6 ms·

If the USA can’t convert to metric, despite passing laws to that affect, my belief that the world will adopt a new calendar system is less than non-existent.

hinkley 6y ago
I hate to scapegoat, but there are a bunch of odd things the US does because boomers like things the way they've always been. Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? George Michael is dead, and Mariah Carey seemed touch and go for a while, and those are pretty much the last two people to create a successful Christmas song (and the less said about Do They Know It's Christmas, the better)
- gizmo686 6y ago
  US copyright terms: 1978+: Author's life + 70 years. 95 years if work-for-hire 1967-1977: 95 years 1924 - 1963: 28 years if never renewed. Maximum 95 years. Pre-1924 - All copywrights have expired
  - munk-a 6y ago
    US copyright terms: Pre-Mickey Mouse: Expired Post-Mickey Mouse: Copyrighted for eternity.
    - dhosek 6y ago
      Disney finally gave up that fight. Barring a last minute lobbying effort, Steamboat Willie will be in the public domain on 1 January 2023. Of course the trademarks on Mickey Mouse will be valid in perpetuity.
      - dragonwriter 6y ago
        > Barring a last minute lobbying effort, There's always a last-minute lobbying effort.
        disgruntledphd2 6y ago
        The copyright laws in the US are actually Mickey-Mouse laws.
  - hinkley 6y ago
    So, first, this is someone else's rant that I'm trying to recite from memory, because it sorta stuck with me. And second, I think you are talking about covers, while I am talking about original works. GenX has the song rotation handed down from the Boomers, and then they barely got anything new to hand down, if you exclude satires. I kinda have my fingers crossed for a holiday music Renaissance over the next twenty years. Probably started by a 54 year old Lin Manuel Miranda, trying to rekindle youthful moments. ETA: and a switch to metric
  - leoc 6y ago
    That doesn't seem to be the cause. Competition from out-of-copyright traditional or nineteenth-century songs didn't prevent pop songwriters from having new Christmas hits until the post-Carey slump, and most of those commercial Christmas hits haven't gone out of copyright themselves yet.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  What's wrong with do they know it's Christmas?
  - onionisafruit 6y ago
    Aside from being unpleasant to listen to, it’s the perfect Christmas song.
    - hinkley 6y ago
      By that definition, so is Please Daddy, Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas.
  - earthboundkid 6y ago
    It was written in benefit of Ethiopia, a Christian country since before the Anglo-Saxon invasion…
    - 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
      However, they actually don't know it's Christmas (elsewhere) on Dec 25, because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church follows the Coptic calendar and celebrates Christmas on January 7th.
    - mhh__ 6y ago
      It was written in 5 minutes on the back of a napkin by midge ure (and sort of Bob Geldof), the lyrics don't really matter. It was inspired by footage of and visits to (not sure on the chronology of Bob Geldof visiting) of thousands of dying children in tents - the idea was clearly the western idea of Christmas rather than the religious celebration. Small anecdote: When the British song (aforementioned) was written, the musicians went out for fish and chips and got back to work, whereas the American equivalent (We are the world) was apparently catered with an enormous near-banquet for the stars.
    - opk 6y ago
      ... the invading Anglo-Saxons were mostly pagans invading a Christian (thanks to Rome) country.
- leoc 6y ago
  > Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? George Michael is dead, and Mariah Carey seemed touch and go for a while, and those are pretty much the last two people to create a successful Christmas song (and the less said about Do They Know It's Christmas, the better) I don't see how the Boomers get the blame here. The two obvious suspects in the death of the Christmas song are, first, the general decline in the quality of Anglophone pop music over the past few decades (with the biggest arguable exception being the rise of hip-hop, not a genre that's an obviously good platform for Christmas-themed top-10s) and, second, a decline in the cultural resonance of Christmas. Boomers are (directly) driving those trends less than later generations are, I'd assume.
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    Hip-hop holiday[1]-themed top-10s work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PlSJNFfII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PlSJNFfII The composition's originally from the turn of the century, but as you can see above they've gone mainstream in the decades since. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xviBEvbxgZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xviBEvbxgZ0 [1] not exactly christmas, but it's got family, decorated trees, vacation time, TV specials, and a guy in robes with a beard handing out presents. Porting should be trivial.
- dhosek 6y ago
  https://youtu.be/pc9bPycuEc4 https://youtu.be/pc9bPycuEc4
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? You are factually incorrect, and i suspect biased against country music, which is disproportionately (but not exclusively) where new original-and-popular Christmas music has come from.
  - simias 6y ago
    If hinkley is not American he might not so much be biased against country music as wholly ignorant about it. That's one of the few cultural aspects of American culture you haven't managed to successfully export abroad (alongside American Football and the Ambrosia "salad"). As a foreigner I'm definitely familiar with the songs hinkley talks about, while I have no idea what a country Christmas song even sounds like.
    - 082349872349872 6y ago
      Bof, Shania Twain habite chez nous. No need to import the music when we can just import the musicians. I am having trouble coming up with chansons de noel country that aren't canadian. If they had been exported further, they'd sound something like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni29Fdct21M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni29Fdct21M Moving to the next holiday season, carnaval may be more amusing in the old world than in the new: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF7DW_mZatA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF7DW_mZatA (In our household, the Hosen assure xmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn0AdE_vTc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn0AdE_vTc8 )

