If there’s one thing that’s limitless, it is Black people’s creative yet people still tend to pigeonhole people of color into stereotypes. Lizzo shared her experience as she responds to critics who say she makes music for white people in her newest HBO Max documentary, Love Lizzo.
In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, she reveals, “[It’s] very hurtful, only because I am a Black woman, and I feel like it really challenges my identity and who I am and diminishes that. Despite having won three Grammy awards, the Michigan-born, Houston-bred singer still has to prove herself to naysayers.
This past month in an interiew in Entertainment Weekly, Lizzo gave readers a history into the racist background of pop music, stating, “I think if people did any research they would see that there was race music and then there was pop music. Race music was their way of segregating Black artists from being mainstream because they didn’t want their kids listening to music created by Black and brown people because they said it was demonic.”
Feeling largely misunderstood by the industry, Lizzo admits the motivation behind her documentary was to own her own narrative. She continues, “I feel like a lot of people, truthfully, don’t get me, which is why I wanted to do this documentary, because I feel like y’all don’t understand me, y’all don’t know where I came from. Now, I don’t want to answer [any] more questions about this s–t. I want to show the world who I am.
During the hotter months of 2022 Diddy dropped “Gotta Move On,” the first single from his R&B-focused imprint Love Records with Motown Records. A “vintage Diddy”-esque remix of the track, would soon follow.
Now, Sergio Roma (another gold star if you get the reference) links with PARTYNEXTDOOR (where has he been?) for the imprint’s second focus track, “Sex In The Porsche.” The track is rather blunt and to the point… and I’ll leave it at that because it’s too easy to joke about Diddy’s personal life right now ha.
The Dids also connected with Rick Ross for the video “Watcha Gon’ Do,” which is a mini-clip of their 2017 track.
Diddy Taps PARTYNEXTDOOR For “Sex In The Porsche” Single was last modified: December 15th, 2022 by Meka
The fifth-generation Echo Dot with Clock is the best way for most people to enjoy Amazon’s smart speaker lineup. While the sound quality isn’t earth-shattering, the upgraded display is a great way to see the time, weather, song titles, and much more.
Key Features
LED display that can show the time, alarms, weather, and other information
Larger internal speaker and better sound quality than its predecessors
Ask Alexa to play music, answer questions, set timers, and more
Control smart home devices with your voice and routines
Quickly turn off the microphone with a single button
Specifications
Brand: Amazon
Display: LED
Dimensions: 3.9 x 3.9 x 3.5 inches
Weight: 10.7 ounces
Alarm Clock: Yes
Integrations: Alexa
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Colors: Glacier Blue, Cloud White
Buttons: Alexa, Volume, Mute Mic
Speakers: 1.73″ front-firing speaker
Pros
Display provides more than just the time
Can act as an extender for your eero Wi-Fi network
Temperature sensor can help create great smart home routines
Cons
Improved sound still pales in quality to the larger Echo or Apple HomePod mini
No 3.5mm jack
Buy This Product
Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (5th Gen)
The Amazon Echo Dot is easily the most popular and easiest way to enjoy the Alexa ecosystem.
Originally conceived as an alternative to the flagship Echo, the smaller version offers the same Alexa interaction, smart home control, and access to hundreds of thousands of Alexa skills. And thanks to its much lower price, it’s possible to add the speaker to many rooms in your home without breaking the bank.
Starting with the third-generation Echo Dot, Amazon offered an upgraded version with an important advantage: a clock. That made it perfect to add to a nightstand or anywhere else you need to see the time.
The fifth-generation model features the same design but with a vastly improved clock display and other great new features. We’ll take a closer look and see if the time is right for the Echo Dot with Clock.
A Clearer Display With More Information
A headline feature of the new model is an improved LED display. Instead of just being able to display the time like the previous two models, now you can see additional information like a song title, weather conditions, the number of Alexa notifications available, and more.
Compared to my fourth-generation Echo Dot with Clock, the display on the new model is brighter and easier to read, even from across the room. I was also able to view the time clearly in a bright room and from an angle.
