Christmas music: Dreaming of a hip-hop Christmas A GENERATION ago American stores and malls could pretty much choose from two sorts of canned music at Christmas time, recalls an industry insider: "One with baby Jesus, and one without." Today, to put America's ever-more diverse shoppers in a holiday mood, providers of in-store media may offer a dozen "blends" of piped festive music. From Dynamic Media, a Michigan-based outfit, come such offerings as "A Country Christmas" (big in the Midwest and bluegrass country) and the Latino holiday hits demanded by clients in Texas, California and Florida. A market leader, Mood Media, owns the Muzak brand, once famed and feared for piping the same syrupy tunes into every elevator in America. The firm now offers a far more varied menu, with 30 music channels at Christmas alone, tailored to such outlets as Christian bookstores, black barbershops and bilingual malls where Anglo and Hispanic customers mingle. Mood Media provides tunes (as well as smells from a 1,500-strong scent library) to over 300,000 American commercial locations. Family-friendly shops tend to shun raunchy Christmas lyrics such as Lady Gaga's "Take off my stockings; we're/ Out spreading Christmas cheer." Mood Media offers "retail-appropriate," non-explicit Christmas songs; that includes hip-hop tracks, such as "Toy Jackpot" by Blackalicious and "Christmas in Harlem" by Kanye West ("Won't you come sit on my knee?/ And tell me everything that you want/"Cause, baby, I'm your Santa Claus"). The segmentation of Christmas partly reflects the science that now goes into selling to smartphone-toting consumers, who are at once better-informed and more distracted as they shop. Retailers use "dayparting" to target music to such different audiences as daytime mothers or after-school teens. Restaurants use high-tempo songs to make lunch-time clients eat fast, and slow tunes to persuade evening diners to linger (and run up bar bills longer than a six-year-old's letter to Santa). The demand for specialist holiday music also reflects broader social trends, says Eric Spangenberg, dean of the business school at Washington State University and a marketing expert. Christmas, a nostalgic time, prompts folk to reach for childhood memories and their deepest values, he says. Even in piped music, America stands revealed as "not so much a rainbow nation as a segmented nation," in which each group holds fast to its identity. Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole once crooned of sleigh bells and roasting chestnuts to a whole nation. Jollity is more complicated now.