hinkley 6y ago

I hate to scapegoat, but there are a bunch of odd things the US does because boomers like things the way they've always been. Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? George Michael is dead, and Mariah Carey seemed touch and go for a while, and those are pretty much the last two people to create a successful Christmas song (and the less said about Do They Know It's Christmas, the better)

gizmo686 6y ago
US copyright terms: 1978+: Author's life + 70 years. 95 years if work-for-hire 1967-1977: 95 years 1924 - 1963: 28 years if never renewed. Maximum 95 years. Pre-1924 - All copywrights have expired
- munk-a 6y ago
  US copyright terms: Pre-Mickey Mouse: Expired Post-Mickey Mouse: Copyrighted for eternity.
  - dhosek 6y ago
    Disney finally gave up that fight. Barring a last minute lobbying effort, Steamboat Willie will be in the public domain on 1 January 2023. Of course the trademarks on Mickey Mouse will be valid in perpetuity.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > Barring a last minute lobbying effort, There's always a last-minute lobbying effort.
      - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
        The copyright laws in the US are actually Mickey-Mouse laws.
- hinkley 6y ago
  So, first, this is someone else's rant that I'm trying to recite from memory, because it sorta stuck with me. And second, I think you are talking about covers, while I am talking about original works. GenX has the song rotation handed down from the Boomers, and then they barely got anything new to hand down, if you exclude satires. I kinda have my fingers crossed for a holiday music Renaissance over the next twenty years. Probably started by a 54 year old Lin Manuel Miranda, trying to rekindle youthful moments. ETA: and a switch to metric
- leoc 6y ago
  That doesn't seem to be the cause. Competition from out-of-copyright traditional or nineteenth-century songs didn't prevent pop songwriters from having new Christmas hits until the post-Carey slump, and most of those commercial Christmas hits haven't gone out of copyright themselves yet.
mhh__ 6y ago
What's wrong with do they know it's Christmas?
- onionisafruit 6y ago
  Aside from being unpleasant to listen to, it’s the perfect Christmas song.
  - hinkley 6y ago
    By that definition, so is Please Daddy, Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas.
- earthboundkid 6y ago
  It was written in benefit of Ethiopia, a Christian country since before the Anglo-Saxon invasion…
  - 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
    However, they actually don't know it's Christmas (elsewhere) on Dec 25, because the Ethiopian Orthodox Church follows the Coptic calendar and celebrates Christmas on January 7th.
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    It was written in 5 minutes on the back of a napkin by midge ure (and sort of Bob Geldof), the lyrics don't really matter. It was inspired by footage of and visits to (not sure on the chronology of Bob Geldof visiting) of thousands of dying children in tents - the idea was clearly the western idea of Christmas rather than the religious celebration. Small anecdote: When the British song (aforementioned) was written, the musicians went out for fish and chips and got back to work, whereas the American equivalent (We are the world) was apparently catered with an enormous near-banquet for the stars.
  - opk 6y ago
    ... the invading Anglo-Saxons were mostly pagans invading a Christian (thanks to Rome) country.
leoc 6y ago
> Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? George Michael is dead, and Mariah Carey seemed touch and go for a while, and those are pretty much the last two people to create a successful Christmas song (and the less said about Do They Know It's Christmas, the better) I don't see how the Boomers get the blame here. The two obvious suspects in the death of the Christmas song are, first, the general decline in the quality of Anglophone pop music over the past few decades (with the biggest arguable exception being the rise of hip-hop, not a genre that's an obviously good platform for Christmas-themed top-10s) and, second, a decline in the cultural resonance of Christmas. Boomers are (directly) driving those trends less than later generations are, I'd assume.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Hip-hop holiday[1]-themed top-10s work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PlSJNFfII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7PlSJNFfII The composition's originally from the turn of the century, but as you can see above they've gone mainstream in the decades since. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xviBEvbxgZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xviBEvbxgZ0 [1] not exactly christmas, but it's got family, decorated trees, vacation time, TV specials, and a guy in robes with a beard handing out presents. Porting should be trivial.
dhosek 6y ago
https://youtu.be/pc9bPycuEc4 https://youtu.be/pc9bPycuEc4
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Why were a bunch of new Christmas songs written 60 years ago and barely a song a decade has been added to the repertoire since? You are factually incorrect, and i suspect biased against country music, which is disproportionately (but not exclusively) where new original-and-popular Christmas music has come from.
- simias 6y ago
  If hinkley is not American he might not so much be biased against country music as wholly ignorant about it. That's one of the few cultural aspects of American culture you haven't managed to successfully export abroad (alongside American Football and the Ambrosia "salad"). As a foreigner I'm definitely familiar with the songs hinkley talks about, while I have no idea what a country Christmas song even sounds like.
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    Bof, Shania Twain habite chez nous. No need to import the music when we can just import the musicians. I am having trouble coming up with chansons de noel country that aren't canadian. If they had been exported further, they'd sound something like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni29Fdct21M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni29Fdct21M Moving to the next holiday season, carnaval may be more amusing in the old world than in the new: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF7DW_mZatA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF7DW_mZatA (In our household, the Hosen assure xmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn0AdE_vTc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn0AdE_vTc8 )