圣诞季，战歌起：我想听的就是你！

今年12月2日，玛丽亚·凯莉的节日热门单曲《All I Want For Christmas Is You》重返Spotify*的前四十名，并且稳居第三。凯莉的回归敲响了开启圣诞季的铃铛，紧随该单曲的五首圣诞歌曲日均播放量都超过五万次。

译注：Spotify是全球最大的正版流媒体音乐服务平台。

After selling more than 16 million copies, it finally topped the US charts in 2019, on its 25th anniversary.

在销量破1600万之后，这首歌终于在2019年登顶美榜，正值其发行25周年之时。

Carey co-wrote the song with long time collaborator Walter Afanasieff, who originally worried it was too basic. But that's exactly the quality that has made it such an enduring hit.

凯莉与她的长期合作者沃尔特·阿法纳西弗一起创作了这首歌曲。起初，沃尔特担心这首歌过于简单了，然而正是这种简单让它获得了经久不衰的热度。

The oversimplified melody made it easily palatable for the whole world to go，“Oh,I can't get that out of my head!" he said in an interview with ASCAP.

简单的旋律让这首歌朗朗上口，全世界人民都易于接受。“天呐，我脑子里一直是这个旋律！”他在接受ASCAP*采访时说道。

译注：ASCAP(the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers),即美国作曲家、作家和出版商协会。

Writing in her memoir, Carey said the song's opening chimes are meant to evoke the "little wooden toy pianos, like the one Schroeder had on Peanuts".

凯莉在回忆录中写道，歌曲开头的铃声是为了唤醒记忆里的“木制玩具小钢琴，就像施罗德在《花生》*里的那架”。

译注：《花生》是一部长篇连载的，以史努比为主角的美国漫画，施罗德是其中一个人物。

"l actually did bang out most of the song on a cheap little Casio keyboard," she added. “But it's the feeling I wanted to capture. There's a sweetness, a clarity and a purity to it."

“实际上，我在一架便宜的卡西欧小电子琴上敲出了大半首歌。”她补充道，“但这正是我想要记录的——一种甜蜜、清澈和纯洁的感觉。”

Within the broad genre of Christmas music, there are a few more specific subsections: the bangers, like "All I Want For Christmas Is You"; the classics, like "White Christmas"; and the ones that make you sad and happy at the same time, like "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," And while there really is nothing like a Christmas bop, those nostalgic, lump-in-your-throat, sentimental songs are often the ones we have on repeat throughout December.

圣诞歌曲类型众多，具体可以分为：流行歌曲，比如《All I Want For Christmas Is You》（圣诞节我想要的只有你）；经典歌曲，比如《White Christmas》（白色圣诞节）；以及那些让你喜忧参半的歌曲，比如《Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas》（过一个快乐的小圣诞节），《I'll Be Home For Christmas》（回家过圣诞）。虽然没有所谓的圣诞爆曲，但我们总会在12月循环播放那些怀旧的、伤感的、柔情的歌曲。

“I love Christmas music. Even during a summer rain storm. I’ll pop in a Yule log DVD and turn down the lights,listen to the music and enjoy the lightning and thunder. Christmas music just makes me feel good inside.” said Christine Bozarth, who works at a hospital.

“我喜欢圣诞音乐。即使是在夏日的暴雨中，我也会关上灯，打开一张圣诞日志DVD，听着音乐，享受闪电和雷声。圣诞音乐会让我的内心感觉很好。”在一家医院工作的克里斯汀·博扎斯说。

But why are we drawn to stirring, seasonal music that makes us both happy and sad? Turns out, there are a few possible psychological explanations.

