It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas — and all over the radio and throughout the Internet, the genre of festive music is drastically changing.

It is no secret that pop music has taken over just about every type of music with catchy beats, pointless lyrics, and unclear messages being the driving forces behind each song. However, it comes as a surprise to see this same trend make its way into the familiar Christmas music that audiences have known to be rather unchanging for years.

A song such as “Santa Baby,” one of the many over-covered songs in the world of Christmas music, has been attempted by many different artists. But Ariana Grande and Gwen Stefani opened up the doors for pop artists to transfer over to holiday music through their releases of the song.

Rather than hearing the slower, jazz-inspired Christmas songs, they have now become more upbeat as pop singers put their own spin on them.

A recently released song, “River” by Sam Smith, is one of the few newer Christmas songs that holds its original tradition with piano and a slower melody.

However, “How Great Thou Art,” another recently released festive song by Pentatonix featuring Jennifer Hudson, strays away from tradition with just vocals leading the song.

Pentatonix is not as new to the scene of Christmas music, as they have released three Christmas albums featuring their a capella talents. Incorporating that into well-known Christmas songs both goes against what audiences have to come to know as their favorite holiday music, but has also proven to be a huge success for the band and other artists.

Cheery musical instruments, while never questioned before, have become overrated today and more audiences are seeking songs that are more vocally led. Therefore having Christmas songs featuring Jennifer Hudson, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Sia, Kelly Clarkson, and Gwen Stefani have given audiences a taste of festive music they never really knew they needed until now.

While jazzy, upbeat, sometimes obnoxious when put on repeat, Christmas music was simply the norm and what audiences came to know before. The genre is forever changing, though, and the limits appear to be non-existent at this point.