JWFan's Wonderful World of Release Worshiping Rituals

[GerateWohl 6,433]

It's somehow cute to see the reocurring reception procedures on new expansions from the speciality labels:

 

From first announcement:

• Everybody is excited.
• First person is worried, if the release will meet the expectations.
• People look up the spreadsheets and find out that exactly x.25416 minutes from the score were missing on the original release.
• The OST purists post their remark that they are not interested in buying this but they are happy for the others (surprise, surprise!).
• People start criticizing the cover art and post their self-made ones.
• When tracklists and samples are published half of the crowd cheers, the other half complains (about the audio quality and the missing 45 seconds of score).
• Bruce complains about the musical redundancies.
• When available in the shop people start posting order notices.
• People complaining about the order process. Everybody outside the US complains about taxes, customs and retailers.
• Everybody finds more and more reasons why there will be disappointed by the release.
• People post shipment notices.
• etc. pp.

Did I forget something significant?

 

[Holko 11,953]

Yeah the pretty sparse discussion of the actual music's intricacies past the first month of people first getting the release.

 

And the people who get it in 2 days already but go "Can't wait to look forward to opening it in 8 months when I'll have the time!"

[Quppa 475]

Complaining (or politely critiquing) these expansions is surely how we end up with better, more comprehensive releases - would La-La Land have fixed those lossy tracks on the Schindler's List and Harry Potter CDs without feedback? That said, the Intrada Dinosaur end credits phasing issue screaming match wasn't particularly edifying.

[Jurassic Shark 16,159]

1 minute ago, Quppa said:

would La-La Land have fixed those lossy tracks on the [...] Harry Potter CDs

 

WHAT?

[Thor 9,337]

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

It's somehow cute to see the reocurring reception procedures on new expansions from the speciality labels:

 

From first announcement:

• Everybody is excited.
• First person is worried, if the release will meet the expectations.
• People look up the spreadsheets and find out that exactly x.25416 minutes from the score were missing on the original release.
• The OST purists post their remark that they are not interested in buying this but they are happy for the others (surprise, surprise!).
• People start criticizing the cover art and post their self-made ones.
• When tracklists and samples are published half of the crowd cheers, the other half complains (about the audio quality and the missing 45 seconds of score).
• Bruce complains about the musical redundancies.
• When available in the shop people start posting order notices.
• People complaining about the order process. Everybody outside the US complains about taxes, customs and retailers.
• Everybody finds more and more reasons why there will be disappointed by the release.
• People post shipment notices.
• etc. pp.

Did I forget something significant?

 

 

Indeed, Gerate. There's a whole separate topic in what you wrote there that would very interesting indeed. I feel so completely ancient in the film score world these days. And I'm not only talking about the C&C issue, which is old. But all those other things you mention. All this talk about what I consider micro issues -- spreadsheets, cross-fades, sound quality measured in waveforms, custom artwork, shipping updates etc. etc. It's all "on the spectrum", as they say.

 

There was a time not too long ago I just slapped on a cassette tape of a soundtrack I had copied, sometimes second generation copies even, and enjoyed the heck out of it. None of these issues ever occured to me. It was just listening to an album, period.

 

I'm still kinda stuck in that period in the way I listen to and enjoy soundtracks. It has to be really, really bad and noticeable for me to care. Like that first release of RAIN MAN.

 

Also, you often have to dig deep and hard to find discussions about the general musical qualities of things, you know -- the actual contents of the music, not everything around it. That doesn't only apply to JWFAN, btw (although it's more extreme), but also FSM and other places. I miss proper discussions about general musical aesthetics like we had 20+ years ago.

 

Aaah....refreshing that I'm old enough now to do old-geezer-fist-raising-venting!

 

[BB-8 5,990]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

Did I forget something significant?