You can easily change the brightness of the clock using the Alexa app, and there’s an option for the display to automatically adjust its brightness depending on the ambient light. That’s a great option if you’re using the speaker as a bedside clock. If you desire, you can also completely turn off the display.
In the morning, a new accelerometer on the top of the speaker allows you to simply snooze the alarm with a tap. You can also pause a song, end a call, or stop a timer. It’s another handy way for quick control without needing to call for Alexa.
Being able to see other data on the display is a nice touch, even though you can ask Alexa to hear the same information—but it adds even more ways to use the best feature of the upgraded model.
Somewhat Better Music Quality
Amazon promises better sound quality from the new Echo Dot with Clock thanks to its 1.73-inch front-firing speaker. That’s an upgrade from the 1.6-inch speaker in the fourth-generation.
The sound quality is indeed improved, but not substantially. I played a wide variety of music and podcasts on both the fourth- and fifth-generation speakers. The better bass quality stood out in some songs, but I had a hard time discerning the improved vocals Amazon touted.
If sound quality for music playback is your top concern in a smart speaker, you’d likely be better off spending more to buy the larger Amazon Echo. Alternatively, if you’re looking for vastly better sound in the same small size, Apple’s HomePod mini still rules the roost, as long as you’re an Apple user and don’t mind switching smart home ecosystems.
One major downside to note with the new Echo Dot with Clock is that Amazon has removed the 3.5mm line out jack available in the previous version. With that, users were able to connect the small speaker to a larger option like a Sonos.
That’s a disappointing change. But I suspect it won’t bother most Echo Dot with Clock buyers, as the small smart speaker is more known for its all-around smart home prowess than music playback quality.
Making a Smart Home Even Better
On the smart home front, the new Echo Dot with Clock offers two handy new features. Combined with the motion sensor that arrived in the previous generation, the fifth-generation model is much more than a smart speaker and can be used as a larger part of an Alexa smart home.
First up, a built-in sensor can monitor the temperature inside your home. You can use that information as part of the handy Alexa Routines feature in the Alexa app for iOS or Android. For example, you can create a routine to automatically turn on a fan after a certain temperature is reached.
Another big plus is that the speaker now features eero Wi-Fi technology built-in. With that, you can use the Echo Dot with Clock as part of a larger eero network. As long as you have one eero router running in your home, you can use the Echo Dot as a Wi-Fi extender.
Amazon says the speaker will extend the Wi-Fi coverage in your home by up to 1,000 square feet, with supported speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
I’m running an eero network at my house, but already have two eero devices in my relatively small, one-story home with no dead spots or slow areas to speak of. It’s important to note that using more routers or extenders than needed in a home can actually cause slower wireless network speeds.
Interestingly, when setting up the Echo Dot with Clock as an extender in the eero app, I received an error message. Because of strong Wi-Fi coverage where the speaker was located, the capability was automatically disabled. I tried placing the speaker at a few other spots at my home, but with no luck.
Nevertheless, if you’re looking to save a bit of cash when creating a new network in a larger home, using one or two Echo Dot with Clocks around the home is much more cost-efficient than buying additional eero nodes. Plus, if you already have an eero network and are running into connectivity issues, like with cameras or other smart home equipment outside, using an Echo Dot with Clock could be the solution.
The fourth-generation Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock will receive the same eero functionality with an upcoming over-the-air update.
The Best Way to Enjoy Alexa
Amazon’s Echo ecosystem continues to lead the way in the smart home market thanks to the power of Alexa, along with the low price and simplicity of the hardware.
The fifth-generation Echo Dot with Clock is the best way for most people to enjoy Amazon’s smart speaker lineup. While the sound quality isn’t earth-shattering, the upgraded display is a great way to see the time, weather, song titles, and much more.
The addition of the temperature sensor and eero functionality also help cement the speaker’s cost-conscious but feature-rich approach to the smart home. Whether you’re a smart home beginner or expert, this nifty device makes for a great purchase.
