80s Revival: Chip Tunes

In reading the news this week, I can’t seem to escape revivals from the 80s.  It would appear that not only shoulder pads and sequence are back in fashion!  Check out some of the other 80s retro making a comeback:

I have to ask, what on earth do the Conservatives hope to achieve by digging up the Iron Lady from the back benches?  Surely all this will do is send shivers down the spines of those who suffered under the last regime and unravell the feathers of those hoping there was actually going to be change!  Also looks like she’s been raking in her old Prime Mistress dress up box again!

Next up are chip tunes.  For those who can’t remember, these are music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in real time by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample based synthesis.  The ”golden age” of chiptunes was the mid-1980s to early 1990s, when such sound chips were the most common method for creating music on computers. Chiptunes are closely related to video game music, which often featured chiptunes out of necessity.  We are now seeing the revival of such music, but with the use of more complex technology.  Incidentally, did anyone else have the same Casio keyboard?  I loved it, play along to the tape!!!  Genius!!

Chip tunes brought into 2010, more like performance art.  Check out this guy, Matthew C. applegate, a failed IT graduate now a leader, educator and inspirer of chip tune art www.pixel8.co.uk

Watch at:

If anyone else has seen other 80s revivals in the news, please feel free to let me know and I’ll add it or feel free to write a comment.  The more obscure the better!

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