were Christmas-themed. It’s another covid miracle.
Even the ’90s band Weezer is thinking of making a new Christmas album. The Journal raced to take credit in the most Scroogelike manner imaginable. The logic, if you can call it that, is that the constant deluge of bad news in the media makes people yearn for simpler, more sentimental fare like comforting holiday music.
Or, it could be that we’re all just feeling a whole lot happier, despite what the polls tell us we’re supposed to feel. Now, where’s my Christmas playlist?
