Christmas Hits of Future and Past!

Ho Ho…Hope you’re starting to feel a little festive! To celebrate the end of the decade we list the last 30 years of Christmas number 1’s to evaluate the changing nature of popular music and technology.

Christmas hits not only provide us with an array of what’s good and what’s not so good in popular music, they signpost trends as the years roll by. We take a look at how the last Christmas number one of the decade may reflect a changing sound in pop.

As for the iconic Christmas number ones of the future? Many have reported the rise of teen producers, changes in the fandom and what AI might mean for music are all going to come into play in how music trends are shaped in the coming decades.

What we do know for sure is streaming has already begun changing music including more multi-artist collaborations, slower tempos and an emphasis on the intro.

Did you know for a stream to count, the track must be played for more than 30 seconds? Couple that with the collective waning attention span, and that means opening sounds are more crucial than ever – and the average track is getting shorter.