8-bit music

I meant to blog about this a couple weeks ago when it first game to my attention, but I think it’s fitting that I’m doing it now, since we just finished discussing gaming. Anway, in my Sociology of Popular Music class, people sometimes bring in music to share with the class. One guy showed the class a website called 8 bit peoples, which is basically a site for a group of people who make music using sound cards from old gaming systems. Commodore 64 and Gameboy seem to be the most popular ones to use. For Gameboy, someone even developed a cartridge called “Little Sound DJ” that allows users to program their own songs, using the sounds of the Gameboy itself along with electronic drum kit samples.

I find the whole chiptunes (as they’re often called) phenomenon to be really interesting. I’m sure the people who created (or shall I say “authored”, oooh) the chip didn’t intend for it to be used for anything other than to provide sound for a particular console. However, now chiptunes artists are taking this technology, transforming it, and using it as a musical instrument. I saw some parallels between this and the idea of “the kernel” from one of the Manovich readings. Manovich says describes the kernel as “the code essential to the functioning of the system. While users add and modify different parts of [the] system, they are careful not to change the kernel in fundamental ways”(4). In this instance then, the sound chip itself would function as the kernel. If you modify it too much then it will no longer function, but there’s still enough leeway for users to do something interesting and new with the technology.

Here’s some links for you:

Wikipedia article on chiptunes –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_music

And some examples of the music to listen to –
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/8bitpeoples/8bp029-01-04-nullsleep-depeche_mode_megamix.mp3

ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/8bitpeoples/8bp028-04-nullsleep-axel_f.mp3