Note from author: over 9000 videos in this thread, just watch the ones that interest you, or sample them ^^
8 or 16 bit games and music have something more than a cult following, it's something i've noticed even before one of the first memes I've encountered: All Your base. Basically what this side of the article is getting at, is songs being recreated with 8/16 bit sounds, or 8/16 bit songs being recreated musically.
Original Music to 8(Nes)-16(Snes) Bit Sounds
According to a pending article on the knowyourmeme site: "Chiptunes, or the 8 Bit music used by old video games, is a popular way for people to rearrange music. Despite the simple electronic quality of the music, it has garnered quite a fanbase of those who have fond memories of 8 Bit gaming. A whole subculture complete with musical arrangements, art, and the demaking of game into 8 Bit has developed around this."
History:
The gaming music phenomena started somewhere in the arcade era, by my estimation, and probably evolved into full appreciation around the early console era (Sega, Nes, Snes). The conesole era allowed people to hear 8 or 16 bit compositions of music in their homes, and since these consoles were so poular, people could talk about them as if they were regular, ordinary music. Some of these songs, are quite awesome, a personal favourite of mine, by Nobou Uematsu (Final Fantasy Music Composer):
later on, when computers and sound editing programs became common place, many ordinary songs were rendered into 8/16 bit sound. Below are some examples of this.
Rick Roll'd (again)
Star Wars
Ghost busters
smells like teen spirit (Kurt Cobain woulda loved this one XD)
This one always fascinated me, I mean musicians loving dusty 8 bit tunes of some video game, so much that they do a real live performance of it. I don't what to say about this one, as long as 8-16 bit songs existed, there were always people picking up guitars and playing them out, I'll list examples of what i think are some good ones.
FF6 Battle
Street fighter 2
ff6 Decisive Battle (that's right DECISIVE)
Clash On the Big Bridge
those Who Fight
Why not finish it off with a frickin orchestra? (this song was originally done in an orchestra I believe)
The Sweet Hybrid
Still not convinced that 8-16 bit is awesome, well how bout rock bands that focus exclusively on video game songs? I'll be looking at 2 bands here Anamanaguchi and The Black mages. Anamanaguchi is a band, that uses a hacked super nintendo to play theyre own compositions. Anamanguchi makes their own 8 bit songs, accompanies with guitar and other instruments occasionally, and makes awesome 8 bit videos. The main criticism this band recieves I find is that "they don't play instruments" Well in alot of their videos it appears that way, but they can play all manner of instruments, and use them when wriitng their melodies or songs (Even Beethoven needed a piano right?).
Here is a very good interview with the band done on College Humor's video game segment: Bleep Bloop. No embedding is allowed on this one:
Now the Black mages, well "The Black Mages is a Japanese instrumental rock band formed in 2002 by Nobuo Uematsu, Kenichiro Fukui, and Tsuyoshi Sekito, three composers for Square Enix. Uematsu is the composer of the majority of soundtracks in the Final Fantasy video game series. The band arranges Uematsu's compositions in a rock style often similar to progressive metal, achieved with the additional use of synthesizers.[1] Since its inception, the band has expanded to six members with the addition of Keiji Kawamori, Michio Okamiya, and Arata Hanyuda."
-Wikipedia
Basically the Black mages specializes in songs off of the Final fantasy Series. I've encountered some of their music before, and it is quite impressive. their albums include: The Black mages, The black mages II: The Skies Above and The Black mages III: darkness and Starlight. By now your probably sick of video so, I'll just put up my favourite:
Well in conclusion 8 to 16 bit graphics and music have a memetic quality to them, something that could be related either to the nostalgia factor, or just something great in its own right, I hope you enjoyed my little rant, and trip down memory lane.
Well here is ThatOtakus contribution to 8 bit awesomeness, in the form of mega man
Top Megaman Music from all the games
So far, there have been 10 megaman games released (excluding X series and other spin-offs). All of which have a catchy beat you just can't get your head out off.
Megaman 1
Megaman 2
Dr. Wily's Stage 1/2. Personal Favorite of mine. OKKUSENMAN!
Megaman 3
Megaman 4
Megaman 5
Megaman 6
Short, but very catchy
Megaman 7 NOT 8-BIT but times 2! THIS IS SNES
Megaman 8 AGAIN, NOT 8-BIT, DON'T WORRY THE NEXT WILL BE
Megaman 9
Just the revival of this 8-bit in the 21st century feels awesome
Megaman 10
Recently came out prior to the time of this post, no rip from music
There were just to many good ones, I'm sorry if your personal favorite wasn't on the list. Till Megaman 11 and forever!
You can't possibly forget the old 8-Bit megaman themes, psssssh megaman 10 just go released and it's still doing it old school; gameplay and music wise.