Thoughts on post-Turunen Nightwish; and the importance of creativity
Posted by NoumenalRealm on September 28, 2007
After Tarja Turunen’s departure from Nightwish; here are two cultural artefacts which express the two paths that have separated; from Nightwish’s most wonderful and one of the most successful Finnish national products (Nightwish).
Tarja Turunen’s ‘I walk alone’
Nightwish’s ‘Bye Bye Beautiful’ (a song about Tarja)
A question many ask: Who is better; Tarja or Annette?
As a Nightwish fan; I hear many on the camp of ‘Tarja was better’, Annette sucks; and on the other side, it is ‘Nightwish is not about Tarja!’. A great many of the fans feel they have lost the huge appeal of an opera singer in a metal band. One question I entertain is: Will Nightwish be different? Things I consider:
- Marco’s increasingly more prominent role in Nightwish from Century Child to Once to Dark Passion Play
- Tuomas’ increased use of orchestral sounds
- Tuomas’ increased use of extreme metal idioms
- The combination of 2,3
- The increasingly ‘fashionable’/contemporary look of Nightwish away from its more ‘romantic’/folk culture look; Annette dresses like a lot of girls I know; where Tarja’s dress is so elegant and refined she seems more a Goddess than a woman; I prefer Annette’s more people-like look.
The importance of creativity
Secondly; I think fans of a band, or an artist should not make demands upon the creativity of said artist. It isn’t fair to good music to ask Metallica to play Enter Sandman all the time (despite how nice it is); or Hangar 18 of Megadeth (oops!); as it not only ruins a good song; but undermines the creative power and breadth of the band.
Nightwish is a developing band; people shouldn’t expect the same hits to be troddled about without new ones. That’s an unfair demand on the band and a morally bad demand of consumers upon good music. Maybe Black Sabbath can learn that lesson (oh, I mean “Heaven and Hell”).
Michael
P.S. I think Annette adds a wonderful flavour to Nightwish that belongs to Tuomas’ brainchild. I wouldn’t be happy if Marco left though!!!
This entry was posted on September 28, 2007 at 12:58 am and is filed under Art, Culture, Current Affairs, Mundane, Music, My interests, Works of my authorship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Sidhe said
I agree with you whole heartedly.
OmegaWolf747 said
While I don’t dislike Nightwish with Annette and do indeed have their music on my computer, Tarja gave the band a mystical, classical feeling that is just sadly lacking since she left. Her operatic voice lent such an air of dignity to this band and set them apart from everything else in metal. Since her departure, it’s just not the same.