chiptune

What does chiptune mean?

Chiptune refers to a subgenre of electronic music that encompasses music from old video/arcade/computer games (usually 8- or 16-bit games from the 1980s and early 1990s), new music made by sampling such music and other game sounds, and new music made using the old video/arcade/computer game technologies.

Examples of chiptune

Chiptune is the plinky, synthetic but oddly evocative music that soundtracked early computer games.
—Chris Salmon, The Guardian (London), 1 June 2007

Kraftwerk was one of the first musical groups to embrace modern technology in the 1970s. Today, the chiptune movement recycles vintage computer hardware as musical instruments. Could there be a more perfect pairing? “8-Bit Operators” collects cover versions of Kraftwerk favorites arranged on primitive microchips—like that Game Boy or Commodore 64 in the back of your closet—so it sort of sounds like a flatulent robot …
—Rommie Johnson, The Tampa Tribune, 23 Feb. 2007

… the nostalgia-inducing chiptune music from Anamanaguchi (they also created the 16-bit soundtrack for the Scott Pilgrim video game) …
—Tom Power, TechRadar, 17 Nov. 2023

… the annual Blip Festival is a collaborative effort between Manhattan non-profit performing arts space The Tank and chiptune artist collective 8bitpeoples. The event draws scores of chiptune performers, retro-visualists, and fans from around the globe for several nights of intensely bleepy music and friendly camaraderie focused on a cornucopia of catchy sounds and pixelated visuals generated on old home computers and vintage video game hardware.
—Nathan Meunier, Nintendo Power, April 2010

Last year, composer Will Patterson released a curious concept album: it featured nine tracks from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but the classic chiptune bleeps were replaced with analog synthesizers. It lent an iconic soundtrack a new, more intense feeling. Now Patterson is back, taking the same approach to reimagine the music of another SNES game, Secret of Mana.
—Andrew Webster, TheVerge.com, 4 Dec. 2018

Where does chiptune come from?

From chip as in microchip + tune as in “a pleasing succession of musical tones.” While computer, arcade, and video games have featured sound effects and music (if rudimentary, initially) since their emergence, the word chiptune appears to have arisen in the 2000s.

How is chiptune used?

While chiptune can and does appear by itself …

… the niche electronic genre of chiptune, which uses synthesized sounds created with the sound chips found in vintage gaming consoles.
—A. Z. Madonna, The Boston Globe, 4 Mar. 2025

… it is perhaps more often used attributively (like an adjective), as in “chiptune music,” “chiptune soundtrack,” “chiptune artists,” “chiptune version,” and “chiptune remix.”