Music.

Who is this mysterious The Dopefish, and from whence does he come?

Whenever I hear people talk about music, especially where it's going or where it's been, they invariably start naming off dozens of semi-obscure bands, lauding the ones that stayed small while talking smack about the sellouts that got out of the garage.

If your tastes are confined largely to a specific genre, espeically one outside the mainstream, it's hard to talk about music in the same way, since no one will have heard of your favorites, and you'll be clueless as to some of the current "it" groups.

I'm into instrumental music, from movies or games; it's what brought me to Gamingforce. It's a lot like classical music in a lot of ways, but has a more modern sensibility (and, occasionally, instruments) that modern ears may find more palletable. It's essentially modern classical music, and the number of media products produced means that I get 2-4 50-70 min CD's from my favorite artists every year.

In VGM, the trend is twofold; toward higher-quality symphonic music on the one hand, toward the greater use of licenced popular music on the other. One of those trends is the dawning of a new golden age, while the other is God's punishment for a cruel world.

In filmmusik, the trend is toward wider score availibility, but declining score quality. More and more scores are being rejected and replaced at the last minute, and score factories like Media Ventures are increasingly popular. It's a worrisome trend, since it views the music as an inconsequential product, something that can be thrown together at the last minute.

Jam it back in, in the dark.