You are on the Desktop website, Click here to go back to our mobile website
ARTICLE
We want to keep Christmas (hands off, Cromwell) but we could probably do without the repeated plays of ‘Jingle Bells’, Band Aid, or that annoying one by Paul McCartney.
No doubt many of you will have already embraced Whamageddon – the popular annual challenge to go as long as you can without hearing ‘Last Christmas’.
Despite this tongue-in-cheek cynicism, I’m actually a big fan of Christmas music. It sets the tone for a season of festivities. As it probably does for you too, it takes me back to being an excited kid again.
And it continues to soundtrack family moments and memories across the world. As DJs, you no doubt see the impact of this music at countless parties and events across the festive period.
As we look to our first post-Covid Christmas and all the music we’ll hear, I started to wonder how long Christmas music has been a part of our culture for? And what would our lives be like without Christmas songs? To answer the latter, we’d have to look to Cromwell’s short-lived reign. But the history of the Christmas song goes back way further than the 1600s.
What have the Romans ever done for us?
As John Cleese asked his fellow Jewish rebels in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” Well, along with public order, sanitation, roads and wine, there’s reason to believe the Roman Empire also gave us our oldest known Christmas carol: ‘Angel’s Hymn’, allegedly sung in 129 AD. At that time, the church didn’t celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, so the song didn’t technically become a Christmas carol until two centuries later when the Bishop of Rome ordered people to sing it on the newly pronounced Christmas Day...
To read the full article, you’ll need to have a physical copy of the magazine which you can sign up for here for 6 issues delivered to your door from just £16!
https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
You’ll also get full interactive access to this and the last year of magazines via the Pro Mobile Magazine App which is available from both the Apple App Store and Android PlayStore
No doubt many of you will have already embraced Whamageddon – the popular annual challenge to go as long as you can without hearing ‘Last Christmas’.
Despite this tongue-in-cheek cynicism, I’m actually a big fan of Christmas music. It sets the tone for a season of festivities. As it probably does for you too, it takes me back to being an excited kid again.
And it continues to soundtrack family moments and memories across the world. As DJs, you no doubt see the impact of this music at countless parties and events across the festive period.
As we look to our first post-Covid Christmas and all the music we’ll hear, I started to wonder how long Christmas music has been a part of our culture for? And what would our lives be like without Christmas songs? To answer the latter, we’d have to look to Cromwell’s short-lived reign. But the history of the Christmas song goes back way further than the 1600s.
What have the Romans ever done for us?
As John Cleese asked his fellow Jewish rebels in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” Well, along with public order, sanitation, roads and wine, there’s reason to believe the Roman Empire also gave us our oldest known Christmas carol: ‘Angel’s Hymn’, allegedly sung in 129 AD. At that time, the church didn’t celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December, so the song didn’t technically become a Christmas carol until two centuries later when the Bishop of Rome ordered people to sing it on the newly pronounced Christmas Day...
To read the full article, you’ll need to have a physical copy of the magazine which you can sign up for here for 6 issues delivered to your door from just £16!
https://store.promobile.online/products/pro-mobile-magazine-6-issue-1-year-subscription
You’ll also get full interactive access to this and the last year of magazines via the Pro Mobile Magazine App which is available from both the Apple App Store and Android PlayStore
The full review can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 116, Pages 22-27.
