Time is of the essence. Really.
Fans and superfans alike can attest to this story: sometimes your favorite content creators and musicians cannot come out with the goods quick enough. Nothing pains us more than when an artist gives us a tease or promises material and we’re left hanging- no song, no movie, nothing.
Why do artists do this? Is it to create suspension? To circumvent their genuine followers from the crowd? Make them so deprived that we will be content with any sort of thing they put out?
We can ask, does that really work? Does creating an excessive amount of time between projects a strategic marketing move or does it hurt?
In the last December of 2022, R&B fans were graced with SZA’s second studio album SOS, five years after her debut album Ctrl. At this point, fans were desperate for more emotionally relatable and passionate pieces that comforted them back in 2017. As a matter of fact, it became a trend on TikTok to show images of yourself when Ctrl released versus when SOS dropped. But here's the thing- the gut wrenching and tear jerking songs we would have benefitted from a couple years ago are a bit too late. Singles and features with SZA, like “I Hate U” and Summer Walker’s “No Love” served their purposes, but alas, we needed an album. Sound bites with her voice in an SNL skit about “Big Boys” became a crowd favorite because it gave us a hint as to what was to come soon with her album. We were searching for that savory R&B tone and those Szalations we’ve all come to snap our fingers and nod our heads to. SZA re-released Ctrl in June of 2022 with seven unreleased tracks and uncut versions of songs fans had heard before. This was satiating for a white, but SZA had promised fans a an entirely new album for quite a while at this point. Many fans speculated that the new album, which was loaded with 23 new tracks, was duped of its original summer release date because of Beyonce’s surprise release of Renaissance. Either that or SZA and her team were striving for perfection- but could that set up the album for heavy scrutiny? When Beyonce released her album, unsuspecting fans took in the album with open arms. I think SZA opened herself up towards more critical fans and expectations when she hinted at a new album multiple times just to release it much later.
Another example of timelines is Avatar: The Way of the Water, the sequel to Avatar. And although it’s hard to follow the highest-grossing film of all time, with a total earning of 2.749 billion during its seven week run, extending the time between the two films only heightened the expectations of fans. The original Avatar film was released in 2009- and its sequel was just recently released in 2022. The director, James Cameron (Titanic) explained in an interview with Variety that Way of the Water was so expensive that just so the film would break even (make profit) the film would have to become the 3rd or 4th top grossing film in all history. That’s over a decade of excitement and anticipation building from intrigued communities around the world. Fans were enthusiastic about the intricate CGI and graphics of the upcoming sequel, and by poll, the movie continued to leave audience members in awe of the vibrancy and realistic animation. But the continuing storyline seemed to fall short of intriguing and failed to meet these premeditated expectations. When discussing the film with many friends and family members I’ve learned that the sequel was similar to a fish aquarium; pretty to look at but not worth watching for three-plus hours. The thing is, the years worth of build-up towards the movie ended up being its demise. The epic proportions of the first movie’s conflict and plot could not be sustained in the second one.
Black Widow was destined for critical audiences since it featured a female superhero, but because of the delay of the movie’s production, the movie had to also face scrutiny for messing up the MCU timeline. Firstly, the misogynistic weariness to produce the movie about the female avenger completely turned away viewers. Secondly, the movie featured a character that had already died in the Marvel Phase One timeline (sorry for the spoiler). The movie was promised to fans early on, and not as a prequel.
There can be instances in which time is a good thing though, aiding the artists and producers with their work. Building anticipation, not expectations. It is all about the creators being intentional with what they tell their audiences and how much they tease us.
Obviously, Beyonce has many more years under her belt as a diva of the music industry in comparison to SZA, but she is an example in which the waiting game proves to be beneficial. Because it has been seven years since Beyonce’s Lemonade World Tour, she is “allowed“ to have the astronomical prices of the Renaissance World Tour tickets. Beyonce and her crew has built anticipation that is incomparable and fans are willing to sell whatever they must to afford her show tickets.
This goes for Taylor Swift as well. Her fans broke Ticketmaster when her tour tickets went on sale. The pop icon’s last tour was in 2018 and within that time frame she’s released studio albums Lover, Folklore, and Evermore, thus always keeping her fans entertained and not restless.
Not a dry eye was around when Rihanna released “Lift Me Up” for the Black Panther sequel. Previously, she was able to establish that her focus has been on other projects and her personal life, thus fans were not expecting much music from her. But when the song dropped, expectation was replaced with gratuity.
All in all, time is a fickle thing to mess with. I think it is in the benefit of creators when they build anticipation from their fans instead of teasing them. When we place our trust into creators, it's because we’re excited for what they are going to give us. To us, it’s not a game.
Anyways, here’s a continuation of projects that should be weary of their ticking timers:
The movie adaptation of WICKED, which was previously announced in 2016.
Frank Ocean’s next album (Omar Apollo made his move, fans are prepared for something equally emotional)
Rihannah’s Super Bowl Performance. Right now she’s in the clear, but everyone is on the edge of their seats for this half-time show.
The fifth season of Stranger Things: the release date has been delayed till 2025. But let's be so honest, it’s getting more and more difficult to make it seem as if those kids actors only aged a year instead of five.