 

 

Posting photos of the CD and booklet

 

OR

 

Informing the community that one's own copy is still sealed (after several months)

[Edmilson 11,810]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

It's somehow cute to see the reocurring reception procedures on new expansions from the speciality labels:

 

From first announcement:

• Everybody is excited.
• First person is worried, if the release will meet the expectations.
• People look up the spreadsheets and find out that exactly x.25416 minutes from the score were missing on the original release.
• The OST purists post their remark that they are not interested in buying this but they are happy for the others (surprise, surprise!).
• People start criticizing the cover art and post their self-made ones.
• When tracklists and samples are published half of the crowd cheers, the other half complains (about the audio quality and the missing 45 seconds of score).
• Bruce complains about the musical redundancies.
• When available in the shop people start posting order notices.
• People complaining about the order process. Everybody outside the US complains about taxes, customs and retailers.
• Everybody finds more and more reasons why there will be disappointed by the release.
• People post shipment notices.
• etc. pp.

Did I forget something significant?

 

We're 10 days into 2025 and we already have a strong candidate for post of the year! 

[Thor 9,337]

10 minutes ago, TownerFan said:

That's probably why some of the discussion moved to even more specific Facebook or Twitter groups, or why some people created tiny discussion groups on Telegram, Discord, Whatsapp and other messaging apps.

 

We may prefer how we discussed film music back in the 1990s, but that was now 30 years ago. The world changes, and people change too.

 

I've never been able to discuss anything meaningfully on social media apps. The interface sucks for that kind of thing. So it's all messageboards to me, relic as it may be considered. I'm just sad that the discussion climate has changed so much, into things that I have no interest in.  It is what it is, but sad nonetheless.

[crumbs 15,908]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

And I'm not only talking about the C&C issue, which is old. But all those other things you mention. All this talk about what I consider micro issues -- spreadsheets, cross-fades, sound quality measured in waveforms, custom artwork, shipping updates etc. etc. It's all "on the spectrum", as they say.

 

I really hope you didn't intend to imply fans obsessing over details have autism because, at least in my language, that's how this rather unfortunate comment reads.

 

Without sounding like a broken record, I'll ask once again: if you're so disinterested in expanded soundtracks, why do you feel the need to continually remind everyone, in every single discussion thread about newly announced expansions, how little you care about them?

 

You lament that nobody discusses the 'actual content of music' anymore, but you're the first to shitcan every new expansion that gifts fans more of the very music you lament people aren't discussing.

 

I simply cannot understand this logic. Maybe I'm "on the spectrum."

[Thor 9,337]

This wasn't about expansions, but all those other micro issues that Gerate mentioned. I think that's a somewhat "spectrum-y" activity, yes, whether one has the diagnosis or not.

[Holko 11,953]

Fuck us for having a hobby right?

[Thor 9,337]

Embrace your nerd-dom.

[Holko 11,953]

That does not equal calling people autistic for not being "ehhh'sgoodenough" about everything like you are.

[Jurassic Shark 16,159]

I'm glad Thor's here to add some nuance to very one-sided (and thereby boring) discussions.

[Thor 9,337]

1 minute ago, Holko said:

That does not equal calling people autistic for not being "ehhh'sgoodenough" about everything like you are.

 

Get over yourself. I never called anyone autistic. I called the minutia obsession activity spectrum-like. Which it is.

[Holko 11,953]

I'm glad you're here to contribute very relevant and substantial material like always.

[Jurassic Shark 16,159]

It's nice to be beloved. 

 

Which part of the electromagnetic spectrum are we talking about?

[Thor 9,337]

Quote

I'm glad you're here to contribute very relevant and substantial material like always.

 

Well, you certainly live up to your title (under your username), as always.

[Thor 9,337]

 

I suggest Geratewohl copy/pastes his original post into a separate thread, so we continue from there. It's a very interesting topic, these musings about our hobby.

[Holko 11,953]

Sure, it's very interesting to read "why the hell are you doing that, you're weird and on the spectrum".

[GerateWohl 6,433]

I would prefer, if Jay moved the side discussion to another thread. 

But if that's not possible, I can open a new one.

[crumbs 15,908]

53 minutes ago, Thor said:

This wasn't about expansions, but all those other micro issues that Gerate mentioned. I think that's a somewhat "spectrum-y" activity, yes, whether one has the diagnosis or not.

