Chiptune Music, Deterioration or Evolution of the Musical Genre.

MalMog

Okay, so I JUSt got into 8 bit chiptune music, and to say that I'm hooked would be an understatement. I don't know if it's the nostalgia of the tunes drumming along my head reminding me of older times (and broken controllers) or just the fact that the integration of such primitive music with awesome instruments guarantees an epic frenzy of dance and movement. I'm wondering if people who've never even played video games, would they like Anamanaguchi and Alex Mauer? I can't really test the theory as pretty much everyone I've known is familiar to the tunes of 8 bit music. Was just wondering what you guys thought of the whole situation, and is it an evolution or a deterioration of music as we know it. I like to prefer it as this separate entity altogether.

And on that note, any recommendations? I've only listened to Anamanaguchi and the PATV songs. Loved them all so far.

Narian

virt and RushJet1 are my two favourites.

Talleyrand

If there is such a thing as deterioration of music then this isn't it. And I don't see what would prompt such an idea.

As to whether or not it's non-gamer music; I live in a pretty small city that has very little going on in local experimental music. One of few things we do have is IAYD From what I hear he's a pretty big deal whenever he plays over at Houston, New York or California. I've been to quite a few of his shows here in town and while there are a few people coming in from other cities (which is a strange trend that's been going on for awhile now) most of the crowd doesn't strike me as the chiptune type. Basically, it's something you can really dance to, so yeah, you don't have to be an old-school gamer to appreciate it.

Wassermelone

I don't get the basic premise of the thread... deterioration? Huh? Who would think that that wasn't born 100 years ago?

dispatch.o

Talleyrand wrote: »

If there is such a thing as deterioration of music then this isn't it. And I don't see what would prompt such an idea.

As to whether or not it's non-gamer music; I live in a pretty small city that has very little going on in local experimental music. One of few things we do have is

[video]

From what I hear he's a pretty big deal whenever he plays over at Houston, New York or California. I've been to quite a few of his shows here in town and while there are a few people coming in from other cities (which is a strange trend that's been going on for awhile now) most of the crowd doesn't strike me as the chiptune type. Basically, it's something you can really dance to, so yeah, you don't have to be an old-school gamer to appreciate it.

I don't know about the music, but his hair is offensive and I can't help but want to yell at him to cut the shit or tie it back while he's trying to perform. Any sort of performance of music that you can spend as much time fucking with your hair as you do pushing buttons needs some rethinking.

Kagera

Is this like when people sing songs while sounding like Alvin & The Chipmunks?

Mosati

Talleyrand wrote: »

If there is such a thing as deterioration of music then this isn't it. And I don't see what would prompt such an idea.

As to whether or not it's non-gamer music; I live in a pretty small city that has very little going on in local experimental music. One of few things we do have is IAYD From what I hear he's a pretty big deal whenever he plays over at Houston, New York or California. I've been to quite a few of his shows here in town and while there are a few people coming in from other cities (which is a strange trend that's been going on for awhile now) most of the crowd doesn't strike me as the chiptune type. Basically, it's something you can really dance to, so yeah, you don't have to be an old-school gamer to appreciate it.

That was....

Horrible.

Godfather

No offense man, but Random's music kicks the shit out of the video posted above

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LsROsZCGag

firewaterword

Do people consider Crystal Castles this? Because I fucking love that Crystal Castles CD. With a couple exceptions.

I'd listen to all of the stuff posted but I have Jessica by the Allman Bros playing, and if I cut that off to play whatever is happening in here I'd burn in hell and deserve it.

Talleyrand

Godfather wrote: »

No offense man, but Random's music kicks the shit out of the video posted above

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LsROsZCGag

You're right that was pretty amazing but to be fair I believe IAYD is around 18 and the fact that he's flying out of a bodunk little city to do shows in New York is pretty amazing. And I personally prefer something a little harder to dance to.

dispatch.o wrote:

I don't know about the music, but his hair is offensive and I can't help but want to yell at him to cut the shit or tie it back while he's trying to perform. Any sort of performance of music that you can spend as much time fucking with your hair as you do pushing buttons needs some rethinking.

you must not listen to a lot of glam rock.

fireqaterword wrote:

Do people consider Crystal Castles this? Because I fucking love that Crystal Castles CD. With a couple exceptions.