Particles by Japanese composer Shiori Usui consists of four minutes of wild textural mayhem. The title suggests it’s all going to be about light, tiny impacts, and that is how the work begins. However, this opening chorus of skitterings is soon supplanted by the significant heft of what sound like intense exhalations; in turn, these are soon swept aside as a myriad glissandi get going. Usui has essentially laid out in the first 90 seconds the basic elements for the rest of the piece. Something different follows almost immediately, though, as the music opens out into a slightly clangorous soundworld, whereupon further exhalations appear and the glissandi start to dominate, though the tappings that began the work have not gone away.
It’s interesting the way Particles doesn’t so much move through different sections as either accumulate or dissipate material around its central focal point. The glissandi that end up everywhere remind me of the images created by the Large Hadron Collider, showing the spiralling trajectories of the particles they smash together. As such, perhaps the main component of the work’s material is not the particles themselves but the traces of them left behind, glinting streaks of light testifying to a momentary existence. The frantic energy finally, rather abruptly, vanishes, switching emphasis to swishings inside a piano – almost masking the outline of a melody – and a genuinely bizarre kind of muffled singing(!), silenced by a ratchet before ending in a huge final burst of more particles smashing into our ears.
Delayed due to the pandemic, Particles was finally premièred (without an audience) by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in February 2021, conducted by Alpesh Chauhan.
TORONTO, Dec. 15, 2022 /CNW/ – St Albert-bred, Nashville-based country music artist Aaron Goodvin brings his tour to Ontario in February 2023! Goodvin has had quite the career trajectory. He has topped the charts, had several top 10s, received multiple CCMA and JUNO Awards, and has been named CCMAs Songwriter of the Year. In addition to being an electrifying live performer, Aaron Goodvin’s music resonates with fans worldwide. Opening the shows for Goodvin is Hailey Benedict. A rising talent in the Canadian Country music industry, this dynamic singer is also a prolific songwriter, captivating audiences with her heartfelt original music.
Aaron Goodvin Ontario Tour (CNW Group/THE CONCERT FACTORY INC)
Tour Dates:
February 9, 2023 – Regent Theatre, Picton, ON February 10, 2023 – Orillia Opera House, Orillia, ON February 11, 2023 – Flato Academy Theatre, Lindsay, ON February 16, 2023 – Meaford Hall, Meaford, ON February 18, 2023 – Wingham Town Hall Theatre, Wingham, ON
About Aaron Goodvin: It’s no small thing when a notorious straight shooter like Aaron Goodvin says, without exaggeration, that his current EP Lucky Stars contains “the best stuff I have come up with since… ever. I write a lot of songs. A lot of songs. And these are my best seven.” The EP has already produced Goodvin’s second career number one in Canada with “Boy Like Me” and the Top 10 follow up single, the title track “Lucky Stars.” “You Ain’t” featuring Meghan Patrick is the latest release and is already garnering strong reaction from fans and radio.
The Alberta-bred, Nashville-based country music star’s previous two albums have, in no particular order, topped the charts, produced a number one single and several top 10s, scored multiple CCMA and JUNO Award wins and nominations — notably winning 2018 CCMA Songwriter of the Year.
Oh yes, and yielded the bona fide anthem “Lonely Drum,” a double-platinum, global juggernaut that continues to pull ecstatic fans into its orbit, including radio host Bobby Bones, who championed the track on his internationally syndicated show.
And now, there’s the exhilarating Lucky Stars. Co-produced by Grammy Award–nominated Matt McClure with Goodvin alongside an esteemed lineup of collaborators, the new EP is that rarest of things: familiar yet completely new. And very, very ambitious.
