Christmas Music Online Streams for the Holidays: Here's a Guide
Could anyone possibly listen to all the Christmas music ever recorded (without repeating any single recording) and do it in one Christmas season? That is a story, or maybe even a book, perhaps a scholarly paper, for another day. For our sakes, let's just take it for granted the answer is "No." Never mind the ethical questions that would arise concerning the physical and mental impact such a study would have on the brave volunteers who take part, you would have to figure out just how long is the Christmas season.
As if any of us needed reminding, we frequently hear that the season comes but once a year. One of the gentle reminders we hear continuously comes in the form of Christmas music, emitted with greater frequency from every conceivable audio device, wireless or otherwise, mounted with great care in places so odd that an elf must have done it.
Where does it come from? Not the elf, the music. The answer should not surprise any 'Net-savvy computer user. It comes from all over the world. Literally.
The proliferation of portable music players, dedicated MP3 player devices, the iPod and countless cell phones with on-board music players means our music-listening options are practically unavoidable. A few years ago, we relied on radios or compact disc players to lend an ear to our favorite music. Cassette tapes were the main portable music media only a decade earlier with the advent of the Sony Walkman.
Until then, boom boxes were the norm, cumbersome as they were. Before any of these was the vinyl record, absolutely not portable, only slightly durable, but very much an institution almost impossible to shake in the minds and hearts of devotees, many of whom insist the jury is still out when it comes to warmth and quality of sound. They contend the newfangled technology has not made any improvements. Nevertheless, most stereo systems with turntable record players also came with a radio as part of the package.
Radio was always part of the package. It’s as if we didn’t want to control completely what we listened to all the time. We'd surf the radio tuner until we come across a song or style of music that came close to our taste, and leave it there. Enduring the antics of crazy, wacky DJs and announcers, and commercials squeezing as much air-time as possible between tunes was a small price to pay for the convenience. It still is.
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