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All right, so it's Christmas time and this episode will be actually aired on the 25th, Christmas day,
which I realized that I'm getting a lot of friends texting me like Merry Christmas,
from my Japanese friends, Merry Christmas on the 24th. And I'm like, isn't it 25th, the actual day
of Christmas? So I don't know. I don't know what's the standard here. But anyway, I think
25th is the day the baby Jesus was born. So I think that's the Christmas. Anyway, every time
Christmas comes along, there's an episode from this podcast. It's one of my favorite podcasts
of all time. But there's one particular episode that I always think about, and I kind of re-listen
to it every time. The podcast is called Switched on Pop, and it's by two guys. One of them is a
musicology professor, and the other one is a singer-songwriter. So the podcast is about pop
songs, and they are dissecting technically and sometimes culturally, like analyzing why a certain
pop tune or pop trend is so catchy to the ears of the biggest audience at this minute, right? And
they pick trends like Billboard Top 100, like that type of, you know, things that everyone has heard.
Sometimes they highlight specific artists, but every now and then they do this kind of like
meta-analysis type of episode. And this one is called Why Do New Christmas Songs Fail?
And this episode was inspired by the fact that a lot of the Christmas songs and the Christmas
classic songs, if you think about it, you know, what goes to your head when you think about
Christmas songs, at least for American audiences, it's probably all the same, like same 10 songs
or so. And many of them, surprisingly, are coming from 1950s or earlier, like 1960s or earlier.
So that's really old, right? These are like 70-year-old songs, like 60, 70-year-old songs
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that we're still singing along to every Christmas. Things like White Christmas,
Tenenbaum, like some of them are very kind of religious, right? Like it's part of the church
hymn music. So there's that. But there are other sort of pop songs like
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree song and other things that are like very familiar to
American audiences and things that just you don't really think about why, you know? And it's fairly
easy to explain the level of popularity these pop Christmas songs are enjoying based on, you know,
nostalgia, right? Christmas is all about family time, you want to spend drenched in nostalgia,
you want to spend drenched in nostalgia. So it makes sense that, you know, people want to put
on a song that all, like everyone in a family can enjoy. And these are catchy as hell. But
they cited Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You as like one of the newest songs
to sort of enter this level of, you know, Hall of Fame status as far as Christmas song goes.
And do you know how old this song is? Like, do you know when this song came out?
I don't know, maybe 15 years? No, even older. It came out in 1994.
What? That's so old. It is. It's, it's a really, it's a really old, it's like 29 year old song.
Even though every Christmas, everyone starts listening to it, right? Like, even in Japan,
it's one of the more popular Christmas songs, right? Yeah. And I mean, I think it's helped by
classic films like Love Actually that features this song as well. But like, it's incredible,
the longevity of these Christmas pop songs that they enjoy. So they go into this like,
musical analysis of why these songs are recognized as popular, you know, in terms of technical
analysis, like this, you know, this particular beat, or this particular rhythm, this sound
effect, like jingle bell slaying sound, that's another sort of like a signifier that like,
hey, it's a, you're about to listen to a holiday music, you know. And like, so they come up with a
few formulas of like, how to make a popular Christmas song. And based on that, they analyze
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music, like the sort of like more modern holiday hits, like everything I think that came out after
2010s that are considered holiday songs, like Christmas songs from popular artists of our day,
like Kelly Clarkson, Ariana Grande, like Justin Bieber, Jonas Brothers, like they go through a
few of them and kind of like, see if and they sort of predict and try and predict which one of these
modern Christmas songs are going to, you know, stick with us in future, who is going to be the
next Mariah, basically. And it was it's really interesting, because it's true that, you know,
when you think about Christmas songs, if you were to put a Christmas music at your holiday party,
I don't know, maybe when you're on your own, just like, you know, want to feel very Christmassy.
It's true, like I go for sort of more nostalgic stuff that I know, like I don't actually actively
try to look for Christmas songs that are new, right? I mean, maybe because I don't listen to
enough pop music to begin with. But I just never thought about this way. So it's always interesting
to listen to them. I like this is and also this episode contains what I like about this podcast.
It's a combination of musical technical analysis, right? Like things like they explain the use of
synthesizers and like what specific synth sound is sort of indicative of a specific era or specific
artists and like why it invokes a certain feeling or certain vibes. You know, maybe it's obvious for
people who listen to a lot of music, but especially for people like me who I like music, but I don't
listen to pop music a lot. And I don't have the technical background for it's really interesting
analysis. And they do like they have a great series for Beethoven five, like why and how we
still listen to Beethoven five, the Fifth Symphony, and also they have a really cool series again
earlier this year from Daft Punk. Daft Punk is one of my favorite artists of all time. And
they unfortunately disbanded. But this French electro pop duo, who sort of, I guess,
had their peak in the like, early 2000s. And so so they also did a deep dive into
their discography and how they have evolved. So yeah, if you if you like popular music,
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if you like listening to the analysis of popular music, I highly recommend this podcast called
Switched on Pop. And yeah, but it's interesting, right? Like the Christmas songs. I guess,
like, I guess Mariah equivalent of Japan is Takeuchi Maria.
