I wasn't surprised by recent media reports suggesting shoppers are becoming fed up with Christmas music. Why the trend? Because retailers play it in stores as soon as possible, hoping we'll get caught up in the Christmas spirit and max out our credit cards.
This is annoying. Not the credit-card bit. The music bit.
For years, I thought it was just me who didn't like Christmas music. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy some of it, like The Sussex Carol or The Holly and the Ivy.
These songs conjure up visions of drinking pints of rum and eggnog while watching the Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD collection I have instructed my wife to buy me for Christmas.
But Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells sound, at least to me, like a soundtrack appropriate only for a descent into Hades. I also really hate I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.
And I suspect many agree with me.
It made me wonder: What's the deal with Christmas music in Victoria businesses? Where do they get it from?
When do they start playing it? And does anyone complain?
It turns out more than a few malls receive their Christmas music -- and for that matter, all of their music -- from DMX.
No, I don't mean the rapper. DMX is Digital Music Express, a subscription music service providing retailers with a choice of different music channels, piped in mostly by satellite.
For instance, Tillicum Mall uses DMX.
Or at least someone in the administration office was pretty sure they did. She said finding the invoice would take forever.
"It's through some company.
We have no control over it. We can't change it at all," said my source, sounding rather forlorn.
She told me that, while customers beef about a lot of things, they haven't complained about the Christmas music.
Then again, she added, the music usually can't be heard over the clamour of shoppers.
Mayfair Shopping Centre also subscribes to DMX, says marketing director Karina Perkins. Mayfair starts its Christmas music around Nov.
25, when Santa makes his visit.
Perkins originally hoped DMX would offer 1950s Christmas music, as Mayfair's current promotional campaign -- ads and such -- is centred on a boomer-friendly '50s theme. But, curiously, 1950s Christmas music is available only to U.
S. subscribers. So Mayfair has opted for DMX's "traditional Christmas" format, which seemed the closest approximation.
Last year, Mayfair played traditional Christmas in the morning and pop Christmas in the afternoon. But mall retailers -- a captive audience -- complained about the latter. So it was dropped.
"Pop Christmas," apparently, means Christina Aguilera singing songs like Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -- which is even worse than her usual stuff.
Hillside Mall is a renegade. The mall used to play muzak purchased from Muzak corporation.
Then they switched to The Ocean (could customers tell the difference?). This season, since Dec.
1, Hillside has played Christmas discs selected by marketing director Michelle Paget, who on the phone seems like a very nice woman. Lots of Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole.
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