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A sequel is a pretty interesting concept, when you really think about it. I mean, how many kinds of art can "continue" after being made... very few.
We're lucky, as writers, that we can continue characters and storylines until we tire of them. Movies can do this too, but only because movies are written stories with characters as well, based -once again- on writing.
But could you imagine a sequel to a song? Or a sequel to a painting? What would that be, taking the Mona Lisa and adding to it, now showing the person who was supposedly sitting next to her?
I just think that's one of the perks we actually have.
[This message has been edited by Zero (edited July 31, 2008).]
posted
Interesting... artists do have series, and songs do belong to albums, many of which are similarly themed or tell a story of some kind. But you're right, we have the option of extending and expanding a story.
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Yeah, it's like... take Nirvana's hit "Heart Shaped Box," fans can only hope to get similar sounds from other songs by that band, or that genre, but they can't really ever get a continuation of the exact same thing. (Linkin Park is pretty close, in that every sing is the same exact pattern) But you can't just take Teenage Wasteland by The Who (yes I know that isn't the real name) and add another 4 minutes to it a year after it goes platinum.
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Uh...I hate to burst your bubble, but there aren't very many styles that don't have sequels. They may not be called sequels, but Star Wars was the first franchise to coin the term. Until then, they were serials. I can rattle off a bunch of part 1 and 2 songs: Vermillion; Rock and Roll; Something Wicked (Which is a trilogy); The Glorius Burden... Frank Frazetta is the original fantasy artist (he's been painting fantasy since the 1930s) and Death Dealer, one of his most famous characters (known as the infamous Molly Hatchet cover), and The Jaguar God have had books and comics (and a movie) based on them. Ironically, Ralph Bakshi did a film based on Frank Frazetta's characters called Fire and Ice, a cartoon for adults. Even commercials have sequels.
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posted
OK well maybe I should be less absolute in my terms. But I think my point is still pretty interesting. And that is:
It is easier for OSC to write another Ender book (borrowing the setting and characters from himself) than for U2 to make an extension of "With or Without You."
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I can think of a song sequel...they made one to "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." It was awful, actually.
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This is a perk we--as writers--actually have... don't take it away... don't send it to join our dignity on the otherside.
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On the down-side, if we write a book and royally mess it up somehow, I don't think we can do a "Special Edition" of it like they did for Star Wars.
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Bent Tree...that's funny. I think I'm going to start remixing novels. "Check out the new Harry Potter remix by Dave Williams!" Has a nice ring to it.
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There have been sequels done in songs. I'm going to be giving away my age but I can think of at least two examples from the 60's. The Royal Guardsmen put out four songs about Snoopy. They were all big hits in their time. This is the order of their release:
Snoopy and the Red Baron
The Return of the Red Baron (I think that was the title. It's been a few years .)
Snoopy's Christmas
Snoopy for President
The other song with a sequel was put out by Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs. The first hit was about little red riding hood and the second about the big bad wolf and the three little pigs, though the pigs weren't mentioned in the song.
So, yes, there have been sequels done in music. I bet there are more if one gave it a little more thought.
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I think we could name song sequels all day. How about Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again"?? It's actually pretty good.
Sequels to novels, movies, graphic novels, epic poems, etc. are continuations of a story, or some MICE quotient of a story (thought I think only the Milieu, Character, and Event are typically used in sequels).
Sequels to songs are a special breed. They can continue with the Idea, as Chubby Checker did.
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A book series (for instance Harry Potter) will keep the same setting, characters, and for lack of a better word feel throughout without any of it getting old. But with song "sequels" you can't keep the same 4/4 rythme and melody that you loved in the original and spread it to the "sequel" song without it getting old, it seems to me that most of these "sequels" in songs have to be more inherently different than book sequels, so in a sense they aren't really sequels because they don't continue the same song. Not most of them. Not really. Not as far as I can tell.
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posted
Hi guys, I've busy making a living this week (no, NOT by writing, unfortunately) and have missed an awful lot! I also just discovered Frank Frazetta from reading this thread, and I used to live across the Delaware River from the museum. Thanks for that reference - I'll be going there on my next trip east.
True, only the written word (including movies and songs based on a writer's vision)can generate true sequels, but I love the way some of us took the concept and expanded it. Writers get inspiration from all kinds of places, and others' writing is only one of them.
While we're at the relationship between works of art - What would you call Alabama's "Sweet Home Alabama" response to Neil Young's "Southern Man?"
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