Right? Like, I don't know how old that song is. But I guess it's got to be pretty old.
So old, I think. I don't know. Like, let me let me let me look up, like,
when this song came out. Like, I don't even know the title of the song. What is it? Like,
And like, all I can think about is like that and a Kentucky CM, right? Yeah.
Oh, so it's 2000? 2001. Okay, that's not that's not as old as I thought.
Not too old. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, compared to Mariah. Right? Yeah. I felt like this was
in the zeitgeist, in the cultural zeitgeist for like, since forever. So.
So it's just 2022 years. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's very interesting. And I also don't know,
like, who's making the new Christmas song. And this might be like, it might be worth noting that
this Christmas song, because once you make a hit, it's an insane royalty opportunity,
right? And especially if you made it hit in American billboard chart. Imagine how much
money Mariah's making every year from this one song, right? For, for like, nearly 30 years.
So it's a very sort of popular thing that American pop idols do. They try to come up with
their own version, or they do a covers of like, you know, there's like 17 million versions of,
you know, Jingle Bells by everyone and their dogs. So it's, it's a marketing scheme,
but it kind of works, right? It works. And, and that's why like, every winner of American Idol
have their Christmas cover albums. Like, it doesn't matter what type of singer they are.
They, they like about a year after they win the, the American Idol. And if they're still
somewhat popular, they usually start making a Christmas album. Yeah. And maybe, maybe this kind
of sort of marketing mechanism is not really there in Japan, because, you know, Christmas is not
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really, it's, it's, it doesn't have the same significance. Yeah, no, it's a part of like a
culture, but it's not as, yeah, strong as in the US. It's just, it depends on the generation too,
like younger generation. It depends on the generation. But I think, by and large,
unless you're a very devout Christian, you are just enjoying the Christmas marketing schemes
that are sold in your face. And, you know, sometimes you go along with it and buy a Panettone
like I did just now, or Panettone is like this Italian Christmas bread, right? And yeah, do that,
that kind of thing, or like Christmas limited edition, cosmetic items, and all these other
things that they can, they can package sell it to you. Yeah. But yeah, it's, it's very interesting,
because, like, I went to a private school as a kid, and it was a Protestant school. So we did
have Christmas celebration. But Protestant Christmas is very Jimmy. Because like the whole
religion, I mean, whole, this, this flavor of Christianity, sort of, the whole point is that
we stay, like, she saw is the best. And, you know, you live a quiet, humble life, you know,
be honest to God, whatever that kind of that that's the kind of teaching, unlike, like Greek
Orthodox, or like Catholic, with like bling bling cathedral, and really beautiful architectures. Like,
if you go to Protestant churches, it's like pretty simple, and usually not that bling bling.
So it always appeared funny how like the difference between like what's happening
commercially in Christmas time and like what we do in school. Yeah. And stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I don't know if you if you like if you like musical analysis of pop culture, I have,
and especially if you like, I guess, American pop music. These are really fun people and really
insightful in terms of understanding pop music. It's not pop music. But, you know, I like the
Do you know Snowman? Like the
one?
15:03
Wait, Snowman isn't like, like, Snowman as a yukidaruma?
Yukidaruma. It's a beautiful. It's a kind of animation with a beautiful song. I really like
that. Yeah. I think I know what you're talking about the animation and also the song. So I don't
know the song. Can we find something? I'm not sure. I don't know. I think you could listen to
I think you know this. Yeah. If you search it. We can't play it on a podcast because
what is it? Yeah. Because of the copyright. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But let me send me the
link. Yeah. Send me a link and I'll put it on the description notes along with the link to
Switch On Pop. Maybe people can listen. Yeah. Every year I record that song and then I was wondering
if I could make money by, I don't know, making some modifications. Wait, you record and you sing?
I don't know. Because, you know, anything Christmas related could be, you know.
Wait, when you say you record, do you sing the song? Do you play a song? Do you play it on an
instrument? I don't know. I never, I was just wondering if that's possible to make some money
for my living. Hypothetically. For my living. If it works for these like, you know, tens of
American idols, why not? You know, you can use your neuroscience background to make it
neuroscientifically appealing. Yeah. Yeah. Music. Yeah. Neuroscientific snowman, right?
Make it, make it, make it so addictive that people can't stop listening to it.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Then that way you get a paper and the royalty. So like,
two birds in one stone. I think about it.
Sounds good. I look forward to hearing that. Right. All right. That's it.
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us on X at Eigo de Science.
That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time.
