Sometimes hard rock can really enhance a song and a situation, but this wasn’t one of those times since despite being impressive, the Mos Eisley Cantina song kind of needed to be as unobtrusive as possible since hard rock would have definitely taken away from the whole scene since it would have filled the area and not allowed for a lot of other sounds to make its way through. Yes, the argument can be made that there is such a thing as drowning out the sound in order to let people talk, but when was the last time you managed to speak quietly when hard rock is playing only a short distance away? Plus, there is the fact that George Lucas wouldn’t have allowed this on the set anyway since hard rock would have been something that was thought to not belong in the movies. Classical music was still one of the more popular choices for movies like Star Wars, and it still kind of is really since it’s not as obtrusive and it tends to build things up rather than take them over as hard rock does. It’s very possible for hard rock to build up a situation and make it appear a lot more serious, but that wasn’t what was needed in the cantina.
It was pretty impressive to hear this tune played out in a different manner since it’s one of the many tracks that’s been played over and over throughout the history of Star Wars since it had the distinction of being one of the first tunes that was played in the original trilogy. There’s no doubt that it’s been played over and over by thousands of fans and possibly more since there are plenty of hardcore Star Wars fans that love just about everything that has to do with the movies and would gladly learn this tune on a number of different instruments. Hard rock is definitely one of the more interesting ways to hear this though and it’s great since in a different setting it would probably work, but in the Star Wars franchise, it’s not likely to ever happen since the directors obviously can’t find a spot to make it work since anything and everything has to be exotic in some way and to be sure, trying to argue with this is kind of pointless since a lot of Star Wars fans would probably lean in the same direction and state that it just doesn’t fit. But for one reason or another, it does feel as though it should at least be attempted in order to make certain that it doesn’t fit before saying absolutely not without trying.
Star Wars has worked as it has for so long thanks to a number of reasons, and the music is one of them since the classical tracks that have been laid down to convey emotion and give the various situations the necessary urgency they needed. Plus, hard rock isn’t always deemed as one of the best background sounds for a lot of movies for a few reasons, one of those being the one I laid out above. The sound does tend to take over in a big way and it does manage to make it hard to focus on anything else. Hard rock is great for action movies that can make the best use of it, especially when there’s no need for dialogue at the moment and the action is hard-hitting and needs something that’s going to accentuate it and possibly fill up the scene. It sounds silly to say fill up anything when discussing music, but the truth is that the sound does tend to fill a room in a big way, just as anything with enough body to it can do. Some people still don’t grasp that idea in this day and age which is kind of funny, but the reality is that if a track is filled with the type of sounds that can overwhelm or at least stimulate the senses, meaning that it can be heard as well as felt, then it’s very possible for that sound to fill a room and make everything else feel as though it’s a part of that moment. Some people get this, others still have trouble with it, but the experience itself is intense since upon stepping into that type of moment one can feel the music either hammering them or accepting them into the bubble of sound that’s been created. Once you leave that bubble you can feel it as the sound tends to let go and becomes a little more distant.
Star Wars is definitely better served with classical music, but every now and then it’s nice to hear when someone contributes something that’s different and can create a different sound for one of the many tracks.
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