BR1GHT PR1MATE
Offline
BOSTON

Chiptune is a dabblers genre to be sure, so many artists come and go of course. But something that I've found very interesting is that quite a few who were previously involved with the scene and "proper chiptune"* that have now "quit chiptune" or simply transitioned into other genres (mostly some form or another of EDM) still label themselves as "chiptune", do chip shows, etc., and generally carry on in a chiptune fashion despite supposedly being beyond all that.

Now I'm not passing judgement, nor is this aimed at anyone in particular (in fact I think its a good thing in certain regards and at the very least leads to a diversity of sound), but it is curious to me and I'm interested in other peoples thoughts on the matter.

Last edited by BR1GHT PR1MATE (May 18, 2013 7:25 am)

BR1GHT PR1MATE
Offline
BOSTON

I guess what puzzles me is... why? From my perspective, if someone is looking for chip music and does happen to somehow stumble on this mislabeled artist, they're just going to go "uhhh, this isn't chiptune" and move along. but thats just me.

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Personally I listen almost exclusively to tracker music, be it old democene stuff - 4-channel MOD or XM modules - or chiptune music. I listen to it daily and I have no sense of pop music of any era, even the era in which I grew up.

That said, I'm pretty sure there's a big part of the chiptune audience who are just looking for nostalgia and don't see the same depth and complexity that I do. I have a very wide appreciation for chiptune music and I'm not a 'purist', but if I hear something that's totally not chip I generally won't give it a lot of time if it claimed to be so. I'm a lot more open if the creator was more honest about the genre (but even then, I'm generally not likely to enjoy something that doesn't fit with my aesthetic).

However, I don't think the average person is like me. I think for most people, people who have a right to call themselves fans of chip music even, it's not about a deep love of chipmusic but about their own personal ideas on aesthetics and nostalgia.

Who knows, though. It's an interesting academic thought, but I'm not really too worried about it. People can do whatever they want with 'chiptune' because it won't chance the way that I make, perform, or listen to music.

On an only tangentially related note, I seeded "The Reality Chipmusic Love Industry" ages ago when you asked for seeders and only recently got around to really listening to it as a whole. Totally worth the effort in seeding!

Cooshinator
Offline
ohio gozaimasu

Any examples? I've never heard of someone moving on from chiptune and still claiming it's chiptune...

Lazerbeat
Offline
Tokyo, Japan
jefftheworld wrote:

Personally I listen almost exclusively to tracker music, be it old democene stuff - 4-channel MOD or XM modules - or chiptune music. I listen to it daily and I have no sense of pop music of any era, even the era in which I grew up.

You are totally my hero. I know this is a bit of a sidetrack, but do you have an Ipod or something full of rendered mods / xms you carry around?

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lazerbeat wrote:
jefftheworld wrote:

Personally I listen almost exclusively to tracker music, be it old democene stuff - 4-channel MOD or XM modules - or chiptune music. I listen to it daily and I have no sense of pop music of any era, even the era in which I grew up.

You are totally my hero. I know this is a bit of a sidetrack, but do you have an Ipod or something full of rendered mods / xms you carry around?

Yup, I've got a ton of them on my google play music account for playing on my various devices and and I also generally have a huge load of mod/xm with me and a mod/xm player on my phone.

Last edited by jefftheworld (May 18, 2013 5:13 pm)

XyNo
Offline
Joliette, QC, Canada

I feel you Jeff !!! I think I got more xm and sndh on my players than mp3s !!!

sleepytimejesse
Offline
Youngstown, OH

Guilty. I typically tag my other stuff chiptune if it has chiptune elements. My band has some chords and sound effects I created in famitracker interspersed in tracks of our new EP, the hip hop thing I'm currently doing has some chip sounds, my ambient piano album has sega megadrive samples, etc.

While I love pure chip and write it often, I also try to get people to appreciate outside context. I think chipmusic falls victim to purist tendencies.

irrlichtproject
Offline
Nomad's Land

I guess it has to do with marketing, and catering to the largest possible audience. Don't think it matters much to the people who are mainly in it for the love of music. Also Cooshinator is probably right, people who started out in chiptune are usually not the ones calling totally unrelated stuff chiptune. It's more the ones who never really got into it in the first place.

And last but not least, there is no clear definition of what Chiptune actually is, and most likely there never will be. Most of Berlin style minimal electro could be called chiptune, soundwise. I'd sooner argue about it deserving the term "music", hehe.

BFAD
Offline
Seattle, WA
irrlichtproject wrote:

I guess it has to do with marketing, and catering to the largest possible audience. Don't think it matters much to the people who are mainly in it for the love of music. Also Cooshinator is probably right, people who started out in chiptune are usually not the ones calling totally unrelated stuff chiptune. It's more the ones who never really got into it in the first place.

And last but not least, there is no clear definition of what Chiptune actually is, and most likely there never will be. Most of Berlin style minimal electro could be called chiptune, soundwise. I'd sooner argue about it deserving the term "music", hehe.

I'm pretty sure Danimal wrote an "old man post" about this very thing on his site http://danimalcannon.com/

thebitman
Offline

I'm someone who's experiencing this sort of transition right now - DJing a ton, starting to produce more in Ableton, spending less time writing exclusively chip material. Working on integrating 2 DMG's running LSDJ via Arduinoboy into my Ableton work, also trying to get my work on brass instruments involved. For me it's less of a "moving away" as it is defragmenting 3 separate musical identities I have.

It's too soon to say that I have truly moved, but I see myself heading in the direction of a production conglomerate.

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA

I thought you were going to out people who left the scene and got famous (or didn't.)

Does this slightly relate to country singers making autotuned pop songs? Do you feel they've "sold out" in a way?

Last edited by chunter (May 18, 2013 8:02 pm)

Spaceman
Offline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnoPyyC8-Go

BR1GHT PR1MATE
Offline
BOSTON

^ this is exactly what im talking about, and the top comment... is also exactly what i was talking about. when electrohouse and dubstep had the huge buzz, quite a few well-liked chip artists bailed for that style, and yet still do chip tours/events and vaguely bill themselves as chip. and further, now that the guch had their big $ kickstarter, a lot of those same people are now suddenly making chiptune again XD Which again isnt some terrible thing, just amusing to watch!


chunter wrote:

I thought you were going to out people who left the scene and got famous (or didn't.)

that would be a very short (or very long) list indeed.


jefftheworld wrote:

On an only tangentially related note, I seeded "The Reality Chipmusic Love Industry" ages ago when you asked for seeders and only recently got around to really listening to it as a whole. Totally worth the effort in seeding!

bawwww thanks jefff

Last edited by BR1GHT PR1MATE (May 18, 2013 8:40 pm)

basspuddle
Offline
washington
BR1GHT PR1MATE wrote:

when electrohouse and dubstep had the huge buzz, quite a few well-liked chip artists bailed for that style

i wish sabrepulse would come back

just saying

Monotron
Offline
Douglas, Wyoming

Kind of like how Unicorn Kid, and Sabrepulse both slowly transitioned into EDM. Anamanaguchi hit on it a lot in their new album as well, I see no harm in it. I guess it could be necessary to make a new genre to establish the difference between the two? Chiptune and nu-chip. I say this because even the newer stuff contains a lot of chiptune, just not necessarily pure chiptune. It is sort of an EDM chip blend, which in my book is just fine. I think genre doesn't really matter as long as the music is good.

Last edited by Monotron (May 18, 2013 9:27 pm)