Chiptune is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce, as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres" since any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style defined more by choice of instrument and timbre than specific style elements.
Earl Tywone Stevens Sr., better known by his stage name E-40, is an American rapper. He is a founding member of the rap group The Click and the founder of Sick Wid It Records. He has released 26 studio albums to date, appeared on numerous movie soundtracks, and has also done guest appearances on a host of other rap albums. Initially an underground artist, his 1995 solo album In a Major Way opened him up to a wider audience. Beginning in 1998, he began collaborating with mainstream rappers outside the San Francisco Bay Area. He rose to higher mainstream popularity in 2006 with his single "Tell Me When to Go", which was produced by Lil Jon.
Andrew Shallcross, known as Andy Votel, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records.
8 Bit Weapon is an American chiptune music band formed in Ventura County, California, by Seth and Michelle Sternberger. It was originally created by Seth Sternberger around 1998. Its instruments consists primarily of old 8-bit and 16-bit computers such as the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga 500, and the Apple II, as well as game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Atari 2600, and an Intellivision synthesizer.
Jeremiah Johnson, better known as Nullsleep, is an American electronic musician and computer artist currently residing in New York City. In 1999 he co-founded the low-bit art collective 8bitpeoples, and has served as its lead director since its inception. He is best known for his high-energy Game Boy pop songs.
Matthew Carl Applegate, better known by the stage name Pixelh8, is a British chiptune composer, educator and screen actor.
8-Bit Operators: The Music of Kraftwerk was released in 2007 by the group 8-Bit Operators on Kraftwerk's US label Astralwerks and EMI Records worldwide. It features cover versions of Kraftwerk songs by several prominent chiptune artists.
The Blip Festival was a festival that celebrated chiptune music with musical performances, workshops, and screenings of movies. It was held annually starting in 2006 in New York City. In recent years, there have been international versions of Blip Festival held in Europe, Asia, and Australia. The festival is curated and organized by 8bitpeoples, one of the foremost labels in the chiptune scene, as well as local arts organization The Tank. The New York festival has switched venues several times, beginning in 2006 at 15 Nassau Street in Manhattan, then moving to Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in 2007, and then being held in Brooklyn at The Bell House in 2008 and 2009. It went back to Eyebeam in 2011 and then the Gramercy Theatre in 2012.
Bit.Trip, stylized BIT.TRIP, is a series of nine video games developed by Choice Provisions and published by Aksys Games for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Microsoft Windows, macOS, PS Vita, PS4, and PS5. It was published by Arc System Works for WiiWare and Nintendo eShop in Japan, and by Namco Networks America Inc for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Each game revolves around the adventures of a character named "Commander Video", and features "a crazy mix of 80s aesthetics and modern game design". The styles of the games range from pong-like, to platforming, and shooting. Each game in the series features a chiptune-inspired soundtrack, but a different style of rhythm-based gameplay in each. Most games in the series have few levels; Beat, Core, Void and Flux have only three levels each while Fate has six and Runner has 36. Most of the games feature levels lasting between 10 and 25 minutes to make up for having such few levels. The games also consists of 8 modes; Nether, Hyper, Mega, Super, Ultra, Extra, Giga, and Meta; which changes based on how well the player does. Each successive game adds a new mode, the highest being Mega in Beat, and Meta in Flux.
Anamanaguchi is an American chiptune-based pop and rock band from New York City. The band has four members: lead songwriters and guitarists Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar, bassist James DeVito, and drummer Luke Silas.
she is a musical project formed in 2003 by the Polish artist, producer and musician Lain Volta Trzaska, and is sometimes credited as shemusic, Lain Volta. As its main producer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Lain is the only official member, but he brings in vocalists to perform.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune with various hardcore punk and/or heavy metal subgenres, most often metalcore and post-hardcore. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, I Fight Dragons, Math the Band, An Albatross, The NESkimos and Minibosses pioneering the genre.
Bitpop is a type of electronic music and subgenre of chiptune music, where at least part of the music is made using the sound chips of old 8-bit computers and video game consoles.
Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families is a musical project of Sydney based Game Boy music composer and performer Thomas Gilmore, who began writing music with the Nintendo Game Boy in 2007. Shortly after in 2008, Gilmore and Dot.AY from Brisbane started a blog documenting and promoting Australian chipmusic called GameBoyAustralia. In early 2011, Gilmore and Eugene Davoren-Britton launched a vinyl-only chipmusic label called Sounds Legit. The name for Gilmore's project was inspired by the A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible webcomic of a similar title. Gilmore currently performs live vocals in a hardcore punk style that transcends the regular boundaries of chipmusic, to form a style of music that Gilmore calls "chipunk". In March 2016, after a period of silence from the act, a live band manifestation of Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families played at Square Sounds Festival Melbourne.
Levi "Doctor Octoroc" Buffum is an American chiptune musician and pixel artist based in Philadelphia.
Brendan Becker, known by his stage name Inverse Phase, is an American video game composer and chiptune musician, using Atari, Commodore, and Nintendo hardware. He also speaks and hosts workshops on video game music, chiptunes, and composing.
Psilodump is a Swedish musician, DJ, and producer based in Stockholm. He has also released work under his real name and as Psilodumputer, Pushiro, and J.Panic.
Daniel Behrens, better known by his stage name Danimal Cannon, is an American video game composer and chiptune music performer. He is most known for combining guitar playing with Game Boy music. He is also known for his presentations on chipmusic, having hosted panels at Penny Arcade Expo, YouTube tutorials, a TEDx Talk, and a Game Boy masterclass workshop at Blip Festival 2012.
Niamh Houston, better known by her stage name Chipzel, is a musician from Northern Ireland. She is best known for making chiptune music, particularly with a Game Boy. She is also a video game music composer, and is known for the soundtracks of games such as Super Hexagon, Interstellaria, and Dicey Dungeons. Her music is also featured in other games such as Just Shapes and Beats and Spectra.
Rigo Pex, better known as MENEO, is a musicologist, performer and presenter from Guatemala. He coined the term "electropical" and is part of the first wave of global producers who mix electronic synths with traditional Latin rhythms like cumbia, merengue and dembow.
