Star Wars Music is Getting Worse - Beyond The Last Jedi & John Williams - A Music Philosophy Review

[ray245]

It raises a very valid point as to why the music in the new movies never quite made the same impact prior SW music was able to. I think the problem of fans demanding SW to be something easily recognisable is limiting the potential of the franchise to do something creative, at least musically. It is not helped by the fact that all the spin-offs and the sequels are still so heavily tied into the original trilogy in terms of story-telling.

Moreover, I think the current generation of young/mid-career directors tends not to be that good in using music as part of the story-telling vocabulary. It requires the director to be collaborative with the composer in deciding what kind of music to use, and how to use it, as well as listening to suggestions from the composer in what new stuff are they allowed to try in the movies. But music in modern films are rarely given enough air to breath and allow certain tunes to stay in the minds of the audience.

[GuppyShark]

I think your latter point may be selection bias. We remember iconic movies and their soundtracks, so as time progresses we only remember the big ones and forget all the dross, but we're judging frequency by the current slate of offerings. I love listening to movie soundtracks so I may also have that bias, but there are some great soundtracks from utterly forgettable movies and some soundtracks from recent films you could play and everyone would know what character just arrived in the scene.

[Iroscato]

Rey's Theme is the only track from the Sequel Trilogy that I can distinctly remember and enjoyed hearing at the time. I feel the rest blurred into the background as generic Star Warsy muzak that never made much of an impact. Nothing has come close to The Asteroid Chase, The Imperial March or indeed the original use of Luke's Theme for me. Hell, even the Prequels did at least have another batch of phenomenal music going for it at least.

[Steve]

I think your latter point may be selection bias. We remember iconic movies and their soundtracks, so as time progresses we only remember the big ones and forget all the dross, but we're judging frequency by the current slate of offerings. I love listening to movie soundtracks so I may also have that bias, but there are some great soundtracks from utterly forgettable movies and some soundtracks from recent films you could play and everyone would know what character just arrived in the scene.

To reinforce this point, has anyone here seen the movie "Twister"? I know it made for some humor since it's basically "people being chased by tornadoes", but whatever one thinks about the film (personally I enjoyed it), Mark Mancina's score for the movie is simply superb. The music has energy, it fits the scenes, and it builds excitement when it's supposed to, a sense of thrilling adventure.

[Gandalf]

It also helps that the older films have decades of nostalgia and rewatches behind them.

[ray245]

I think your latter point may be selection bias. We remember iconic movies and their soundtracks, so as time progresses we only remember the big ones and forget all the dross, but we're judging frequency by the current slate of offerings. I love listening to movie soundtracks so I may also have that bias, but there are some great soundtracks from utterly forgettable movies and some soundtracks from recent films you could play and everyone would know what character just arrived in the scene.

Quite possible, but I think it used to be quite common for a new soundtrack to enter popular consciousness really quickly. Duel of the Fates for example, made a really immediate impact after TPM was released.

[Gandalf]

Yeah, but that was also a way promoted track, in a way less fractured market.

[Elheru Aran]

Yeah, but that was also a way promoted track, in a way less fractured market.

The big duel at the end of TPM being one of the advertised draws of an otherwise less than remarkable film that mostly rode the Star Wars brand's coattails (and a massive marketing campaign) to success? You don't say.

[Darth Lucifer]

Besides "Duel of the Fates", "Battle of the Heroes" (the music played during the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan in ROTS) is another song that really stuck out for me from the prequel trilogy.

Re: Solo...I don't really remember most of the music; not even the main theme for Han Solo by John Williams.

Some of my favorite post-Williams music was from Battlefront II, by Gordy Haab. I also liked much of the music from KOTOR.

[Galvatron]

As I've said before...

Good isn't good enough for Star Wars, IMO. These movies need an operatic score like the OT did, not the meandering ramble that we've been getting recently. A good character theme here and there is wasted, IMO, if the rest of the music is like white noise, but I think we've had this discussion before.

[ray245]

As I've said before...

Good isn't good enough for Star Wars, IMO. These movies need an operatic score like the OT did, not the meandering ramble that we've been getting recently. A good character theme here and there is wasted, IMO, if the rest of the music is like white noise, but I think we've had this discussion before.

You can have operatic score if directors actually creates musical space for such music to stand out. The recent trend in film scores has been to create more atmospheric music that blends quietly in the background rather than more bombastic music that aren't afraid to dominate the speakers.

Composer can do jack-shit if the directors have no idea how to make use of composers.

[Elfdart]

The choppy way most movies are edited nowadays makes it almost impossible to make much use of the leitmotif, let alone sweeping scores. Just imagine a newer movie using a grand score like the one Miklos Rosza composed for El Cid or Ben-Hur. Even if one of the newer composers wrote something as his score for The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, I doubt most filmmakers would know what to do with it.:

[The Romulan Republic]

I felt Williams' music wasn't quite up to snuff in TFA, Rey's theme (which I love, and rank among the best of the franchise) aside, but I thought he was back in form for TLJ. "The Spark" (the piece that plays when Luke goes out to face Kylo) is quite lovely, and the way he weaved together themes from the various earlier films in during the Crait battle sequence was nice, a sort of musical tribute to the entire history of the franchise.

I don't think its really fair to compare Solo and Rogue One's scores, as they weren't done by Williams. Some of Rogue One's is quite good. I don't remember a thing about Solo's.

[Akumz Razor]

Solo's score was fairly forgettable, but it did use the Stormtrooper theme from ANH, which I thought was a nice touch (I had always hoped it would be used as a clone trooper theme during AOTC).

[FaxModem1]

I did like Solo's soundtrack for introducing this song into the mix, as it's fairly different from what we've had before:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/IcRjAqWOKoI[/youtube]

[Batman]

Quoth the raven, 404