Nutcracking

So this morning WPSU advertised that it was going to play Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite later in the day. Anyone who listens to classical music has heard this piece in the last weeks.
At what audience is the advertisement aimed? At those listeners who have not heard the Nutcracker all year and now finally get there opportunity? Are there people who regularly listen to NPR news and yet lack the Nutcracker?

Or is the radio station advertising the obvious? Something akin to a classic rock station advertising that they are going to play Springsteen's "Santa Claus is coming to town." We know they will. We drive around town with the expectation that at some point the Boss will ask Clarence whether he has been good this year. Christmas music just happens, maybe it is a guilty pleasure, maybe it is a mind-numbing torture—both perhaps, but what shocks is that WPSU has no better idea of what to advertise other than the obvious, The Nutcracker at Christmas—yes, anything else.

Is there no other Classical Christmas music? Haven't composers for centuries written music for this most sacred Christian holiday? Why not turn to something we have not all heard for the billionth time? Sure throw in the Nutcracker once or twice—the gods of mass marketing must be respected--but please try a little harder to find some interesting Christmas music.

Yes, I am grinching about the local radio station, but this kind of mediocrity is hardly confined to the WPSU. It is part of broader tendency to think that stating the obvious is good enough, that you don't need to try harder to be smart.