 

You consider making fan artwork and posting shipping updates autistic traits...?

 

It's way past my bedtime but hopefully your musings on autism can continue in a separate thread, rather than derailing a hype thread for this exciting score expansion!

[Thor 9,337]

4 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

You consider making fan artwork and posting shipping updates autistic traits...?

 

It's way past my bedtime but hopefully your musings on autism can continue in a separate thread, rather than derailing a hype thread for this exciting score expansion!

 

Right now, it is you doing the derailing. And I just responded to Gerate's post about minutia obsessions. It's him you should direct your ire at. He can take it. Or just go to bed. That's a better idea.

[Jay 45,403]

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

I would prefer, if Jay moved the side discussion to another thread. 

But if that's not possible, I can open a new one.

 

OK, I did it.  You can edit the main post to choose whatever thread title you like.

[Holko 11,953]

Oh good, the "are we autists or not" thread. Personal attacks are fine actually.

[Thor 9,337]

Cool that it has its own thread!

 

This isn't really about expansions and their merits or demerits, though, but rather the chronology of events that happen in our small niche when a new specialty release comes around. So perhaps call it something else, like - I don't know - "Sequence of events when a new specialty release is announced".

 

Or - to use Gerate's own words - "Reception Procedures for Specialty Releases"?

[Mr. Hooper 8,199]

I call it a character trait. Not a fan of all these labels we invent for ourselves.

[Edmilson 11,810]

This thread should be nominated for the JWFan Awards for Best Thread Title next year.

[bollemanneke 4,292]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

Get over yourself. I never called anyone autistic. I called the minutia obsession activity spectrum-like. Which it is.

It... really isn't. What's wrong with people discussing c&c issues about music they might have grown up with and feel very strongly about? I totally understand you about the waveforms, but I don't really understand what else you take issue with. These expanded presenations wouldn't be coming out if the original albums were 100% perfect. I admire you for being happy with all of those, but I wouldn't start involving the spectrum this quickly.

[Luke Skywalker 2,336]

Can I add that a 3cd jewel case occupies twice the space on my shelf? I have a particular place for scores in my house, and dont have place for more… so susbtituing old one cd osts for 2cd case releases is nice. Unnecesary 3cd sets is not that cool for me. 
giacchino has already been relegated to a cupboard. Only williams remains in the open.

[Holko 11,953]

The "waveforms" (more like the spectogram) are just a tool to find out information and actual proof of a few things.

[bollemanneke 4,292]

10 minutes ago, Luke Skywalker said:

Can I add that a 3cd jewel case occupies twice the space on my shelf? I have a particular place for scores in my house, and dont have place for more… so susbtituing old one cd osts for 2cd case releases is nice. Unnecesary 3cd sets is not that cool for me. 
giacchino has already been relegated to a cupboard. Only williams remains in the open.

You have a special place in your house for CDs? That's serious spectrum material, my friend, go to a doctor asap 

[Marian Schedenig 11,428]

1 hour ago, Holko said:

Oh good, the "are we autists or not" thread. Personal attacks are fine actually.

 

I wouldn't consider "being on the spectrum" a personal attack. It can be intended as one, of course, but I don't think it was in this case, and it's hardly an insult in itself.

 

I'm pretty sure I have ADD. But very much unrelated to that I do expect engineers of all kinds (be it software, hardware, construction, or in this case audio) to do their job diligently. Maybe being on the spectrum helps, in which case the percentage of engineers who are on the spectrum may be above average.

[Smeltington 1,858]

I don't think it's a stretch to say that most of us here have obsessive tendencies and are probably neurodivergent in some way. Which is fine, it doesn't have to be a criticism. Otherwise, our involvement with film music would probably just be to listen to OSTs on Spotify and leave it at that.

 

Agree that it would be nice to have more discussion of the music itself, but I also don't contribute much to that, so I can't really talk. Part of the problem is it takes a long time to parse through each release, get some quality listening time, and digest this music, and by that point the thread is probably buried.

[Xander Harris 9,256]

1 minute ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I wouldn't consider "being on the spectrum" a personal attack.

