Topline
Holiday songs have already begun their dominance of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this year, but their annual monopoly over the chart’s top spots is a recent phenomenon thanks to the rise of streaming as the dominant form of music consumption and a series of Billboard rule changes allowing older songs to return to the charts.
Mariah Carey’s 1994 song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” didn’t start to dominate the charts until … [+]
Key Facts
At the height of last year’s holiday season, eight holiday songs occupied the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10—but just five years earlier, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was the lone Christmas song in the top 10, and 10 years ago, it was the only holiday song on the entire Hot 100.
Billboard has credited the increasing popularity of music streaming, instead of physical sales or digital downloads, for the annual resurgence of holiday songs on the charts.
Billboard began counting streams as part of the Hot 100 chart in 2012, and it updated its formula in 2018 to weigh streams more heavily over radio airplay and sales.
Popular streaming playlists, like Spotify’s “Christmas Hits,” which has been liked by more than 5.5 million users, have also helped give holiday music a bigger platform for consumers, Billboard reported.
Billboard has also removed barriers that prevented older holiday songs from reaching new heights on the chart, like the removal of a rule in 2012 forbidding songs that had fallen off the Hot 100 from returning, a change that was made after the death of Whitney Houston caused her songs to surge in popularity.
Billboard changed another rule in 1998 to allow songs that had not been released as physical singles to chart on the Hot 100, paving the way for radio singles and album cuts—including “All I Want for Christmas Is You”—to chart.
Key Background
“All I Want for Christmas Is You,” considered a modern holiday classic, has benefitted the most from Billboard’s rule changes and the increasing popularity of streaming. The song has topped the Hot 100 for 12 non-consecutive weeks between the 2019 and 2022 holiday seasons and has spent a total of 61 weeks on the chart. But Carey’s hit was blocked from charting at all for six years after its 1994 release because her label did not release the song as a single—it was only available as part of her album, “Merry Christmas”—meaning it couldn’t appear on the Hot 100 until Billboard’s 1998 rule change. The song made its first appearance on the chart in January 2000, peaking at No. 83 for one week. It didn’t return for a second week until 12 years later after Billboard began allowing songs that had fallen off the chart to return. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” spent its second week on the chart in December 2012, returning at No. 29. Though the song was ineligible to reappear on the chart for more than a decade, Slate reported the song sold hundreds of thousands of downloads every year between the introduction of the Apple iTunes store in 2003 and Billboard’s rule change in 2012, indicating its enduring popularity. After streaming continued to explode and Billboard began to weigh streaming more heavily, “All I Want for Christmas Is You” finally cracked the top five in 2018 and topped the chart for the first time in 2019.
Surprising Fact
Billboard’s rule changes have helped even older songs find new success, like Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” which initially peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 in 1960 and finally topped the chart 63 years later.
News Peg
Holiday songs are off to a hot start this year, claiming six of the top 10 spots on this week’s Hot 100. Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” became the oldest song in Billboard history to go No. 1, 65 years after its 1958 release, and Lee became the oldest artist to top the chart, at 78. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” ranks No. 2, while perennial holiday hits “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms and “Last Christmas” by Wham! rank in the top five.
Big Number
39. That’s how many holiday songs charted on the Hot 100 in the 2020 holiday season, setting an all-time record.
Chief Critics
The Economist said streaming “killed” the charts during the holidays, stating the emphasis on streaming “saps some of the excitement from the Christmas charts.” It criticized “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for its annual “festive assault” on the Hot 100 and called the charts in December too predictable.
Tangent
Some artists are capitalizing on their newfound opportunity for annual holiday chart success. Carey has embraced her resurgence in popularity every December—she even tried to copyright the title “Queen of Christmas” (which failed). Ahead of the 25-year anniversary of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in 2019, Carey released a new music video and updated versions of the hit song. This year, she posted a video of herself defrosting on Nov. 1 and embarked on a Christmas tour. Rob Stringer, chairman of Sony Music Group, told the New York Times: “Every year we focus a campaign around new ways to market ‘All I Want for Christmas’ because the opportunities for people to hear this perennial classic just seem to grow and grow.” Seeing the opportunity for “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” to finally go No. 1 this year, Lee released a music video for the song in November in which she, at 78, lip-syncs to vocals she recorded at just 13 years old. She also joined TikTok, posting videos promoting the song, reminiscing on its long history and thanking her “Brendanators” for their support.
Further Reading
How streaming killed the Christmas charts (The Economist)
