The Decline Of Star Wars Music

In this video, I discuss the telltale signs of the inevitable unraveling of Star Wars music. Disney's sequel trilogy, even with John Williams behind the score, is another demonstration of musical missteps. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Creating electronic music in SuperCollider and Logic Pro. Styles range from ambient to the experimental, from downtempo to the academic. Craftsmanship takes precedence.

[WavelengthCJS]

Very interesting points. I think I'm going to have to revisit the movies again and really focus on the music.

I did like the music in the sequel trilogy. I think the music was technically solid and, at times, very powerful. But, ironically, this lead to the music being distracting at times. As if the music wasn't trying to accent the scene, but rather taking control of all the emotional weight of the scene, and smashing us over the head it.

This is what I remember from watching them when they came out, but I could definitely be wrong.

Oh, great video as always :D

[starwarsking]

Luke and Leia's theme in the Last Jedi was not misused because that scene symbolized them returning to what they know. Just as Leia is about to lose hope the last hope returns both in appearance and in his mental state. Also, this is basically his goodbye to Leia just like in Return of the Jedi. So I have to disagree.

Another point is about Yoda's theme in the Rise of Skywalker. Luke's theme or the force theme wouldn't fit because they used that to introduce him. And honestly, it would not make sense to use any other theme or and absence of music for this part because it's used to show how luke has progressed into this Jedi master like Yoda was to him. So I understand your point but to put another theme there would not make sense for Luke or for the story.

[BigAlPresents]

"Rey the ..*cough*.. hero of the story"... LOL

[danielherrin]

On the sequel scores, first, John Williams health has not been good these past several years. One the Force Awakens he did not handel the entire conducting. I'm not sure how much conducting he's done on the orher two, but I'm sure it wasn't solely him.
Second, John Williams has always been a film composer who see his job as to serve the director. With the Force Awakens JJ Abrams wanted to rely on the nostalgia factor. I'm sure John Williams was told repeatedly to make it sound more Star Wars ie OT.
Third, the score can and does get changed in the editing room. In Attack of the Clones, the music from the conveyor battle was ditched and created in editing by the editors. So what you hear, isn't always what was intended.
The Rise of Skywalker, what an abortion. What you heard, what we got, isn't what was written. The final cut that we got, wasn't done till the last minute. The score in that movie was pieced together in the final edit. The FYC soundtrack that went out before the film was released is dramatically different from what we got.
Somewhere, theres the original scores, and then theres the edited garbage that we got that was done in post. If Disney wants to make some quick cash, release the original scores that were written. Not the score by committee that we got.

[MrDeejf]

Non-music theory guy here. I listen to all kinds of music (not like most people's "all kinds" -- I mean classical, opera, Chinese opera, every flavor of jazz except for most stuff from the '70s, rock, pop, synth, drone, ambient, synthwave, shoegaze, vaporwave, dreampop, MandoPop, generative music, and heck, even Billie Eilish), but I can't, for example, really explain what a mode is or modal improvisation.
So this may come out of ignorance, but... why do you pronounce motif as "motive"? Are they actually two different things? And if you do mean motifs, I think that Ennio Morricone, for one, used them brilliantly in his spaghetti western scores, most notably in Once Upon A Time In The West, for each of the major characters. (None of them, though, were as brief as five notes, I don't think.)