Christmas music

[opinion mode]I just don't get it.Sublime? What the hell? The story of Jesus reads more like bad fiction to me - but hey, why should it be different from most of the rest of the bible...I don't like Christmas carols and quite frankly most stereotypical Christian music sounds hollow to me.Oh, hell, while I'm being honest about it - I really, really hate 99% of all Christmas music. Especially the carols - yes, every last damn one of them. I've been thanking my lucky stars that this year I'm not working someplace that plays them 24/7. Hymns make me wince. They sound false, lying, utterly hollow with every word - I cannot bring myself to take any joy in the actual tune.What baffles me beyond anything else is that you rate them over the true masterpieces - musical pieces that are the embodiment of a single emotion or ideal, that do not need mere words to speak directly to the heart. Like Beethovan's Ode to Joy - which is indeed just that, and can lift anyone's spirits - or the Romeo and Juliet Overture, which in my opinion is the purest expression of true love ever created by human hands... Or more recently Rhapsody in Blue, or Chariots of Fire... Should I go on?What arrogance to say that they are somehow worth less, just because they were not inspired by the stories of your religion. I would rate them a thousand times higher than the pathetic droning you so laughably call music. [/opinion mode]Okay, now before I get flamed...I'm posting this to illustrate the point that music is very, very subjective. Calling any one type of music "better" than another is pointless, because it comes down to personal taste every time. Just because something sounds fantastic to one person doesn't mean that it won't make the next person's ears bleed.Making sweeping statements about one particular type of music is automatically better because its somehow divinely inspired is about as silly as saying that the bible is better because its somehow divinely inspired. Again, it's all subjective and personal.(For the record - I think "Stairway to Heaven" is total crap.)

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"Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do."

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I believe Western classical music achieved its heights because of its Christian inspiration, although its aesthetic achievements were also expressed in "secular" music -- in fact the Reformation inspired a greater appreciation of the natural and secular worlds, but all based on the revelation of Christ who reigns over it all.

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Oh, what a wonderfully generalised sweeping statement. Well done for saying that this is what you believe rather than actual fact, otherwise I would ask you to support it.Surprise surprise, many people disagree, myself included. Just because a piece of music is religiously inspired doesn't make it good music; likewise just because a piece of music is secularly inspired doesn't make it bad.I would suggest that you have the idea backwards here - I would think that Western classical music would have developed to great heights anyway, but the culture was very much Christian-centred so the fact that a lot of it is religiously themed isn't surprising.To be honest, this is all just pissing in the wind (as we say in Ireland) unless someone has any solid facts one way or another. Which may not be all that likely considering the subjective nature of music.

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"Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do."