Could this be the War on Christmas?

In my last post, I made mention to the relative scarcity of new Christmas albums this year. At first, I suspected this was just an off-year, like if Michael Buble climbs out his cave and doesn't see his shadow or something. But slowly the songs began to trickle in...Jonas Bros...Alessia Cara...Taylor Swift. Single after single started hitting the airwaves, but those of us waiting for the ensuing album drop were left hanging. "What's happening here?" I thought.

It's something I should have seen coming; a trend already exemplified in most other genres, the decline of the album era.

There are many theories as to why this happened, but it's fair to say the increase in streaming services is a leading cause. With Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Tidal (does anyone use that?), there's no longer any reason to purchase CDs. Artists have taken to releasing a series of singles to capture and hold their fans' attention.

Some music industry folk see this as a way to "combat the average person's short attention span," but I don't think that's entirely fair. This implies that every album was always a 'complete work,' worthy of listening in totality. But I think we can all attest to having CDs where the track play was anything but equal. The mix-tape, itself, is a perfect dispute of this notion.

There are, of course, albums that really need deserve your full attention: The Dark Side of Moon - Pink Floyd or Everyday is Christmas - Sia (lmao, sorry). But I think this trend is ultimately a good thing. It encourages artists to consider whether they want to put the work into releasing a full album, or focus more intensely on a few great singles.

So no, this isn't the War on Christmas. The decline was inevitable, but there's still plenty of great Christmas singles to explore.

One last note, what happened in 2008? SEVENTY CHRISTMAS ALBUMS? Can we go back to 2008?

No, really. Please.