但为什么我们会被激动人心的，既快乐又悲伤的季节性音乐所吸引呢？事实证明，有以下几种可能的心理学解释。

Music has a strong tie to nostalgia, which is why listening to certain Christmas songs can make people feel warm, fuzzy, and almost child-like. Researches examine that while they aren’t able to think of an exact event from the time when the song came out, they are able to recall the general emotion that they felt during that time. So, listening to some Christmas tracks might make you feel wistful for your childhood or just generally festive and happy, rather than remorseful about that one Christmas when you got dumped, because your brain has already created positive associations with the music.

音乐极易引发怀旧情绪，所以某些圣诞歌曲会让人感觉温暖、舒适、饱含童真。研究表明，虽然人们不能准确记住听这首歌时发生了什么特别的事情，但他们能回忆起那段时间所感受到的大致情绪。所以，听圣诞歌曲可能会让你怀念童年，或者只感受到普遍的节日快乐，而不是为自己被甩的那个圣诞节感到后悔，因为你的大脑已经与音乐产生了积极的联系。

But nostalgia is an intriguing sensation, because it can make you feel happy and sad at the same time. Interestingly, other studies have shown that listening to sad music can evoke feelings of comfort, which could explain why some people elect to listen to downer tunes when they need a pick-me-up. With Christmas music, in particular, the sad nostalgic emotions that you feel when listening to certain songs could, in theory, have the same positive effect as sad music.

但怀旧是一种耐人寻味的感觉，因为它可以让你同时感到快乐和悲伤。有趣的是，其他研究表明，听悲伤的音乐可以唤起舒适的感觉，这可以解释为什么有些人在需要提神的时候选择听令人沮丧的音乐。理论上，当你听某些歌曲，尤其是圣诞音乐时，你感受到的悲伤怀旧情绪可以和悲伤的音乐产生同样积极的影响。

Christmas music is also often structured in a way that makes it innately pleasing, according to Brian Rabinovitz, PhD, a neuroscientist who specializes in musical cognition. See, when you hear a song for the first time, its melody gets tracked in your brain's prefrontal cortex. Your brain is then always searching for that melody, or a similar one, and when you hear it again it's very satisfying.

专门研究音乐认知的神经学家布莱恩·拉比诺维茨博士说，圣诞音乐的结构往往也会令人愉悦。当你第一次听到一首歌时，它的旋律会被记录在大脑的前额叶皮层中。之后你的大脑会一直寻找那段旋律，或者类似的旋律，当你再次听到时，就会感到非常满意。

Compared to other genres of music, Christmas music tends to have very predictable melodic structures, according to Dr. Rabinovitz. "Hearing something you know very well, you already have strong expectations. You’re making these predictions, having this moment of tension and then realizing the prediction was correct," he said. When you combine this aspect with nostalgia, it's a no-brainer why Christmas music makes you feel such a range of emotions.

拉比诺维茨说，相比于其他音乐类型，圣诞音乐的旋律结构往往十分规律。“当听到非常熟悉的音乐时，你就有了强烈的期待。你一边预想接下来的旋律，一边精神紧绷，直至发现你预想对了。”他说道。当你把这种情况与怀旧之情结合起来，就不难明白为什么圣诞音乐会让你产生这些情感了。

圣诞音乐的一些共同点

So, the Christmas music has a special ability to make you feel lots of emotions, from jolliness to nostalgia, and a bunch of nuanced feelings in between. Whether you like to feel a little bit sad or need something happy to snap you out of your holiday slump, chances are there's a Christmas song to match your mood.

所以，圣诞音乐有一种特殊的能力来让你感受到多种情感，有欢乐，有怀旧，还有其间许多细致入微的情感。无论你是感觉有点悲伤，还是需要一些快乐来摆脱假期过后的低迷，都很有可能找到一首圣诞歌曲来匹配你的心情。

“l wanted to sing it in a way that would capture joy for everyone and crystallise it forever，" Mariah Carey added. "Yes, was going for vintage Christmas happiness.”

“通过歌唱，我想为所有人捕捉到乐趣，并把它永久定型。”玛丽亚·凯莉补充道。“就是为了最好的圣诞快乐。”