When Pop Superstars Flirt With Chip (Page 1 of 5)

Ukulele is still cool to me even though Train came out with "Hey Soul Sister" and Tiny Tim existed. Any underground scene that wants greater recognition and gets it is inevitably going to have to weather this storm.

Edit: Also, what is "lazy vocals"? The average vocals I've heard in chiptune weren't any less lazy than anything in a comparable mainstream pop/rock/metal/hip-hop song. Subject matter is pretty much the same, melodic style is pretty standard. Being able to hold a note for more than 0.5s without having to do intense meditation =/= laziness.

Edit edit: Also, of course there are shining exceptions to the standard in all cases.

Last edited by SketchMan3 (Aug 13, 2012 1:59 am)

Well, storms bring rain, don't they? Water the flowers, man... gotta water them flowers... even if a few trees get blown over in the process...

Last edited by SketchMan3 (Aug 13, 2012 1:58 am)

By lazy vocals I just meant 'weak' or 'supported'. Neither Britney nor Madonna have stunning vocal ranges and 'lazy' seemed like the best word to sum up the combination of their tones, elements of 'talk-singing' and digital assistance. I didn't mean any disrespect to either artist, in fact I own 22.5 hours of Britney Spears music. She's everything.

That would be a considerable plus, potential recognition for chip artists who deserve it. Although again, like with dubstep, the current big pop producers may just adapt to the new genre, and leave a lot of people in the dust.

Nice analogy!

I don't mean to be that jaded jerk here, but pop stars using basic waveforms in their songs is definitely NOT co-opting chiptune. I'm pretty sure the producers in question don't even really have any clue what "chiptune" is; the sounds sound cool and so they're going to use it. Definition arguments aside (let's REALLY not get into this guys), I don't think chiptune as a form is co-optable, and chiptune as an aesthetic is such a slippery slope that anyone using basic waveforms could be called "chiptune."

I think the connection to the use of dubstep in music is questionable. Dubstep is foremost a form, secondly an aesthetic. That's why you can have stuff like Burial coexisting in the same genre space as Skrillex; the aesthetics are completely different, but the form is the same. I don't think that's the case with chiptune -- in fact, it could be argued that the form is so connected to the aesthetic that an artist can't make a song with chiptune in it; they have to make a CHIPTUNE SONG. And yes, there's a difference.

If anything, the use of these basic waveforms in pop music is less CHIPTUNE BECOMING MAINSTREAM and more producers running out of ideas for weird-ass sounds to put in their pop music. We had the funk-ass instrumentals with Timbaland, and we had the hyper-produced euro-pop with David Guetta (and like every K-Pop song in existence (it's so good omg)), and now producers are getting back to their roots, except we had about 10-20 years of context to cover for the fact that yes, these producers didn't even put any fundamentals in their waveform, shut up, it's music. Everyone's already singing about the end of the world and the collapse of civilization -- we might as well collapse the resolutions of waveforms with it.

/thread

I just listened to both songs. the sounds are just the same sounds producers have been using for over 20 years on pop music. these are the basic "SQUARE BASS" and "SUPER SAW" type sounds that come stock on pretty much every synth plug in ever.

I also just scrolled Nadia's tumblr. I think I have cancer now.

"""True, but should it really be considered weathering a 'storm'? Surely if chiptune does break the mainstream like dubstep did, some good, even amazing content will come of it. Not everyone who jumps on the bandwagon can get it wrong, can they?"""

You are clearly a moron. What good possibly came out of the pop explosion of dubstep ??? They killed a great aestetic with shitty brostep for drunk kids. Now you got ebven the old dudes at the helm of its birth making that utter shit as magnetic man........ That stuff you are referring to as 'dubstep' isn't really dubstep. Its just commercial pop/edm music.....as are these audio turds by madonna and britney spears. Would i like to see Calvin Harris make a fucking 8 bit tune w Dizzee Rascal ? No i would not.