Skip to Main Content

Bits and Pieces: A History of Chiptunes

Online ISBN:
9780190496135
Print ISBN:
9780190496098
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Bits and Pieces: A History of Chiptunes

Kenneth B. McAlpine
Kenneth B. McAlpine

Melbourne Enterprise Fellow in Interactive Composition

Melbourne Enterprise Fellow in Interactive Composition, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne
Find on
Published online:
22 November 2018
Published in print:
27 December 2018
Online ISBN:
9780190496135
Print ISBN:
9780190496098
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book explores the development of and the social, cultural, and historical context of chiptune, a form of electronic music that emerged from the first generation of video game consoles and home computers in the 1980s. Through a combination of musical and procedural analysis and practitioner interviews, the book explores the role the technical constraints of early video game hardware played in shaping the sound of 8-bit video game music and the inventive approaches to coding and composition musicians used to circumvent them. It examines the sounds, culture, and personalities behind the music and shows how chiptune links as closely to the music of Bach as to the aggressive posturing of punk or the driving electronic sounds of house. The book begins by looking at chiptune’s roots in video game music and discusses how, as the sound chips that gave rise to its distinctive voice were superseded by more sophisticated hardware, chiptune moved underground to become an important part of the demoscene, a networked community of digital artists. It discusses chiptune’s reemergence in the late 1990s as a new wave of young musicians rediscovered these obsolete machines and began to use them as quirky and characterful musical instruments, in the process taking chiptune from the desktop and placing it centre stage. The book concludes by contemplating what lies ahead; as more people incorporate the chiptune sound into their work, will it ever hit the mainstream or will it remain firmly countercultural as part of the digital underground?

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close