'Tis the season to murder Christmas carols and songs

There must be a generation or two of people who have never heard a Christmas carol or song, sing straight. Sung, that is, at the proper tempo, and in a straightforward arrangement that allows the melody, rhythm and words to be heard as written. 

Instead, we get a parade of murdering carols and songs.

You know what I mean by murdering... Anti-musical activities like slowing them to half speed or even slower, adding decorations intended to show-off the singer's technical prowess - and then pitch correcting the voices anyway (cough... Pentatonix... cough), so that in the end it could be anyone singing. 

Arrangements that fragment into pieces, and recombine; embedding rap sections, beat-boxing, bass and drums... whatever. 

Worst of all; exaggeratedly emoting over the lyrics - including when the lyrics are trivial nonsense; and tortured soulfulness is utterly inappropriate. 

Such as Jingle Bells - which I one heard done as as if torch song: "Jin... gle aaahl the... waaay".

Or, a few days ago; "Oh Christmas Tree": "How lervly, How luurvly... are you... branch-es."

It began back before WWII with some virtues; when the great vocalists of the day such as Sinatra were "swinging" the classic carols (as Michael Buble does nowadays) - but once the process had begun it just got worse and worse with no bottom in sight. 

The Little Drummer Boy is essentially a lovely little song - I can recall a version by the Vienna Boys Choir, and another nice version on the Rankin-Bass stop-motion cartoon of that name.

But there are now innumerable anti-musical destructions of it; such as that I encountered last week, as the muzak while I was drinking coffee. This was a pre-meditated, first-degree, murderous travesty by a obliteratingly auto-tuned vocalist, I'm-being-tortured delivery.

And (of course) a rapping interlude.