 

People on the spectrum would.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

 

1 minute ago, Smeltington said:

I don't think it's a stretch to say that most of us here have obsessive tendencies and are probably neurodivergent in some way.

 

Agreed. 

[Marian Schedenig 11,428]

1 minute ago, Smeltington said:

Agree that it would be nice to have more discussion of the music itself, but I also don't contribute much to that, so I can't really talk. Part of the problem is it takes a long time to parse through each release, get some quality listening time, and digest this music, and by that point the thread is probably buried.

 

Which is why I welcome the attempt to keep the release threads on topic, actually. They're interesting to follow around the time a new release is announced and prepared for shipping, but since I usually get them weeks or months later than most of the US posters, I tend to stop reading at some point, missing whatever potentially interesting off-topic discussion spawns in those threads.

[Thor 9,337]

I do occasionally wonder when the shift in the discussion climate happened, into the things that Gerate describes.

 

I remember in the late 90s and up to the mid 2000s, there weren't many such minutia chats on the messageboards I frequented. Once in a while, sure, but they were the exception to the rule. I think it started to become more common in the late 2000s, with the proliferation of niche labels. And at the same time advances in technology, when people could tinker and look at tracks themselves, on their own hard drives.

 

But it's difficult to set a concrete date, it was all pretty much an organic evolution, for better or worse (for worse, as far as my own interest in this thing goes).

[GerateWohl 6,433]

I would actually prefer  if the theads of new releases wouldn't be flooded with shipping notices. As much as I understand the excitement and joy of having placed the order and the urge to share that with like-minded fellows that we all are. But it adds a bland taste to the conversation on the release. 

Couldn't we have a dedicated thread for shipping notices? For the delivery notices we already have one.

 

Maybe I  am the only one with that issue. Then do what you must.

[Thor 9,337]

2 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Couldn't we have a dedicated thread for shipping notices?

 

Great idea! So many times I open a thread to see if someone has added anything worthwhile, and it turns out to be a shipping notice, or a shipping issue. It's even more widespread on FSM. I've always found that to be a bizarre thing, i.e. to say that something has shipped. It's like saying what I'm going to have for dinner, or that I've just done my laundry.

[Jay 45,403]

15 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I would actually prefer  if the theads of new releases wouldn't be flooded with shipping notices. As much as I understand the excitement and joy of having placed the order and the urge to share that with like-minded fellows that we all are. But it adds a bland taste to the conversation on the release. 

Couldn't we have a dedicated thread for shipping notices? For the delivery notices we already have one.

 

Maybe I  am the only one with that issue. Then do what you must.

 

I actually take care of this already.  Often when the first person actually receives their copy of a big new title, I create a "MUSIC discussion thread" for that title, so all the shipping notice, etc type emails stay in the original thread, and we have a beautiful new thread for only discussing the actual contents of the new release.  The original thread is sometimes then referred to as a "hype thread".

 

Check out how often that's happened by scrolling down to the "Recent Catalog Expansions / Premieres / Reissues" section of this thread:

 

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/33860-find-a-thread-information-catalog-all-upcoming-recent-john-williams-works-concerts/

 

For just one random example, Close Encounters of the Third Kind had 14 pages of hype, speculation, sample discussion, shipping notices, etc, and then separately 10 pages of actual discussion of the release once people starting getting it.

 

[Luke Skywalker 2,336]

44 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

You have a special place in your house for CDs? That's serious spectrum material, my friend, go to a doctor asap 

Particular as in “Limited space for cds allowed by wife”. 

[Jurassic Shark 16,159]

6 minutes ago, Luke Skywalker said:

Particular as in “Limited space for cds allowed by wife”. 

 

Cut down on the number of wives then.

[GerateWohl 6,433]

14 minutes ago, Thor said:

I do occasionally wonder when the shift in the discussion climate happened, into the things that Gerate describes.

