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I'm a fan of rock music — everything from Sarah McLachlan to Metallica, Elton John to Tool. There are other kinds of music I sometimes listen to: I don't mind some country now and again, some blues, and I even have a couple of musical theatre soundtracks - yes, I admit it, I listen to show tunes. I'm not a fan of hip-hop / rap, and adult contemporary (Celine Dion, Michael Bolton) puts me to sleep. I don't listen to jazz either, but I can appreciate their talent — jazz guitarists and drummers are among the best musicians around. I just can't get into the electronic stuff either; generally, if there isn't a real guitarist or real drummer in your band, I'm not interested. If your "band" consists of three keyboardists, a DJ, and a drum machine, I'm not even going to listen.

One form of music I've never been a fan of is Christmas music. I think it's because after 30-some years, Christmas songs all start to sound the same. It's like there are a bunch of Christmas songs available (some religious and some not), and if you want to record a Christmas song, you must pick one of them. God forbid you write a new one. That's not always true; every couple of years I hear a Christmas song I've never heard before, but usually when someone releases a Christmas song, it's just their version of existing song that has already been done to death. Just yesterday, I heard a "new" version of the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick" (I don't know if they wrote it, but the only version I know is by them), but the "new" version was an almost note-for-note copy. Why bother?

Two of my least favourites are "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bell Rock". Both have "rock" in the title, and that's part of what makes me not like them — neither has anything to do with "rock". What does Brenda Lee know about "Rockin'", anyway? And what the hell is the "new old-fashioned way"? "Jingle Bell Rock" isn't as bad, and I have nothing against Randy Travis (I just can't say his name without dropping into a southern drawl - Rrrrrandy Travis), but if he can cover a song without (a) changing his style or (b) changing the song's style, it ain't rock.

I suppose I have been mellowing in the last few years. I like the Barenaked Ladies' version of Jingle Bells (it starts off very slow and lounge-y, then suddenly blasts into this high-energy fun song). Tom Petty has a pretty good one ("Christmas All Over Again"), and Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" is OK. Now that I think about it, John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" is a really good Christmas song. I'm even learning Silent Night on the guitar. I'm not going out to actually buy any of these (for myself, anyway, I've bought some Christmas music for Gail), but I don't cringe whenever I hear them.

Strangely, it doesn't seem that there have been many attempts to write a hard rock Christmas song. AC/DC did a song called "Mistress for Christmas", which was just dumb. And there are NO death metal Christmas songs. I guess I won't hold my breath waiting for Cannibal Corpse's version of "What Child is This?" or "A Very Slayer Christmas".