Popular musicians all belong to one of two categories: those that record Christmas songs, and those that don’t. A few examples:
Winger has a Christmas song: a fantastically bad cover of “Happy Xmas (War is Over).”
Metallica does not.
Weezer has several Christmas songs, including a great version of “O Holy Night.”
Radiohead does not.
R. Kelly has a Christmas song: “World Christmas.” It’s no “Trapped in the Closet,” but it’s totally passable.
Kanye West does not, but someone else clearly has thought that he should:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZsTsF1v8A
So what do Metallica, Radiohead, and Kanye West all have in common, besides their lack of Christmas music and the fact that they all take themselves too seriously? Are they all Jewish?
Obviously, some musicians would object to Christmas music on religious grounds (e.g., the Beastie Boys, Matisyahu), but that reason aside, I suppose some “artists” see themselves as above the crass commercialism and cheesiness of Christmas music. That’s all fine and good, but I think the world deserves to hear Thom Yorke give us his rendition of “Blue Christmas.”
After all, he’s not above covering “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
If Twisted Sister can cover “Silver Bells” (and fairly well at that), then there’s no reason why Metallica can’t do the same. They’re not above butchering Ennio Morricone, at any rate…
I believe the determining factor is the presence or absence of a sense of whimsy.
Kanye, Radiohead and Metallica all take themselves too seriously.
I don’t think Radiohead is opposed to Christmas songs, they probably just don’t think about it all that much. I have a Radiohead version of “Winter Wonderland” that they played last year during their live webcasts.
Actually the “Twisted Sister” Christmas album is pretty good. I especially like the guest spot with Lita Ford on “White Christmas”
Does Jonny “Had a bit role as a wizard rocker in Harry Potter IV” Greenwood really take himself more seriously than Rivers “I’m the lead singer AND the lead guitarist AND I’m going to publish 400 pages of my diary” Cuomo?
He doesn’t need to. He has Scott doing power stances during performances to make him look cool. Because Scott is so hardcore that he just eats Mercury straight when people tell him eating too much fish is potentially dangerous.