Lots of palpable anger and frustration here. Most of it pretty well stated and well-supported.
The difficult question, though, is: when will the chances to get it right be used up? Is everyone still going to go see Episode 9 when it comes out? I think of bands and musicians that I used to love, who began making a different kind of music that I didn’t enjoy. In that case, I liked each successive album less and less, until eventually I stopped paying attention altogether. I still enjoy the old albums as I always did, but some of the intensity of my interest definitely cooled. Does anyone foresee that happening with their love of Star Wars? I imagine it’s a difficult question to answer.
For me, it has gone like so. I LOVED a particular band. They put out music that was formative for me in terms of my tastes in entertainment overall, and their early music is a cornerstone of my life that I still love. But they went through this "middle period" where they wanted to get...experimental. When the new stuff first came out, I HATED it. Absolutely despised it. What's more, it seemed like that was all they were interested in making, AND they stopped producing copies of their original few albums; you could only get their remasters, and the remasters were done really, really poorly, and they overdubbed one of the backup singers (who had this one amazing solo on the first album) with some new singer who just...sounds off. Like it's too clean as compared to the rest of the music and the sound, which was still really kinda raw back then, flaws and all. And then for, like, twelve years, that was all they did. EVERYTHING was oriented towards the "new sound," and I rejected all of it. I started off furious, then grew sad, then grew resigned to it, and then finally just kinda walked away. But then, three things happened.
1. I found copies of their old stuff on original vinyl, in great condition, so I could finally listen to the old stuff the proper way. And it sounds great on my sound system now.
2. After urging by some people who were fans of their entire catalogue, I started listening to this one series of live performances that they did with this particular producer and...it's actually really good! It blends the old stuff with the new stuff I didn't like, and even managed to get me to at least kind of enjoy their final album from the "new era."
3. They released several new albums with a bunch of different producers, each of whom brought a slightly different sound to the whole affair. The first one played like a "greatest hits" album, which was...pretty good. I mean, I was looking for something
new, and this felt kind of "reheated" instead. It wasn't bad, mind you. Just felt like new music that was playing it safe and capitalizing on the old sound. Apparently they recorded it using old techniques, too, and that part was at least cool. But I was really hoping for something newer and more interesting that could evolve the sound in a direction that would be interesting to me and that wasn't just rehashing the old stuff. They then released a cover album, but it wound up sounding a lot like their old stuff, which was pretty cool as well, but still left me hoping for more interesting new stuff. And then they released their latest album, which I absolutely loved because it still felt like their old stuff to me, but they did it in directions that totally surprised me and yet still held together really well. It was different, though, in a big way, and a lot of fans REALLY didn't like it, even though I did.
So, now I'm excited for what the future holds, but my concern is that they're gonna respond to the fan backlash and just play it safe again, which will be...you know...fine, I guess, but such a waste of the potential they have for this new direction. I'm hopeful they can thread the needle and still keep things fresh and evolving, without it necessarily seeming quite so "out there" for some of the old school fans.
It’s actually really interesting that you use that “favorite band” metaphor. I was having an off-RPF discussion on this with The Wook several weeks back and used that exact same metaphor, with my view being that, when bands I loved “drifted’, I didn’t take their creative choices personally and spend time railing against them online (hey, it’s their music) but, instead, just stopped buying their new stuff and continued to enjoy their old stuff. The Wook’s response was interesting – his view was “yes, but in my case, the band I love keeps promising to make new music that harken back to the old stuff I loved. So they're dangling that carrot for me, and like a sucker, I'll keep running after it.”
M
When it comes to entertainment, I have learned -- actually from my experience during the prequel era of Star Wars -- that it's best to NOT personally identify or at least not
over-identify with something, and to be absolutely ready to walk the hell away from it if it stops being entertaining. Like, it's a shame, yeah, but it's just not worth the level of drama that has arisen around TLJ. And I say that as someone who absolutely despised the PT (for the most part), and who was furious with George for how he handled the franchise after TPM came out and up until he sold it. Life is way too short to spend your energy pissed at a movie franchise. Focus on what you enjoy and just enjoy it, and don't let the other negative stuff ruin your fun.