AngelCityOutlaw

I do think the pendulum is finally swinging back. I was at a film festival last weekend and talking with the producer of a film I'm currently scoring and a director it was interesting. The producer was talking about how most all of the films at the festival would have ambient scores. We were all talking then about John Williams, Goldmsith, etc. and my work and then the guy had this pained look in his eyes, shook his head and said "...I just love orchestral scores." I think the new generation of film makers are into melodic orchestral scores, but there's not many people making them and doing it well. I'm basically the only one in my area. Film and game makers can only work with what's on offer. But I don't expect the Zimmerites of the world, especially those making a lot of money, to allow that pendulum to swing without a serious fight.

I think the real question here is "Can someone with aphantasia be an aesthete?" Possibly. I don't know that it's ever been studied, but I do suspect it is comparatively rare. I've always had hyper-phantasia and like most of that sort, was shocked to learn that this isn't the norm. I definitely believe it must be better to have this ability than not. My opinion on musical composition and art is that great works are the product of technical craftsmanship (which can be taught) meeting with an strong sense of aesthetic taste (which cannot be taught, but is understood fairly universally by those who experience it.) Since the latter is innate, I suspect there is a strong correlation with hyper-phantasia and aesthetes. So I would bet money that the greatest composers and artists had hyperphantasia. While it might not afflict ones ability to enjoy or recognize beauty, it probably does affect one's ability to reliably create it.

I saw an article today that actually surprised me. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/10/playstation-is-trying-to-scrub-any-mention-of-its-failed-concerts-from-the-internet Sony has canceled and is basically trying to bury that they were doing a tour of video game music from some of their biggest titles at present. This is the first time I'm aware of a video game music concert tour, of mainly orchestra music, being shelved due to a lack of interest. Some are saying a lack of marketing is to blame; others that the music isn't great. I can see the former possibly being true, but I can't see the latter. If Hans Zimmer, Nobuo Uematsu, & Slayer can still have sold-out concerts, then "meh" music can't be the problem here. Also, the Uncharted series I think was on the bill, and it actually has some good music. What it got me thinking about though, is that it seems to me like video game music, just in general, doesn't seem to be as popular as it was ~15 years ago. One of the first online music communities geared towards composers and studio musicians I ever joined was OCReMix, probably about 2012 or so. Back then, every college age person wanted to be either a video game composer or was going to "Video Games Live" and trying to get a Remix past the judges panel. New people came all the time. The former hasn't changed. Plenty of young musicians are still falling for the trap of video games being a golden field of opportunity, but last I checked out OCR, it's basically still the same people who were there in 2015 making remixes. VGL hasn't toured near me in years, so far as I know. I used to go annually with friends, but even 10 years ago, I noticed they weren't drawing as big of crowds each passing year. This is quite a shift as articles 10 years ago were boasting about how "Video Game Music Saved The Symphony Orchestra". In 2015, this Playstation touring orchestral concerts would've been a license to print money. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-videogames-are-saving-the-symphony-orchestra-1444696737 My hypothesis is that in the 2010s, there were nostalgic millennials still high on the '90s and 2000s video game soundtracks, which were great. A lot of millennials were big on gaming, but I don't think Gen Z is as much. From what I see of Gen Z playing games, they usually only play big franchises and social games like Fortnite, GTA and sports games. So, I think that they aren't as familiar with games where a soundtrack that "slaps" is noteworthy, and the millennials are now all middle-aged and either grew out of gaming or just simply don't have the time to go to VGM concerts anymore. But maybe I'm wrong and it's stilling secretly booming somwhere. Curious to know YC's thoughts, since I know there are VGM fans here.

Outside of rock guitar solos (and even then I prefer not to), I never use an improvisation as a complete melody. Personally, I dislike improvisation. I see composing music as the sonic equivalent to sculpting marble or painting on canvas. It is something that is shaped and refined until it realizes a vision. I think it was Michelangelo who said "I saw the angel in the marble and I sculpted until I set him free". I believe that should be the approach to composing music, and as far as I am aware, it is how all the greatest works were composed.

Thanks a lot man, I appreciate it! I'm actually quite busy with music at the moment. I'm presently in the middle of writing music for a new horror film that will be doing the festival rounds next year, a couple short pieces for a local documentary and actually just finishing up the next album: A Gothic/Dark Orchestral album for which I actually managed to recruit some grammy-nominated string players for.

Thanks a lot, Peter.

So this is the article that basically the entire composer world is talking about right now. Curious to hear everyone's thoughts. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/aug/24/composer-john-williams-never-liked-film-music-very-much My own take: I think Williams should remember he resigned from I believe it was the Boston Orchestra in the '80s because they didn't take him seriously since he wrote film music. Then, the orchestra scrambled to convince him to stay. Is he now saying that they were right? Whether we like it or not, music has rarely ever broken through on its own. It almost always requires attachment to some larger cultural vehicle to get noticed. That's why I think that most of what John is saying is simply sour grapes that people don't much care about his concert works. His great film works all stand on their own and orchestras around the world play them because that's what people want to hear. He says "what we think of as this precious great film music is … we’re remembering it in some kind of nostalgic way …" That's true of literally all music ever, regardless of quality. Williams himself has a nostalgia for these classical composers who inspired him in the same way that a boomer will tell you that you should envy them for growing up in the '60s with "the best music", and then play some of the most unlistenable Bob Dylan garbage you've ever heard. There are a lot of bad film scores, sure — but I will argue there has been even more garbage written for the concert hall, especially in the early 20th century. And even romantic era composers considered greats didn't have nonstop bangers all the time. Plenty of times in the music of Holst, Tchaikovsky, etc. you have more atmospheric or mood-building sections and not even every piece Beethoven ever composed was greatly memorable. Further, for as long as music has been around, it has been used to tell stories. This idea that when it is then composed to help tell a visual story, that this somehow renders it innately inferior, is a nonsensical belief. Especially when no one seems to take this position regarding scores that were composed for Opera and Ballet.

Nice. Looking forward to the live version

I added another track to the OP: Sleepless in Shangri-La, a cinematic rock piece.

Hey everyone, Here are a few tracks from my new album aimed at TV and Film licensing. Once again focused on the action/adventure genre, but this one has a greater focus on modern cinematic music and fusions of genres from around the world. Everything from new age, to rock, to latin pop and inspired by films like National Treasure, Tomb Raider, 007, Pirates and more. Hope you all enjoy it. I'll update the thread as I upload a couple more tracks to the ol' YouTube, but in the meantime, if you want to check out the rest of it, you can listen on spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/5VacPSF2HmD200E2NKCZmx Thank you.

Thanks Peter! I'm not familiar with Outlaw Star, but I have heard some of the music from cowboy bepop. As I recall some of the composers from the Shinobi games originally worked under Joe Hisaishi, who went on to score studio Ghibli films, and I've always kinda heard a bit of his influence in the games.

The new ninja gaiden game's music is some of the best game music I've heard since the 2000s.

I don't have much to do with cover tunes or video game music these days, but with new Ninja Gaidens and Shinobi games coming out, it appears 2025 is indeed the year the ninja master returned. I have better gear than they did back in '93, so I arranged the theme from Shinobi 3 in the '80s martial arts film score style I believe they were going for on that old Sega soundchip!

Nice. Congrats on the album I have subscribed