Oh yeah definitely. The only difference I see between them and most chiptune artists is the extra instruments and vocals but they're also the only mainstream chiptune artists I can think of off the top of my head.

Godfather

Glam Rock is not an argument point.


I'm going to forget that you mentioned it and all will be well.

Scalfin

Talleyrand wrote: »

dispatch.o wrote:

I don't know about the music, but his hair is offensive and I can't help but want to yell at him to cut the shit or tie it back while he's trying to perform. Any sort of performance of music that you can spend as much time fucking with your hair as you do pushing buttons needs some rethinking.

you must not listen to a lot of glam rock.

That's one of those historical music fads, right? Like rockabilly, P-funk, and frottola?

Podly

Gimmicky. Really all that chiptunes is is bitcrushed square waves and various samples at a commodore 64 sample rate. It just pulls on the old heart strings, and really nothing more.

Also, they tend to cut through a mix pretty well.

But, yeah, I hate chiptunes.

Fatboy Roberts

Honestly, it's hard to point at chiptune as either an advancement or deterioration because it just doesn't have the audience outside of a pretty small niche. There's simply not enough cultural impact to shift the musical landscape one way or the other.

It's a perfectly valid genre of music, though. But I prefer it blended with traditional instrumentation, be it live musicians or sampled recordings.

Candlemass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFJPXNL_2s
Disasterpeace is one of the best I'm familiar with at the moment.

Scalfin

Fatboy Roberts wrote: »

Honestly, it's hard to point at chiptune as either an advancement or deterioration because it just doesn't have the audience outside of a pretty small niche. There's simply not enough cultural impact to shift the musical landscape one way or the other.

It's a perfectly valid genre of music, though. But I prefer it blended with traditional instrumentation, be it live musicians or sampled recordings.

It's also hard to call it the evolution or advancement of music when it uses methods and tools that are about as current as early music ensembles.

MalMog

I don't know, I just get the feeling that music is travelling a bit backwards in the trends. I'm noticing alot of synth in songs nowadays. (like 80's pop synth) and some artists are actually using chiptunes here and there. I just figured it was pretty interesting because I always sense there's a sort of trend that goes on in music. The most recent example is the transformation of pop in this decade. Back in the 90s you had the Backstreet Boys singing about love and affection with synchronized voices. Now it's Lady Gaga and Ke$ha talking about how much they need to get laid in a heavily distorted voice. That is today's Pop. You guys are right though, chiptunes is niche-y and there's no such thing as devolution when it comes to music. I think I should have phrased it a bit differently (as is it going back in the trends or forwards)
The recommendations are pretty awesome. As for IAYD sucking, the first 3 minutes sound okay.

Fatboy Roberts

I do think it's sorta funny that in the 70's/80's, we spent a lot of time wondering what music in "The Future" was gonna sound like. And then in 2010, it turns out that "The future" sounds like us remixing our guesses from 1980.

MalMog

That's EXACTLY what I'm talking about!

Echo

Ah yes, Crystal Castles. The plagiarist that stole chiptunes from other artists.

And just ignore Podly's terribad hipster opinions.

Godfather wrote: »

No offense man, but Random's music kicks the shit out of the video posted above

No offense man, but Random's Spontaneous Devotion kicks the shit out of the video posted above

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz9FkYrhdfU

The latest mind.in.a.box album starts with a great Last Ninja 3 cover. The entire album is pretty much a loving tribute to ye olde SID chip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi1975dSO7k

Compare that to the original C64 version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyH8f-bW-FY

WotanAnubis

I have no real opinion about the deterioration or evolution thing, but I do have to say that this genre (however niche it may be) does make me feel a bit vindicated.

As a gamer growing up in a largely incredibly non-gamer family, people frequently wondered how I could possibly enjoy those 'meaningless beeps and boops'. As if it didn't count as music if it wasn't performed by 'proper' instruments. That attitude always annoyed me so much. :x

Echo

WotanAnubis wrote: »

As a gamer growing up in a largely incredibly non-gamer family, people frequently wondered how I could possibly enjoy those 'meaningless beeps and boops'. As if it didn't count as music if it wasn't performed by 'proper' instruments. That attitude always annoyed me so much. :x

Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, David Whittaker and Chris Hülsbeck: I raise a toast (of cola, being the only thing readily available) to you for being the pioneers in video game music and being largely responsible for video game music evolving from vague rhythmic background bleeps to actual music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT2GEVqsomQ

MalMog

Echo wrote: »

Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, David Whittaker and Chris Hülsbeck: I raise a toast (of cola, being the only thing readily available) to you for being the pioneers in video game music and being largely responsible for video game music evolving from vague rhythmic background bleeps to actual music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT2GEVqsomQ

Salut!

