We consulted UNT’s Steve Wiest, the jazzman who directs the famed One O’Clock Lab Band, about the particulars of terrible tunes. Turns out, there is an explanation.
Too Much Repetition
On the reason some people loathe “The Little Drummer Boy": “The nature of that tune is very static, that’s a real repetitive tune so, if you don’t like repetition that one kind of doesn’t work. And when people actually sing the rum-pa-pum-pum, that thing, that can get old to some folks.”
Novelty Humor
“The dog barking Christmas songs, at some point it stops becoming a musical endeavor and that can get tiresome to me. It’s good for once or twice to laugh, and that’s about it."
A Dated Sound
On synthesizers: (Think Paul McCartney’s “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime”): “I could listen to any of the Beatles talking about mowing their lawn and I’d love it, I love them that much. But that song has kind of a dated synthesizer sound that turns some folks off and it has a funny little groove, but I think that one’s kind of cool."
Overplay
It doesn't take a degreed music expert to recognize the way too much of an arguably good thing can ruin it. According to Carrolton shopper Esmeralda Pulido: “Feliz Navidad, they just play it over and over and over. It gets annoying!”
