Christmas Tracker via Spotify
*This article was first published in Dec 2019.
When the age-old Die Hard debate resurfaces and every retail store on the high street starts to blast out Mariah Carrey at the highest volume, even the most hardened deniers must concede — Christmas is here. But when does the holiday season really start? Quartz’s analysis of the seasonal lightings on Oxford Street in London suggests we might be celebrating Christmas in July by year 2190. I decided to approach the question using the music streaming data Spotify makes available publicly. By observing when Christmas songs start to creep up on the chart, we should be able to see when Christmas arrives for most people.
In 2018, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” was the first track to crack the top 50 UK Spotify streaming chart on Nov. 17, closely followed by a brief appearance by “Last Christmas” by Wham! the following day. And Mariah Carey’s ear worm was the only track that stayed in the top 50 chart for the entirety of the season.
Christmas Music Streaming Chart (UK market, 2018)
Nov. 25 saw a brief surge in the interest in a few other Christmas songs such as “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues. And Nov. 30 saw another wave, where all the obscure songs none of us have thought about (or missed) for the past 11 months got resurrected. By Dec. 1, the dominance of Christmas songs was abundantly clear. Between Dec. 1 And Dec. 25, the aforementioned tune by Mariah Carrey stayed in the top 5 chart. In fact, for the same period, all of the top 5 Christmas songs* in the UK market stayed within top 10 chart. At this point, there is nowhere to run from the assault on senses as every public announcement system and playlist in the country suspends common sense temporarily.
Despite the apparent momentum of the festive tunes however, what one might call Christmas Bingo, in which the top 3 chart is made up exclusively of Christmas music was not observed until Dec. 15. In fact, the dreaded (or delightful, depending on your stance on such matter) Christmas Full House (Top 5 completely taken over by Christmas songs) was only observed from Dec. 21 to Dec. 25. Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” was the only thing standing between the humanity and the blizzard of thinly disguised commercialism (or the joyful message of love and festivity, depending on your personal believes).
And by Dec. 28, all the Christmas tunes have left the top 50 chart to where they will spend the next 11 months, oblivion.
Christmas Bingo Chart
“thank u, next” by Ariana Grande was the only force preventing “Christmas Bingo” on UK Spotify streaming chart between Dec. 10 and Dec. 19, 2018.
*Popularity defined by the earliest day the track enters the top 50 chart. In case of tie, the tracks are sorted by the ranking position of their first day in the chart.
Meanwhile in the US
In comparison, the US market seems to have a more restraint relationship with Christmas music based on the Spotify streaming data. “All I Want for Christmas is You” was also the first track to enter the top 50 US chart. But having entered the top 10 on Nov. 25, it didn’t reach top 5 until much later in the season, on Dec. 23. And the “Christmas Full House” (all top 5 taken over by Christmas songs) was only observed on US chart on the Christmas Day. Dec. 24 would have been a full house had it not been for Post Malone’s single, “Wow.” released the same day.
The other thing you might notice in the US chart is the distinct lack of contribution by UK acts in the top chart. With the notable exception of “Last Christmas” by Wham!, the top chart during the holiday season was dominated by classic American songbook with the addition of mock classic tune by Michael Bublé (“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas”) and not-so-classics by Ariana Grande (“thank u, next) and Justin Bieber (Mistletoe).
Christmas Music Streaming Chart (US market, 2018)
Sources:
Christmas creep calendar (Quartz)
https://qz.com/1750341/christmas-lights-in-london-2019-oxford-street-tries-something-new/
Spotify streaming data (Spotify)
https://spotifycharts.com/regional/