Nocturne

How about a combination of chiptunes and Swedish metal?

Because I am a fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKkmyMKbPKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9HDOI76zj8

MalaysianShrew

I thought this was going to be about Hot Chip. It turns out it is much worse.

Hot Chip is catchy sometimes, though. I guess.

Armored Gorilla

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euLdKW_Db1k

Steev

I'll have to check this thread when I get home later to listen to some of the stuff posted in here. I've really only heard some of virt's stuff and Anamanaguchi, but I enjoy it.

edit: oh right, and I've heard that Moon 8 thing too.

Echo

There is a decent chunk of Swedish artists that use chip influences. Thermostatic makes nice stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN_tTzUfBXk

JHunz

Nocturne wrote: »

How about a combination of chiptunes and Swedish metal?

Because I am a fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKkmyMKbPKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9HDOI76zj8

I remember them! They did that fantastic soundtrack for Jets&Guns.

UncleSporky

Fatboy Roberts wrote: »

Honestly, it's hard to point at chiptune as either an advancement or deterioration because it just doesn't have the audience outside of a pretty small niche. There's simply not enough cultural impact to shift the musical landscape one way or the other.

It's a perfectly valid genre of music, though. But I prefer it blended with traditional instrumentation, be it live musicians or sampled recordings.

So more like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ6vRE4lVNw

Page-

Echo wrote: »

Ah yes, Crystal Castles. The plagiarist that stole chiptunes from other artists.

This is a myth that should have died a long time ago.

They SAMPLED one track for a b-side that they never even released AND gave full credit.

That said, now that they're back and touring we might get a new album. Which is great, because they're great.

proXimity

The only person I've really agreed with here is Podly. While I can't find chiptunes to be the deterioration of music (it's still generally way more musical that say, rap), it really is an entire genre of music based on the nostalgia of old gamers. Really, plain sine/square/sawtooth/triangle waves are pretty damn dull and tediously uncomplex in their sound. If old video game systems had been more capable, and had been able to process real audio (and had room to store it), this entire genre would never exist.

Page-

Chiptunes can be pretty meh by themselves, but the 8-bit sound is just something else for artists and producers to play with. Crystal Castles took the idea of chiptunes and incorporated it into (marginally) mainstream electronic music, and it works great.

If Timbaland and 50 Cent can chart a song built around an 8-bit synth then I'm going to assume that's more than Mario Bros. nostalgia.

Podly

Page- wrote: »

Chiptunes can be pretty meh by themselves, but the 8-bit sound is just something else for artists and producers to play with. Crystal Castles took the idea of chiptunes and incorporated it into (marginally) mainstream electronic music, and it works great.

If Timbaland and 50 Cent can chart a song built around an 8-bit synth then I'm going to assume that's more than Mario Bros. nostalgia.

Like I said

Bitcrushed square waves really cut through a mix. I guarantee you that's why La Roux's producer used them on her song, and it has the added advantage of being nerd-chic.

Arch

I love chiptunes, 8-bit sound, whatever you want to call it.

one of my favorite styles of music

Page-

Podly wrote: »

Page- wrote: »

Chiptunes can be pretty meh by themselves, but the 8-bit sound is just something else for artists and producers to play with. Crystal Castles took the idea of chiptunes and incorporated it into (marginally) mainstream electronic music, and it works great.

If Timbaland and 50 Cent can chart a song built around an 8-bit synth then I'm going to assume that's more than Mario Bros. nostalgia.

Like I said

Bitcrushed square waves really cut through a mix. I guarantee you that's why La Roux's producer used them on her song, and it has the added advantage of being nerd-chic.

I understand that. But I don't see your point. You can mix music any way you want, and there are plenty of sounds that will cut through and be more obvious than the rest. If you're going to be using an 8-bit synth then you probably know how it's going to sound, and that must be what you want. Do you think people will be suddenly attracted to it just because they can hear some 8-bit noise? It's about as gimmicky as any other trick a producer might use.

