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Why are there no new Christmas songs?
Nate Sloan:Lets start with the song thats sitting comfortably at No.
Its Kelly Clarksons Underneath the Tree, originally released in 2013.
Charlie:Oh my gosh, its the same chords.
Nate:And that was produced by Phil Spector, inventor of thatwall of soundapproach you were referring to.
Nate:I agree.
Charlie:Its running eight years long.
Nate:So keep that one in your mind as we move to the song thats sitting at No.
17 on the holiday charts.
Its Ariana Grandes Santa Tell Me, from 2014.
But its much more contemporary in the way that its syncopated; its more rhythmically engaging.
It doesnt sort of fall on these rock-and-roll backbeat tropes.
Nate:I think youre onto something, Charles.
Cause when we get to the first verse, they lean even further into those modern production choices.
Charlie:That feels like a Jay-Z beat.
Nate:Its a little bit 99 Problems, I think.
Charlie:Its Jay-Z meetsA Christmas Carol.
I never knew I wanted it, and it works.
Lets move a little further down the charts to No.
Charlie:Im a believer.
Theres a little sleigh bells, some Jason Mraz guitar.
Nate, I dont like that song.
Very visceral reaction here.
Charlie:No, this is just a personal thing.
I dont like the sort of Jason Mraz-y 50s chord progressions with a reggae beat kind of vibe.
Its just bro music to me.
Nate:I hear Mistletoe as almost a carbon copy of the Jason Mraz Im Yours.
Its got the exact same chord progression.
Its got the same guitar and the same guitar rhythm, even has similar melodic phrasing.
Hearing Justin Bieber sing shorty just kind of ruins Christmas for me.
Because youve been good this year, Im going to give you one more.
Its not in the top 40.
Its currently at No.
Charlie:Oh, I like this.
Is it a timeless classic?
Nate:Were so easy, Charles.
Charlie:I want it to be Ariana Grande.
Nate:So a bold prediction from our resident songwriter.
Im going to disagree.
So maybe those references feel like they fit in the same world of throwback hip-hop.
Charlie:Ill see you in the podcast metaverse in ten years.
