Music Mondays: It's Been Awhile Since We've Had a New Super-Popular Christmas Tune

You know how, usually every chunk of years there is a new Christmas tune that comes along and which absolutely dominates the radio? It's been some time since that has happened, wouldn't you agree? We've had some solid Christmas jams, but they haven't been totally nuclear-hot in terms of being a hit. "Santa Doesn't Know You Like I Do," by Sabrina Carpenter, is great, but more of a cult-hit from 2023. The last big tune that comes to mind might be, "Santa Tell Me," by Ariana Grande from 2014. 

Otherwise, you gotta look pretty far back for the huge bangers like, "All I Want For Christmas Is You," by Mariah Carey, back in 1994. I mean, if you're huge on the Jonas Brothers, they did release, "Like It's Christmas," in 2019, and Cher attempted to give us a hot new Christmas tune with, "DJ Play a Christmas Song," when it was 2023, but that pales in comparison to a lot of her discography. So yeah, maybe Grande in 2014 with the last really big song. That is over a decade ago!

I know you can't just magically create a Christmas hit, although there is a slight science to it as discussed in a recent, "Sunday Morning," segment on CBS. That bit even featured a new song crafted by David Pogue with some assistance from others--it honestly is pretty terrible, but points to him for trying. Watch it right above this paragraph. It isn't even a big deal if we don't get any new Christmas jams, as there are so many good ones. Hell, maybe we should focus on making more Hanukkah tunes, those are in especially short supply, and Adam Sandler can only do so much, after all! In the end, I suppose you can't force a hot Christmas (or Hanukkah) track. They just sort of magically appear and find themselves part of the regular holiday rotation. There could very well be something that came out this year to little notice that will slowly gain buzz and become a beloved classic in the next handful of years.

Three Songs I'm Digging All Have Weaponized Nostalgia

I've talked about the power of nostalgia multiple times on the blog and the idea of taking people's love of the past and basically making something designed to prey upon our nostalgic whimsy so we automatically have a certain fondness for it. Well, currently three songs I'm digging all have a big dose of nostalgia involved. Two of them are by Summer Walker (with one featuring someone to really give it that past-appeal boost) and one is by Mahalia featuring Ella Mai. Let's discuss the two Summer Walker jams first.

"Playing Games," by Summer Walker is the most subtle of these three when it comes to nostalgia. It doesn't outright sample any older songs, but has some key lyrics that call-out a classic jam. Basically, she suspects she is being cheated on and in the chorus asks, "So won't you say my name, say my name, if you claim you want me, it ain't no thang." This is undoubtedly a riff on Destiny's Child mega-hit, "Say My Name." Here is that lovely ditty:

It is minimal for sure, but it's there. Anyone who knows, "Say My Name," without a doubt would recognize the call-out to it. Subtly flies out the window for, "Come Thru," which features Usher, however.

"Come Thru," begins with one of my personal favorite Usher song's, "You Make Me Wanna," playing in a fuzzy way before Summer Walker sings about how a man she likes makes her want to, "Come through," and basically stop by and see him for good loving. It sounds like it is just barely riffing on the Usher classic at first before Usher himself starts singing some new lyrics...and by the end of the song they are outright saying lyrics from the old classic without any doubt what song, "Come Thru," is drawing inspiration from. "You Make Me Wanna," can be heard right below:

As I adore, "You Make Me Wanna," it gives, "Come Thru," an almost unfair advantage of being a song I like a good bit already, with Summer Walker and Usher sounding great on it too, nostalgia aside.

"What You Did," is our third song that weaponizes nostalgia and does it with a severity somewhere between the vague allusions on, "Playing Games," and outright saying past lyrics on , "Come Thru." "What You Did," is by Mahalia and features Ella Mai. It also samples a key sound and lyric feature of the Cam'Ron song, "Oh Boy." Now, back in Junior High, I bought the CD, "Come Home With Me," by Cam'Ron basically just for, "Oh Boy," that is how much I loved it--remember those days where you bought an album for just one or two songs? It has him and Juelz Santana rapping as a high-pitched female voice says, "Oh Boy," off-and-on. Here it is:

"What You Did," samples a bit of the beat and that key, "Oh Boy," voice that made the song a banger back when I was a teenager and hearing it really takes me back. Oh, and lest anyone accuse me of forgetting, the version of, "Oh Boy," with Mariah Carey and Cam'Ron was hot fire too, but the original was my main jam. Her's that one while I'm flooding this post with YouTube links to old music:

Some people might be critical of new songs using old ones in this manner, saying it lacks originality. I am fine with it because throughout history artists have sampled or outright ripped each other off to make cool stuff. As long as in these cases everyone is getting paid for their sample who deserves to be paid, it's all good. I'm just enjoying listening to new things whilst simultaneously having my fondness for the past fed that delicious ol' weaponized nostalgia.