Tickets go on sale December 16th at 10AM. To purchase tickets and for more information visit: www.aarongoodvin.com
SOURCE THE CONCERT FACTORY INC
Cision
View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/December2022/15/c3848.html
“Freedom on the Move” (FOTM), a Cornell-based database of “runaway ads” placed by enslavers in 18th- and 19th-century U.S. newspapers, was the starting point for a new song cycle entitled “Songs in Flight” that will premiere Jan. 12 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
“Songs in Flight” will also be performed on Jan. 15 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, hosted by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as part one of “Singing Freedom.” Part two of the series features the world premiere of a second work – “Freedom on the Move: Three Dialogues,” also inspired by FOTM, which will be performed on Jan. 16.
The ads compiled by the FOTM project “preserve snapshots of more than 30,000 enslaved individuals who took their fates into their own hands, resisting the surveillance and violence of slavery and the racialized policing that sustained it.,” said Edward Baptist, professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-founder and lead faculty member of FOTM. “The creators and artists have responded to the courageous resistance of people who wrote themselves onto the historical records, and they’re sharing that blessing with us all. I am grateful that they are pouring out their gifts as an offering of memory and inspiration.”
In “Songs in Flight,” composer Shawn Okpebholo and Duke University Professor Tsitsi Ella Jaji, M.A. ’06, Ph.D. ‘08 bring the individual stories of the freedom-seekers depicted in the advertisements to life through song. Additional material, curated and performed by Grammy- and MacArthur Award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens, poet and author Crystal Simone Smith, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tyehimba Jess, contextualizes and reflects on the database’s primary source materials.
In addition to Giddens, performers will include soprano Karen Slack, baritone Will Liverman, countertenor Reginald Mobley and pianist Howard Watkins.
“Freedom on the Move: Three Dialogues” was composed by Mason Bynes. In her piece, she says, she explores: “How does one create music for joy and sorrow, for challenge and triumph, for jubilance and anguish? Can sorrow, strife and yearning inform joy, peace and attainment?” Her composition will be performed by the Pine Forge Academy Honors Choir with director Jarrett Roseborough. Bynes will visit Cornell on March 4 along with Mobley to present elements of the project.
The development of the libretto and score for “Songs in Flight” was supported by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.
Linda B. Glaser is news and media relations manager for the College of Arts and Sciences.
For a Thai pop group who just made their debut, the five members of Perses appeared like your typical boys next door — dressed in casual jackets and jeans with minimal makeup.
But for more than two years, Jung, Nay, Krittin, Palm and Pluggy trained like K-pop trainees, keeping to a strict schedule of vocal and dance lessons, and for one member, even practising smiling.
Perses is formed by GNest, an entertainment agency under GMM, Thailand’s biggest media and events company. They released their first single My Time on Sept 28 and their second song Touchdown on Nov 23.
AsiaOne sat down with the rookie boy band earlier this month when they were in Singapore for music promotions. Oldest member Jung and 19-year-old vocalist Pluggy were the most proficient in English and helped translate for their bandmates.
Jung, who is also the group’s main rapper, told AsiaOne that they did around six hours of training daily.
The 25-year-old gave a rundown of each day: “If we had dance practice, we would be in class for two hours to learn the foundations of the dance piece, and after that we’d prepare for the event or show we were doing.
“We also had vocal lessons for an hour-and-a-half and we repeated that every day.”
Pluggy, the maknae (youngest member in Korean), added: “We would have a performance test every month and, every three months, we had an elimination test.”
Some of them even got extra lessons. Twenty-four-year-old Nay, the ‘visual’ in Perses, said in English: “I had to attend solo classes by myself with the teacher, those days were really tiring. But I think it was a way for me to improve myself.”
Pluggy added: “So we could all be equal in our performance skills.”
It’s not all dancing and singing skills they had to work on, because lead vocalist Krittin said that he had to practise smiling more often because he had a “resting b**** face” — which Pluggy was hesitant to translate — and he didn’t want to give off the appearance of being unfriendly.
When asked about what they had to give up, the 23-year-old added: “Trips, holidays and trips — and probably living a normal life as a teenager.”
Main dancer Palm, 19, had difficulties for a different reason — according to his bandmates at least — because he had a 10pm bedtime but they would only finish training at 11pm.
