Recently, one of my all-time favorite bands, Muse had a new album come out, and its release reminded me of something that a lot of consumers, especially in this day and age, forget: Creatives can make whatever the heck they want.
Too often I hear fans complain about a creative's new work. When J.K. Rowling released The Casual Vacancy, I heard people gripe about how she should have written another fantasy, or specifically a Harry Potter sequel. One person even said if she had any business sense and wanted to make more money, that that's what she should have done. I once read an article where the writer couldn't understand why J.K. Rowling was even writing anymore; she'd already made so much money writing Harry Potter so why would she want to put in the work to write anything else?
Similarly, I saw people a little upset to learn that Suzanne Collins's (author of The Hunger Games) next writing project was going to be something "ordinary" and "boring."
Months ago, I was looking at Spotify with someone and we ran into a Lady Gaga album, Cheek to Cheek. All the songs had a very "old-fashioned" jazz sound. Nothing sounded modern. The person I was with said something like, "Why would she even make an album like this? No one is going to buy it. I bet her fans were all disappointed."
Well, here is a newsflash for all the consumers out there. Creatives don't exist to serve us.
They don't owe us a thing.