| Chiptune | |
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| Cultural origins | Late 1970s to early 1980s, Japan, US |
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Chiptune, also known as 8-bit music, is a style of electronic music produced from sound chips, inspired by video game music and sounds, mostly that of the 1980s to early 1990s. During this era, video games and microcomputers began to acquire the ability to synthesize music and sound effects beyond basic beeps. Several custom integrated circuits were developed which contained the guts of a very basic analog synthesizer, and interfaced it to the system's I/O bus so that software could control it and synchronize music and effects with the game video.
Because the circuits were fairly primitive, they produced a characteristic sound. Many of them consisted only of a very basic VCO capable of only a square wave output, a noise source, and a VCA. Often there was no filtering capability, so everything came out with the nasal sound of the raw square wave. The application software had to perform any desired modulation, and that frequently meant no modulation since the software often could not spare the CPU cycles to do it.
The Ricoh 2A03 (NES), Game Boy chip, Atari POKEY and Commodore SID are frequently used sources for creating chiptunes. Since the actual ICs are long out of production and very difficult to obtain, a number of emulators have been developed, most in the form of soft synths.
History[]
Chiptune music has origins in Japanese video games developed during the late 1970s to early 1980s. Early milestones include Taito's Gun Fight (1975) and Space Invaders (1978) developed by Tomohiro Nishikado, Namco's Rally-X and Pac-Man (1980) composed by Toshio Kai, Sega's Super Locomotive (1982) composed by Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), and Konami's Gyruss (1983).
The first pop group to incorporate video game sounds into their music were the Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) in the late 1970s. In turn, YMO had a significant impact on the development of chiptune and video game music during the 1980s to 1990s.
The earliest commercial chiptune records, produced from either sampling video game sounds or using computer sound chips, were produced by Japanese electronic musicians in the 1980s. Early examples include Ryo Kawasaki's Lucky Lady (1983)[3][4] and YMO member Haruomi Hosono's Video Game Music (1984).[5] Another early example of a chiptune record is Magical Power Mako's Magical Computer Music (1985), which was composed using a Yamaha MSX computer with a Yamaha FM sound chip.[6]
References[]
- ↑ DJ Zobe (January 7, 2014). "The Asian Electronic Music Connection: Germany had Kraftwerk, Japan had Yellow Magic Orchestra". The Microscopic Giant. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
- ↑ https://shmuplations.com/yuzokoshiro/
- ↑ Thomas, Andy (22 April 2021). "A Look Back at Fusion Legend Ryo Kawasaki, Who Pioneered the Synth Guitar". Bandcamp Daily. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ↑ "8 Tracks: Of 80s Japanese Funky Synth Fusion W/ Kay Suzuki". Ransom Note. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ↑ Haruomi Hosono – Video Game Music at Discogs (list of releases)
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzD08I_VbVk