“After getting back to our dormitory, I like to have some me-time,” Palm said. “But we return so late and I have to sleep immediately so I can wake up on time for my schedule the next day.”
Pluggy was still in high school when he became a trainee, and saw his friends hanging out every day through their Instagram posts. On the other hand, he had to rush to the record label to train after school each day.
By the time he became a trainee, Jung was already an engineering graduate. He said: “Most of my friends were going on long vacations to other countries or getting jobs, but I was starting from zero as a trainee.”
With their strong vocals and perfectly-synchronised dance moves, the comparisons to K-pop groups aren’t unfounded. They even worked with South Korean music production company Jam Factory, masterminds behind singles by K-pop stars like NCT, Itzy and Got7.
“We learnt so much from Jam Factory,” Jung said. “From learning how they work, the settings and production process they use, to the workflow they have envisioned.”
Pluggy chimed in with praise for their group’s leader: “Jung was like our producer because he was the one who talked to Jam Factory all the time. He was our mouth — we’d discuss together and tell Jung, and Jung would speak to Jam Factory for us.”
Despite the sacrifices, the group is aware of how fortunate they are to be in their position, and wouldn’t give it up for anything.
“We can still have fun any time, but we must set aside time for practice,” Krittin mused. “All the hardships and struggles are worth it because being pop idols is what all of us want, and it’s not a typical experience for everyone.”
Pluggy added: “We have so much time in our lives and we can be happier in the future. But right now, not many people are gonna have this chance, to be where we are right now.
“So I think it’s quite worth it since we’ve come so far.”
For the full interview including Perses spilling secrets about each other, watch our latest episode of E-Junkies.
ALSO READ: ‘Better than a male host’: Jackson Wang lets fans caress his shirtless body in Thai concert
drimac@asiaone.com
No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.
Many people listen to music while working, exercising at the gym, or simply relaxing. But how does music affect your brain?
Along with triggering a release of the feel-good hormone dopamine, science has shown that listening to music may boost our cognitive function, potentially relieve symptoms of anxiety and stress, and help us to stay focused. It’s no wonder that many of us choose to listen to music before, during and after workouts. To get the most out of that listening experience, check out our list of the best running headphones.
“When you hear a song, your auditory cortex — the part of your brain responsible for processing sound — is activated,” Desiree Silverstone (opens in new tab), a psychotherapist based in London, England, told Live Science. “This activates other areas of your brain, including the limbic system — responsible for emotion — and the motor cortex, which controls movement.”
Silverstone added that as more areas of the brain are activated, we may start to feel the effects of the music. If you’re listening to fast-paced music, for example, you may start to feel more alert and energetic. If you’re listening to relaxing music, you may start to feel calmer and more relaxed.
Cognitive performance
How many times have you remembered the lyrics to a song, but couldn’t recall what you did over the weekend? Music goes a lot further than just filling a void. In a 2008 study, published in the journal Perception and Motor Skills (opens in new tab), researchers discovered that rhythm with or without musical accompaniment may be able to “facilitate recall of text”, meaning listening to music could help us to remember pieces of information.
In addition, a 2010 study in Perceptual and Motor Skills (opens in new tab) found that music may be able to improve our cognitive function outside the context of memory tasks. The experiment, which tasked 56 male and female university students with completing a linguistic and spatial processing task while listening to 10 excerpts of Mozart symphonies, found that background music was linked to an increase in the speed of spatial processing (how fast we recognize the shapes, patterns and positions of objects) and the accuracy of linguistic processing (our ability to process words).
(Image credit: Getty Images)
But why is this? According to a 2007 study published in the journal Aging Clinical and Experimental Research (opens in new tab), this improvement in our brain function could be explained by the “arousal-and-mood hypothesis.” The hypothesis asserts that music enhances our level of arousal, meaning how awake and alert we feel, and this puts us at an optimal level to enhance memory recall. In particular, the theory suggests that adding entertaining auditory backgrounds makes a learning task more interesting and therefore increases the learner’s overall level of arousal.