 

I remember in the late 90s and up to the mid 2000s, there weren't many such minutia chats on the messageboards I frequented. Once in a while, sure, but they were the exception to the rule. I think it started to become more common in the late 2000s, with the proliferation of niche labels. And at the same time advances in technology, when people could tinker and look at tracks themselves, on their own hard drives.

 

But it's difficult to set a concrete date, it was all pretty much an organic evolution, for better or worse (for worse, as far as my own interest in this thing goes).

I wasn't part of the community at that early stage. Still I can just speak for myself. And if I look at how my behaviour changed in the past years I think, maybe it has something to do with being in an era where the physical media seems to be dying out. In past years proper CD shops vanished from the cities. And for me this triggered something. Like in panic sometimes I started buying what ever score I could get online because "who knows if this will be available next year still at a reasonable price". That lead me to being no more relaxed concerning my purchases. Which lead to having to many new CDs to really listen carefully (apart from having less and less time at my hands for this hobby). 

Therefore a real deep dive on a new release and dealing with the music in a way I used to when I knew each and every track inside out are somehow gone. That has an impact on my abbility to talk about the music.

 

Certain technical evaluations on the other hand can be done easily fast. I am not sure if these observations also apply to others. At least this could have some kind of impact on this change in conversation.

 

By the way, recemtly I thought about opening a thread about the question, when was the last time you spend an evening with a score fan friend in real life together at your home listening to CDs, drinking and talking about music? Actually, in my life I had very few occasions like that in my life. Probably mainly because I know currently noone with that hobby close to me living nearby. But when I had these occations these are great memories of joyfull evenings. We don't do that enough. 

[Jay 45,403]

10 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

when was the last time you spend an evening with a score fan friend in real life together at your home listening to CDs, drinking and talking about music?

 

I have never done this.  No one in my family likes film scores, and no friends I have made in real life are into film scores, that's just the way it goes.

 

Conversely, when I have made efforts to go out and meet in real life people that I first "met" on messageboards dedidcated to film scores, it has been WONDERFUL to chat about film scores in real life with fellow fans.  The fact that I have done so all around the world, meaning I've traveled to parts of the world I might not have otherwise, is just so cool, too!

 

Anybody else have that moment at such a meet-up where you realize you've never said words like "segue" or "Varese" or "Intrada" out loud and have no idea how to pronounce them?

[Thor 9,337]

I sometimes have "listening evenings" with some of my Norwegian composer friends. It's not all film music, though, we play all kinds of music. It's been a while since the last one, though. It was pre-corona, at least.

[GerateWohl 6,433]

4 minutes ago, Thor said:

I sometimes have "listening evenings" with some of my Norwegian composer friends. It's not all film music, though, we play all kinds of music. It's been a while since the last one, though. It was pre-corona, at least.

Yes! Compared to how much I love such evenings it's weird how seldomly I did that in my life. But times change.

[Jurassic Shark 16,159]

12 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

By the way, recemtly I thought about opening a thread about the question, when was the last time you spend an evening with a score fan friend in real life together at your home listening to CDs, drinking and talking about music? Actually, in my life I had very few occasions like that in my life. Probably mainly because I know currently noone with that hobby close to me living nearby. But when I had these occations these are great memories of joyfull evenings. We don't do that enough. 

 

The last time I did something like this must have been when I shared a flat with a friend who enjoyed classical music and had a bit of interest in film music. Otherwise the closest would be going out with friends for film music concerts with my city's symphony orchestra, or seeing Morricone in the capitol with @Thor and @Nils, the great clarinettist. 

[GerateWohl 6,433]

For sure we should have a gathering again at the Berlin concert. And I hope we don't forget to take pictures this time.

 

But basically I mean something different that having a beer in a pub after a concert. Rather hanging out with a friend at home playing CDs to eachother.

[Xander Harris 9,256]

I don't want to hang out with people who are into this crap in real life. They're uncool. I want to be around cool Zack Morris types so that I can in turn feel cool, not a bunch of Screeches. 

[Jurassic Shark 16,159]

6 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

But basically I mean something different that having a beer in a pub after a concert. Rather hanging out with a friend at home playing CDs to eachother.

 

Okay then. We do have a guest bedroom.