For a bit of reverse action, I've never been able to sit through Single Ladies. There's this godamn angry seal barking in the background that I was SURE was a joke or something when I heard it on the radio. But it's really there and it adds nothing at all to the song. What the hell is up with that?

tinwhiskers

firewaterword wrote: »

I'd listen to all of the stuff posted but I have Jessica by the Allman Bros playing, and if I cut that off to play whatever is happening in here I'd burn in hell and deserve it.

Now imagine if Jessica sounded like it was made by people who just started playing guitar, boom-> ChipRock. Thats the thing that baffles me about this genre of music. In terms of electronic music Chiptunes is the kid playing chopsticks and hot cross buns vs Chopin.

Armored Gorilla wrote: »

abortion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euLdKW_Db1k

Makes my point nicely for me, whoever did that needs to off themselves. Just listen to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU23IK34suQ&feature=related vs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYiahoYfPGk

hell skip the intro, go to 2:25, and try to compare them. edit Or better yet the interlude at 3:30.

Podly

Page- wrote: »

Podly wrote: »

Page- wrote: »

Chiptunes can be pretty meh by themselves, but the 8-bit sound is just something else for artists and producers to play with. Crystal Castles took the idea of chiptunes and incorporated it into (marginally) mainstream electronic music, and it works great.

If Timbaland and 50 Cent can chart a song built around an 8-bit synth then I'm going to assume that's more than Mario Bros. nostalgia.

Like I said

Bitcrushed square waves really cut through a mix. I guarantee you that's why La Roux's producer used them on her song, and it has the added advantage of being nerd-chic.

I understand that. But I don't see your point. You can mix music any way you want, and there are plenty of sounds that will cut through and be more obvious than the rest. If you're going to be using an 8-bit synth then you probably know how it's going to sound, and that must be what you want. Do you think people will be suddenly attracted to it just because they can hear some 8-bit noise? It's about as gimmicky as any other trick a producer might use.

For a bit of reverse action, I've never been able to sit through Single Ladies. There's this godamn angry seal barking in the background that I was SURE was a joke or something when I heard it on the radio. But it's really there and it adds nothing at all to the song. What the hell is up with that?

Like I said, it's just nostalgia, it's there for cultural currency.

As an aside, Single Ladies is one of the more brilliant pop-songs from recent memories. There's a lot of very, very clever stuff going on in that song.

Page-

Podly wrote: »

Page- wrote: »

Podly wrote: »

Page- wrote: »

Chiptunes can be pretty meh by themselves, but the 8-bit sound is just something else for artists and producers to play with. Crystal Castles took the idea of chiptunes and incorporated it into (marginally) mainstream electronic music, and it works great.

If Timbaland and 50 Cent can chart a song built around an 8-bit synth then I'm going to assume that's more than Mario Bros. nostalgia.

Like I said

Bitcrushed square waves really cut through a mix. I guarantee you that's why La Roux's producer used them on her song, and it has the added advantage of being nerd-chic.

I understand that. But I don't see your point. You can mix music any way you want, and there are plenty of sounds that will cut through and be more obvious than the rest. If you're going to be using an 8-bit synth then you probably know how it's going to sound, and that must be what you want. Do you think people will be suddenly attracted to it just because they can hear some 8-bit noise? It's about as gimmicky as any other trick a producer might use.

For a bit of reverse action, I've never been able to sit through Single Ladies. There's this godamn angry seal barking in the background that I was SURE was a joke or something when I heard it on the radio. But it's really there and it adds nothing at all to the song. What the hell is up with that?

Like I said, it's just nostalgia, it's there for cultural currency.

As an aside, Single Ladies is one of the more brilliant pop-songs from recent memories. There's a lot of very, very clever stuff going on in that song.

I still don't see the nostalgia angle. Ayo Technology is a club hit. You really think people going to clubs to listen to Fitty have any sort of 8-bit nostalgia? If you just don't like the sound I can dig that. And it's definitely going to come and go like every other musical trend.

I can appreciate Single Ladies EXCEPT for that sound. I do not understand it and it's so godamn distracting.

Podly

Page- wrote: »

You really think people going to clubs to listen to Fitty have any sort of 8-bit nostalgia

ummm...yes?

Page-

Well alright then.