Anxiety and depression
According to a 2017 review published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (opens in new tab), music may be beneficial in reducing symptoms of depression. In 26 out of 28 studies the researchers analyzed, there was a significant reduction in depression levels over time in the groups that listened to music compared to the control groups that didn’t. In particular, older individuals (without a specific condition) showed improvements when they listened to music or participated in music therapy. Music therapy can involve listening to, playing, composing, or interacting with music.
According to psychotherapist Jordan Vyas-Lee (opens in new tab), co-founder of the Kove Clinic, a therapy clinic in London, England, listening to upbeat or happy music can help to light up neural networks that store positive and personal memories. “This is the sort of information that gets blocked during bouts of depression and which needs unlocking to stimulate problem solving skills and adaptive, positive behavioral repertoires,” Vyas-Lee told Live Science.
Vyas-Lee is a psychotherapist and the clinical director of Kove Clinic in London, England. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Birmingham, England, and postgraduate studies at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and University College London.
Vyas-Lee emphasized that music alone is unlikely to “cure” depression, but it “can act as an aid to recovery.”
A 2022 review published in the journal Musicae Scientiae (opens in new tab) found that listening to music had a significant effect on alleviating diagnosed anxiety in a range of groups. The most common “session time” was 30 minutes, said the authors, although they suggested comparing different durations would be useful for drawing further conclusions as to how long one must listen to music to experience anxiety relief.
Stress
Prolonged periods of stress can wreak havoc on your body. But just like yoga, meditation and exercise, experts say that listening to music can also lower physical and psychological stress.
Music “fundamentally affects the release of neurochemicals in the brain, increasing the release of serotonin and dopamine and reducing the effects of cortisol,” Vyas-Lee said. He pointed to a 2015 study published in the journal The Lancet (opens in new tab) that showed how listening to music before, during and after surgery reduced pain and stress associated with medical procedure.
“But evidence here is patchy,” he cautioned. Based on the current evidence, it seems that “music stimulates physiological and psycho-emotional responses, opening up brain pathways that link to positive memories and feelings, in turn reducing stress.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Dopamine production
Dopamine is a signaling molecule that acts as a chemical messenger in the nervous system and as a hormone that can affect many tissues in the body; it performs many roles in the body, but is best known for its association with feelings of pleasure and happiness. And according to Silverstone, music can trigger the release of this feel-good hormone.
“When dopamine levels rise, we feel good and our mood improves,” she told Live Science. “Dopamine is also involved in the brain’s reward system, which explains why we often feel pleasure when listening to music.”
A 2019 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (opens in new tab) appears to support this mechanism. Researchers orally administered a dopamine precursor (levodopa), a dopamine antagonist (risperidone), and a placebo (lactose) to three different groups who were tasked with listening to 10 pop songs and five of their favorite musical excerpts . They found that the dopamine precursor, levodopa, compared with placebo, increased the body’s pleasure responses. Those given the dopamine antagonist experienced a reduction of both.
The negative effects of music
It’s been shown that music can improve our frame of mind, but it can also lower our mood — especially when we are already in a negative state of mind. In a 2019 article published in the Psychology of Music (opens in new tab), researchers found that 17% of all participants taking part in the experiment reported feeling sadder as a consequence of listening to sad music when they were already feeling low. However, 74% of participants were not saddened by sad music.
“Listening to sad or anger-filled music for too long can increase the release of cortisol and stimulate brain areas associated with negative emotion,” said Vyas-Lee.” It can even switch on the threat detection systems in the brain.
“How somebody listens to music, how they interact with their choice of music, and how repeatedly they listen to a certain music type is probably key in the resulting effects on their emotional health.”
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.
It’s the Appetite for Destruction of graying techno fans. Dig in their closet, past the strata of tech house, minimal and ambient layers and you’ll inevitably find a copy of this green-bordered album with a golden man on the front.
The rare release that’s been as important to a genre as it was to the label that released it, Artificial Intelligence was released 30 years ago and Warp is celebrating with a 30th anniversary reissue and a trippy website that takes you into the post-coital golden man’s proto-VR living room.
