’Tis the season for holiday parties, gift swaps, Santa sightings—and nonstop Christmas music. There are cheery songs (“Jingle Bells”), sad songs (“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”), goofy songs (“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”), and spiritual songs (“O Holy Night”). But what’s the most Christmassy song of them all?
A team of music experts think they’ve just created it.
British shopping center giant Intu commissioned musicologist Joe Bennett and songwriters Steve Anderson and Harriet Green to come up with the ultimate Christmas song to give shoppers “some extra festive joy” this holiday season.
The Research
Bennett, actually a forensic musicologist at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, started by doing some musical detective work.
"There is no simple formula for a successful song, and in practice songwriters combine their own experience, musical skills, and personal creative preferences when writing,” he says. “But we can infer listeners’ favored song characteristics by analyzing the most popular recordings—in this case, Christmas songs.”
Bennett examined the top 200 songs streamed on Spotify in the UK during Christmas week 2016. Of those, 78 were holiday songs, and that’s where Bennett began his deep dive. He noted each song’s musical key (or the key of the chorus, if the song changed key), year of release, time signature, and beats-per-minute tempo. The songs were categorized by the type of vocal (male, female, group, etc.) and by nine broad lyric themes (home, love, lost love, parties, Santa, snow, religious, peace on Earth, and instrumental).
A Few Interesting Findings:
- 38 of the songs (49 percent) featured sleigh bells.
- The median average tempo was 115 beats per minute.
- 10 songs were by Michael Bublé.
- The most streamed song was “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey.
- Snow, party, tree, Santa, love, home, and cold were common words.
- 68 percent of the songs had a male vocal; 24 percent had a female vocal; the remainder were instrumentals or group vocals.
- Songs from the 1940s and ‘50s were popular.
After analyzing all the elements, Bennett came up with a recipe for the “ultimate” Christmas song:
- Major key (C major or A major)
- 4/4 time or 4/4 swing time
- Lyrics relating to Santa, snow, home/family, or being in love at Christmas
- Sleigh bells playing 8 to the bar in the chorus
- Tempo of approximately 115 beats per minute
- Michael Bublé singing
The Outcome
Here’s where songwriters Anderson and Green stepped in. Taking Bennett’s findings, they wrote “Love’s Not Just for Christmas,” three minutes and 34 seconds of scientifically engineered yuletide cheer. Sleigh bells play a prominent role in the tune, and the lyrics feature the word “Christmas” multiple times (21, to be exact), plus mentions of snow, stockings, tinsel, wrapping, love, and, of course, peace on Earth.
The London Community Gospel Choir recorded the song (sorry, Bublé fans), available now on Spotify. Only Santa knows whether it will stand the test of time or flop like fads of Christmas past.
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