IN WHICH retro-futuristic modern-primitive music is appreciated, and videos of animated characters freaking out serve as fodder for much amusement.
Briana's pick: Chiptunes!
Next time someone asks you what kind of music you like to listen to, bypass the obvious. Instead of (yawn) rock, or (boring) rap, tell them you like your music blippy. Let ‘em know how into pulse width modulation you are right now. I mean, come on. What’s more impressive; 800 Grateful Dead bootlegs or a solid collection of wavetable synthesis tunes on vinyl? You’ll be the hit of the party! The chicks will totally dig you!
Chiptune (otherwise known as chip music) is a genre of music which utilizes both sound synthesis techniques (pulse width modulation and wavetable synthesis). More specifically, both are compositional techniques used by the creators of early computer sound chips to make the music of old school computers and video game systems (i.e. Commodore 64 and Atari) more interesting. And with regards to the musical genre of Chiptune, it’s basically an advanced, more complex version of the soundtrack to Pacman. Artists create compositions by utilizing sound chips from these older era video games systems—be it Nintendo, Atari, or Gameboys to create layers of blip and bloop and tat tat tat. Chiptune is sort of a high-pitched, spastic form of electronica, but even nerdier and with less glow sticks.
Chiptune is a world-wide phenomena and even has its own festival (check out the Blip Festival myspace). For an interesting little segment on the people who make and love chiptune check out Nerdcore Rising’s “Nerd of the Week” segment on the music here.
James' pick: Get down!
There's a glitch in the classic Nintendo 64 game "Goldeneye 007" which allows you to cause any character on-screen to wig out like crazy, just by wiggling the cartridge a little. Lots of fun.
Well, somebody set that to music - an awesome slice of J-pop called "Promise" by Hirose Kohmi - and that has spawned a series of imitation videos in which a bunch of vid-captured dance moves are thrown together in rapid succession to look like an amazingly insane dance. To wit:
Yes! Twenty different kinds of awesome. Here's the origin of the trend, the original Goldeneye glitch:
I've got a bunch more of these in a post over on Gooder Than Hell, along with the full-length song/video. These things are strangely addictive. And I'm willing to bet that at least one WFPK listener is going to make their own get-down video this weekend. Send me the link when you do!
[podcast]http://archive.wfpk.org/Podcasts/20090814-nerdy.mp3[/podcast]