Spontaneous Devotion, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Chiptune

In my first year of law school, while searching for NES game soundtracks, I discovered chiptune music. Well, that's not technically accurate, but you'll see what I mean.

For those (two) of you reading this that might not know what it is, chiptune is a type of electronic music that is made using a computer or video game system's sound chip. If I were to play you a chiptune song right now, you would almost immediately think of the original 8-bit Nintendo, or Game Boy. This is because, out of necessity, all of the music in the games for those systems are indeed chiptune.

Flash back to almost 20 years ago. I knew that video game music had the potential to be really fucking good since I was six, plugging in the password (A5, B2, B4, C1, C3, C5, D4, D5, E2) to skip past all those damn hard bosses to the first stage of Dr. Wily's Castle in Mega Man II. The ensuing bleeps and beats that comprised that stage's music, quite honestly changed my life.

Yeah, okay, that sounds a little dramatic, but hear me out: it essentially was the first step towards me loving music as much as I do now.

The twin harmonies, the triplet bassline, the hard driving beat; all combined to form a theme invoking more heroic emotion than seemingly possible from an 8-bit system's sound processor. It floored the six year old geek kid in me, who, eventually, would grow up to form a teenaged obsession with Iron Maiden, a heavy metal band who, using guitars, bass and drums instead of pulse waves, triangle waves and noise channels, created that same intense, "epic" sound that I fell in love with in classic Mega Man level music. Twin guitar harmonies, of any sort really, still make me giggle (more inwardly than outwardly) with sonic glee.

Soon enough, I started having more than a casual relationship with music, and I was discovering new bands I loved left and right. Around the same time, I acquired the ability to pretty much download any song I wanted (courtesy of the internet), and put them on a mixed CD (courtesy of my ex-girlfriend's CD burner).

I remember I had made a mixed CD with System of a Down, Deep Purple, and some Pink Floyd on there, and I had put "Simon's Theme" from Super Castlevania IV at the end. Driving around by myself, I would have that organ theme full blast on my speakers, with my rearview mirrors shivering from the bassline. When I picked up friends, though, on came the Floyd, or some Weezer...something else, anyway. For a while, I was kind of embarassed that I really, really liked a lot of video game music, but Zelda, Castlevania, and of course Mega Man songs all started popping up in my mixed CD rotation. I guess I felt as if it was a guilty pleasure.

One day in late 2007, while searching for NES game soundtracks, I stumbled upon the 8bitpeoples website, and, if I recall correctly, the first artist I heard on the site was a young fellow going by the name Random (pictured above rocking his Game Boy), who had just released The Bad Joke EP earlier that summer. I listened to the first two tracks, "Sitge's Savepoint" and "Micawber's Moan", and jaw having dropped, I proceeded to immediately download the rest of Random's (unfortunately small) discography.

When I first listened to "Micawber's Moan", I got hit with that same sense of otherworldly auditory wonder I felt back in the early 90s playing that Dr. Wily's Castle stage for the first time. Obviously, part of it was me nostalgically linking the sounds I was hearing to the sound capabilities of the NES (technically the Game Boy) in a way that reminded me of being a kid sitting in front of a TV at my aunt's house, but there was something else.

I listened to other artists on the 8bitpeoples site, but for some reason none of the tracks by other artists really captured my attention and enthusiasm the way songs like "Black Mist" and "Searching for Atlantis" did. When I played Random's songs for others (namely, anyone who entered my room in residence for the next two weeks), I really don't think they got it. I guess they just heard video game music, and for their intents and purposes, I guess that's what it was.

I think it was the nostalgia hook that got me listening to Random, but what keeps me listening, and what I kept repeating to anyone listening to the songs with me, is this: Random is an awesome composer. There is an intensity to these songs, and there's certainly a high amount of danceability, too. But there are shovelfuls of intensely dance-y chiptunes to be found online, and only a couple artists have really caught my attention with great hooks, great harmonies, and great depth.

This realization, I think, is what has allowed me to shed the "guilty" from the pleasure of listening to chiptune, be it "Bloody Tears" from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, or "Spontaneous Devotion" by Random: well crafted music, no matter what its source, is worth listening to, and sharing.

These days, along with listening to Random (and desperately hoping that the guy puts out another full fledged release as soon as possible), I've been listening to Trash80 and more recently Sabrepulse. A lot of this stuff is straight up electronic dance music, and while there's nothing wrong with that, every now and then I'll listen to old NES soundtracks (particularly Mega Man II, III and IV) every now and then for a true retro music experience.

Of course, there's also bands like Minibosses and The Advantage who play chiptune music with rock guitars, or bands like Anamanaguchi who bridge the gap between chiptune and full on rock in an undeniably catchy way. But they don't invoke the same sorts of emotion in me that straight up chiptune does. I don't think I've quite explained myself on that point, the best I can tell you, really, is just to listen for yourself.

In the end, now I don't mind when people know I listen to chiptune, be it game soundtracks or original composers. It's funny, actually; sometimes I miss the days when games didn't have full orchestrated soundtracks. There are exceptions to this rule, of course ("Drake's Theme" from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune being a recent example), but generally I don't find today's game soundtracks to be memorable as those on the classic NES and SNES.

Am I saying "they just don't make 'em like they used to..."? I guess I am.

Maybe I'm just getting old.

(Note: I can't remember where that picture came from - I just Google Image searched it. It's not mine, and if it's yours, let me know so I can credit you.)