The 10 track EP of “electronic listening music” features two cuts from Autechre and Speedy J (including “De-Orbit”), plus Richie Hawtin (as “UP!”), Aphex Twin (as “The Dice Man”), The Orb’s Dr. Alex Paterson, Musicology (Michael Golding and Steve Rutter) and Ken Downie (aka I.A.O.).
In honor of the anniversary, we asked AI to illustrate AI by prompting Stable Diffusion to compose “a painting of a robot man listening to music in his living room” and we got this.
Warp’s is probably better.
Warp’s reissue features a vinyl release, WAVs, MP3s and a handful of merch.
“It’s not going to be long before an artist can make an album, film, CD1 and CDO in his or her own bedroom for a few thousand pounds, advertise the “product” to hundreds of thousands of people directly via the computer networks and sell directly to them. This will completely cut out the need for the usual trek around the major entertainment companies looking for finance, and could lead to things getting really interesting.” – Warp co-founder Steve Beckett, 1992
Peter Andre aka the “Head of Summer Holidays” has urged radio stations to ban the Christmas song ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year’.
The pop singer and TV personality has written an open letter to UK radio stations to urge them to ban the classic after a recent survey found that the majority of the British public think that the summer holidays trump the festive period.
Travel company On The Beach is claiming that the song is factually incorrect after a poll it ran found that 78 per cent of those surveyed believe that going on holiday is better than Christmas.
Doubt has now been cast on Andy Williams’ 1963 classic, which is synonymous with the Christmas period. The song is sitting at Number 22 in the UK’s official singles chart this week.
Andre agreed with On The Beach’s findings, writing in his open letter: “The results of the survey do not surprise me. Sure, festive frolics are fun but let’s face it, Christmas can get repetitive and pressurising.
“It’s much more exciting to visit new places, experience new things and make meaningful memories, and there’s no better place to do that than on holiday.
“In my new role [as Head of Summer Holidays], all I can do now is politely ask radio stations to respect the British people’s viewpoint and not play ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year’ at Christmas anymore. Perhaps they can play it on a loop in July instead?”
Andre also referenced Section 3 of the CAP Broadcast Code, accusing radio stations of false advertising by playing the song in the run-up to December 25.
“By playing this track you are giving your listeners false hope that Christmas and winter in general is the most wonderful time of the year, when in fact, it isn’t.
“And I even have data to prove it! Recent findings from On the Beach have confirmed what we already suspected; 78 per cent of people, so more than three-quarters of Brits, believe that going on holiday is better than Christmas.
“Therefore, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the population (85 per cent) agree the Andy Williams song is factually incorrect, proving Christmas simply is not the most wonderful time of the year. While I acknowledge there are some extremely pleasant moments during Yuletide festivities, these are normally fleeting and often come with a busy schedule, an empty wallet and not much to show otherwise.
“Strip back the gift-giving, tinsel and twinkly lights and people are left with the stark reality that this time of year is cold, dark, and expensive.”
Introducing our new Head of Summer Holidays, the one and only @MrPeterAndre
And in his first official act, Peter’s written to UK radio stations asking them to STOP playing The Most Wonderful Time of the Year because Christmas isn’t, summer holidays are Agreed? pic.twitter.com/mEvbnjs80G
He added: “Factor in the cost-of-living crisis, national strikes, overall price hikes and general low mood of the nation and you get my drift. Without sounding like the Grinch, but instead as proud Head of Summer Holidays for On the Beach, I put it to you Sir or Madam, overseas getaways are the most wonderful time of the year instead.
“A time to make memories with loved ones, splash around in the sea with the kids, enjoy sunsets on the beach, and truly discover yourself again. These are all the magical factors that constitute it being the most wonderful time of the year.
“So, I am urging you to refrain from playing what is in fact misleading the public. And my request is backed up by solid data compiled by On The Beach.”
In other news, LadBaby have revealed their annual Christmas single for 2022, ‘Food Aid’.
