8 Bit Music

Have you ever heard the Russian folk tune ‘Korobeiniki’? If you think the answer is no, you’re probably wrong, for one hundred and twenty eight years after it was written it became the theme-tune, ‘Music A’, to one of the greatest and most popular video games ever made: Tetris. It has since infiltrated popular culture to such an extent that it is instantly recognisable to millions worldwide and is probably the most famous video game theme music ever composed. Of course the version so many of us are familiar with isn’t played on fiddle and accordion, or accompanied by some jaunty Russian singing. We know the 8bit version. Just like so many other classic video game tunes, the 1989 Game Boy version of Tetris was composed using simple tone generation to simulate instruments for melodies and used a ‘noise channel’ for simulating percussion. These are the bleeps and beeps that have since become known as the 8bit sound, yet this particular style of music hasn’t been solely confined to the realm of gaming fans.

The first half of 2008 saw the rise and fall of the popularisation of the 8bit sound. Unlike the popular mainstream’s previous annexations of video game culture and music which was certainly tongue-in cheek, this time these 8bit tones infiltrated pop culture through music, and were accepted as a serious and viable, yet still eccentric, musical style. This operation was spearheaded by Crystal Castles, a Canadian two-some that tapped into popular culture’s love-hate affair with the retro video game, and capitalised on this infatuation by layering their intense, rumbling and glitchy songs with 8bit tones and samples. Although there has been a vibrant and growing community of professional acts and amateurs alike who have used the sounds and technology of old consoles to create original pieces for roughly two decades now, they have largely gone unnoticed. These communities have grown exponentially since the rise of the Internet with sites such as 8bitpeoples becoming music label, artist gallery and community hub all in one. Yet these communities have railed against Crystal Castles and a number of other bands who use similar 8bit sounds. Nonetheless, through Crystal Castles’ reputation for incendiary live shows and their punk image they suddenly made 8bit music extremely hip and cool, and hence took the indie and popular press by storm.

However the mainstream rise of the 8bit sound has since been marred by two controversies which have tainted Crystal Castles and their 8bit electro-rock genre. Firstly allegations were levelled against the band of using artwork created by the artist Trevor Brown for t-shirt designs, 7” covers and other commercial uses without his permission. Secondly and more importantly a controversy arose over Crystal Castles sampling of a number of 8bit acts such as Lo-Bat and Covox. Although the music these bands produced was made available under a Creative Commons license, Crystal Castles were accused of sampling their songs without providing due acknowledgement and of remixing the songs and profiting from the subsequent tracks. All actions which break the terms of the Creative Commons license.

But being judge and jury in convoluted copyright cases is not the aim here. Instead we should consider the ramifications of critics and popular opinion alike taking the 8bit sound to heart in the first place and how they accepted it as a serious musical style. It is in itself an infinitely more interesting and culturally resonant style than most modern fads. It has its roots in the second generation gaming consoles, in particular the innovative NES, which provides a lot of musicians who use this sound with the technology to create their work. For the majority of these 8bit acts inspiration comes from the games created in the late-eighties which spawned the major points of reference for video game music. It was at this time that classic theme tunes were written including; Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, Koichi Sugiyama’s Dragon Quest, Hirokazu Tanaka’s Metroid and Kid Icarus, Martin Galway’s Times of Lore and Nobuo Uematsu’s Final Fantasy, to mention only a few. Yet the legacy of these composers is also found in Crystal Castles. Although they do not define themselves as an 8bit or chiptune band, their sound is certainly routed in this style.

This is possibly the reason why they have become so popular, because they do not endorse video gaming culture wholeheartedly but merely use it as a means to an end for creating new, exciting music. For all popular culture’s embrace of geekdom, there is still a lingering tint of wariness when it comes to gaming. Just cast your thoughts back to the major moral controversies video games have produced, with titles such as Doom, the Manhunt series and of course Grand Theft Auto all adding fuel to the anti-gaming pyre. Yet mainstream culture also has a tradition of poking fun at gamers and the gaming community, just look at the legendary and hilarious South Park ‘World of Warcraft’ episode if any confirmation is needed. So maybe Crystal Castles’ 8bit style of music is only acceptable to a wide audience because it does not fetishise retro games and celebrate gaming culture, unlike other 8bit acts, but merely exploits it. Either way we should always remember what Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario creator and Nintendo guru, said “Video Games are bad for you? That’s what they said about Rock ‘N’ Roll.”