Catchy Single or Nostalgia Taken Too Far? A Critical Examination of Ariania Grande's "The Way" featuring Mac Miller

There was a song I kept hearing on the radio that at first I thought must be some old Mariah Carey song from the 90's or early 00's. Then I got to thinking about how I didn't recognize the rapper's voice, and instead of sounding quite like a Mariah Carey song, it sounded as if a slightly higher-pitch voice was in fact singing--and that piano riff was way too reminiscent of the classic Big Pun song, "Still Not A Player" for me to ignore. Here's a video of the song in all its 90's-feeling glory:

Therefore, I did a bit of digging and lo and behold I discovered that, "The Way" is the title of the song and it is in fact sung by some young lady named Ariana Grande. Grande is apparently a popular teen-star on Nickelodeon. She's almost 20 so the songs I was reminded of this new jam sounding like would have been on the radio while she was in diapers or quite possibly before she was born--God, I feel old, and I'm just 25.  The rapper is a slightly-older (aged 21) gentleman named Mac Miller and has been rapping since he was a teenager, so kudos to him for having good-if-not-great raps.

So, let's step back and examine what we have here. A young singer with a wide vocal range on a catchy R&B single with a guest rapper providing some rhymes. I can't be the only one getting flashbacks to Mariah Carey's stuff? Seriously, let's just examine the "Fantasy" remix with the ever-incredible and still-missed Ol' Dirty Bastard:

Interesting, wouldn't you say? I'm not the only person to notice how old-school this sounds, and it gets me wondering, is this nostalgia taken too far?

Let's give this thing the benefit of the doubt first. This song maybe isn't just a cash-in on older folk's nostalgia and young kid's love of bubbly pop, perhaps it genuinely is being done as a sort of homage to the old songs it is reminiscent of? It states at the start it is intentionally going "way back," so that must mean something? Plus, Mac Miller actually spits the line, "I'm not a player, I just crush a lot (although the video edits out "crush" for some reason)," as if he wants us to know how he is aware that piano riff sounds straight outta the original joint. Ariana at the end of the track does some high-pitched wailing as Mariah would often engage in at the end of a song, too. Yeah, maybe this a true tribute piece? Eh, its probably just cashing in on my and other folk's love of things from the past, AKA nostalgia.

Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. Anyone of a certain age longs for the things of their youth. Just as I feel the music of the 90's and very early 00's had the best rap and rock, in a few years when kids are my age they will fondly recall the days of LMFAO and Taylor Swift while dismissing the new music as dull noise.* That makes this song interesting, because while it clearly appeals to today's youth it also is something I find myself really liking. I know I should be offended at this faux-90's song, which is basically taking old things I like and repackaging them for a new generation...but isn't that a lot of today's entertainment?

The New Star Treks. Playing to older fans' nostalgia and the eagerness of younger fans to see stuff blow up, but in the end still making something decent.

How many movies are remakes, reboots, or at the very least liberally borrow from past films? How much of the original rap music I so love wasn't just sampling other beats to create something new? Let's think this over, and it becomes apparent we can't be too mad at this song for existing--it merely is continuing the time-honored trend of taking old things, polishing them up, and giving them to us as new. Plus it is just so damn catchy.

"The Way" is most likely not so much a tribute to classic tracks as it is a somewhat soulless cash-in on nostalgia and kid's today not knowing how unoriginal this song is. Even if this is just the cynical use of a teen starlet the youth love to sell as many iTunes singles as possible, I can't deny that the part of me that longs for those old days really likes this song. It may be an imitation of the old good stuff with a slightly weaker singer and decent-enough rapper, but I guess due to nostalgia I'll accept even "substitute" meat instead of the real stuff--with meat in this case being quality music. This may be nostalgia taken to a dangerous extreme, and I may be embarrassed to say it, but I really like this song and how it makes me feel young again. I guess I'll just put this on the list of my guilty pleasures.

*Side Note: This isn't the complete case, as while I do tend to prefer music from when I was a youth, I still quite enjoy some modern acts and really adore a variety of quite old stuff that predates me by decades, e.g. Miles Davis is the bomb. Still, other than some notable enjoyment of much older music and some new music, the majority of my favorite stuff is indeed from when I was a teenager and child.