Chiptunes have been steadily growing in popularity for... I guess about five years? – and the chiptune scene is now at that stage that music scenes reach, that can be confidently identified as, ‘on the brink of hitting the mainstream’. However, I’m not so sure that chiptunes will hit the mainstream, given how irrelevant the mainstream has become in the past decade or so. I mean, what, getting played on the radio? Having your CD in shops? Who gives a shit about that shit, these days? And the record industry is well past the point where they might have had a clue about what’s happening, culturally. Don’t expect them to ‘discover’ chiptunes any day soon. But, hey – who knows; they might surprise us.

I can say that I have heard a small handful of pop songs around lately, that, to my ears, seem to reveal a slight chiptune influence. And of course there have been plenty of music videos with videogame imagery. So maybe that means something; I dunno.

Chiptune music has a real ‘bedroom studio’ vibe to it, but don’t be misled – live music is a big, big part of the chiptune scene. Even groups who don’t incorporate real instruments or DJ-ing still find a way to rock out. Plus, many bands create 8-bit-themed videos or suchlike, as an accompaniment to the live music – YMCK is the most famous example. In fact, YMCK present their videos as equal to their songs, in terms of what YMCK does: they’re not a music group, they’re a music-and-video group. Video and/or multimedia is a distinctive and integral element of the chiptune live scene.

What’s that you say, dearest of readers? You want to see some live chiptune music? Well, there are chiptune musicians and groups all over the world – Europe, America, Japan of course... maybe even Australia, for all I know. Hearing about live shows before they happen is just a matter of keeping your finger on the pulse. With the internet, this is easy – just find some bands you like and keep an eye on their websites or MySpace pages. When there’s a show coming up, they’ll say so!

“But who are these bands?” you squeak pathetically. Well, I’ll get to that in a moment. First of all, I ought to make mention of Blip Festival, the biggest chiptune event in the world! It happens every year, in New York. I have never been – it’s in freaking New York! But you said you wanted to see live chiptune music, so, yeah: Blip Festival. New York. Check it out.

Blip Festival is organised – at least in part – by the exemplary humans behind the 8bitpeoples netlabel. Visit that website right now, because it is the starting point I’m giving you, to begin your chiptune-listenin’-to adventures! It is, as I said, just a starting point, and not the be-all and end-all of chiptunes. But it is a very good starting point; I promise.

Overwhelmed by the quite large 8bitpeoples catalogue? Then allow me to make a few suggestions.

Anamanaguchi – Power Supply

Is it rock, or is it chiptunes? Answer: It is awesome.

Bit Shifter – Information Chase

Gameboy music for dancing and good times! Contains a familiar tune.

Random – Bad Joke EP

More Gameboy music! Why is it so great?

I, Cactus – I, Cactus

Odd and pretty and nice. I am listening to it right now. Download it and pretend you’re me!

That is the end of the article! No, wait – I’m going to link to the Sexy-Synthesizer website first. Okay, that’s all. I hope you like chiptunes now!

AFTER-NOTE: Hello. I am aware that ‘chiptune’ originally means any music made for a music chip, including, of course, music from NES games and so on, by Koji Kondo and the like. I am also aware that much of the music I’m talking about in this column is sometimes called ‘8-bit’, or ‘bitpop’ if you’re retarded. But guess what! It is also called chiptune music, by me and many people! I don’t care about the technicalities, and if you do, you are an insufferable fusspot and are welcome to bite my arse. Nom nom nom!