The song begins with a Christmas-y chime. It's the sound of a celesta — an instrument featured in Tchaikovsky's Christmas classic “The Nutcracker.” Carey’s hit also uses the sleigh bell, which became ...

J.S. Gornael has a BA in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis in Poetry and an MFA in Fiction. He has taken workshops in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction (though mostly the second). Half-cinephile ...

Christmas music is a big part of the music industry. John Yang speaks with Nate Sloan, an assistant professor of musicology at the USC Thornton School of Music and co-host of the podcast Switched On ...