Fieldwork: 8bitcollective's Most Liked

Today I'm taking a look at 8bitcollective's most liked track of last week, and seeing what people had to say about it.

The winner is "I AM A FUCKOKA RAVER" by USK (Fuckoka is a city in Japan and the name of a record company USK has released material under). I was a bit surprised to see that this was USK's first submission, so I dug a little deeper. Turns out USK is kind of a big deal. Looking at his bio, he's been making chiptunes for a little over 10 years and has been performing live since 2004, including some places far, far away from his hometown in Japan. So it's understandable that this well-established chiptune artists finally posts some stuff on 8bitcollective and people go absolutely nuts for it. And deservedly so - the song has a catchy hook, a well-layered arrangement, and is energetic and danceable.

Moving on to the comments, the first 12, which came within 2 hours of posting, are all just chock full of excitement, most just saying something like "USK!" USK gets in a response saying, "I'm so happy to share the same feeling with you all lo-bitterzzzz!!!!" The positive comments continue to stream in, but some come close to criticism:

Droid Song: "okay..I must admit i was gonna move on about half way through the song and then that little funky swing breakdown came up. that part is really really really good."

xGx: "Well i cant stand those fucking shitty 8btit noisey drums, those cymbols sound like shit but then that mid section kicked in and I was like omfg wow! Those damn drums cant save this for me but that middle bit was fricking awsome man."

I highlight these only because the overwhelming majority of posts are basically one sentence long, each one a more ridiculous way of saying "I loved it" than the last. My initially impression of the site was a slew of possibly disingenuous compliments, so I'm trying to probe that impression and see how accurate it is, especially in a situation involving a celebrity of the genre.

Mikimedia: "ive listened to this alot now, and still dont like it. i wish i liked this"

This strikes me as unquestionably honest, which is reassuring. A bit more partial criticism:

Deadly-Beatz-"Sorry, but I do not like the intro, and frankly it seems rather repetitive throughout the entire song until the second 1/3 or so. Then it is very very very very very very very (have I made my point yet?) very good!!!!"

Some honesty here, some criticism. "Sorry" could indicate the commenter knowing that he/she is deviating from the expected behavior.

The critics get a mouthful, however..

smiletron: "@everyone who doesnt like this: USK pretty much DEFINES chip unce. there can be no other. he is the first and he is the best. FOREVERRRR"

"Unce" hear refers to the sound of a dance music bass drum, and the genre that uses it frequently. Another commenter piggybacks..

boaconstructor: "Thumbs up smiletron. Its ridiculous to think of how many of the songs on this sight (and maybe even the sight itself) wouldn't be here if it weren't for USK! Know your roots chipperzzz!!!"

This comment sparks a debate...

Xylo: "Calling USK 'chiptune roots'. You fell on your head boy?"

YourPOV : "No joke man. USK is good at LSDJ for sure. That doesn't make him the beginning and end of all chiptune. Let's not go crazy here. On a side note, this is amazing :)"

I will keep an eye out to see if the debate unfolds more, but what I've observed is, while USK is definitely very important and respected in the chiptune scene and has been for a while, he is not unarguably part of the roots of chiptune. Also, there is some discrepancy of knowledge / fluidity of interpretation among the commenters as to the history of the scene and the genre.

USK's other comment in the thread, two weeks after posting, simply says: "I AM A FUCKIN HAPPY RAVER NOW." He is pleased with the responses to his song.

Fieldwork: Chiptune Interview

This is a partial transcript of my interview with Chris Novello, a friend and chiptune composer. Italics are me, normal type is him, notes of omitted sections are in brackets. Minor edits for readability have been made (e.g. removing "um"s and the like).

So I guess I’ll start off with a basic question, how did you get into chiptunes?

It pretty much has always been in my background, having had a childhood with 8 bit games. I started with an Atari 2600, and then Coleco, and Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, etc. I had a Gameboy, and a Commodore 64, basically a lot of things that made really raw waveform bleeps.

That was actually my next question, what’s your history with videogames and how do the two relate for you?

Although my interest in the texture nowadays doesn’t feel necessarily connected to videogames sometimes, it absolutely is. You know, there’s no question that these particular tones are reminiscent of something from childhood. I kind of feel like I was raised by a Nintendo or a Super Nintendo the way some people say they were raised by a television. It’s imprinted in me in subtle ways that I don’t think I can articulate or really claim agency over.

[Talked about how videogames influence his composition]

You said write other music - where does chiptunes fit into that and what kind of other music are you interested in writing?

Yeah, I mean there’s always this dream right? I guess ever since The Postal Service it’s kind of been like “Oh wow, you can take that sound and make it into something a little more pop accessible, and I guess its been happening for a long time, I feel like that band was the first to kind of like COMPARTIZE that sound in a popular fashion. And they’ve got credibility, too, and since then it’s become kind of a cliché. But it’s interesting, because even though it’s a total cliché, I still feel ownership of it.

[Talked about chiptune covers]

I don’t want to call chiptunes an aesthetic, there’s something… maybe it’s the infusion from childhood, or maybe it’s just these raw waveforms, you know, but if you take an arrangement by The Smiths, and play it through chiptunes, without Morrisey whining, you all of a sudden hear how happy that music is. And to hear The Smiths done in chiptune from really recontextualizes it so that you feel like you’re playing a platformer that’s got like, you know, neon hues and pink skies and all these cartoonish things.

[Compared with shoegaze, in terms of compositional motivation and posting on message boards]

Speaking of message boards, one of the kind of big resources in the chiptune community is 8bitcollective, what’s your experience with that site been?

That site is awesome. For many years, I’ve kind of looked online for either access to hardware, or ways to get that sound, for almost ten years now. And that site finally came around and just kind of became what I consider like an epicenter for the information, and also for the community of distributing the music . And people with all sorts of different perspectives on chiptunes post there, it’s a really good community in that way.

[Talked about resources on the site, fringe projects on 8bitcollective, current chiptune listening]

[Asked him about possible disadvantages of an online scene, he said there aren’t many and the advantages far outweigh them]

[Talked about hardware and software]

Nowadays there are some pretty good software emulations that I’ve heard, and it’s easy, it’s always so seductive to want to just go that route and cut out all this hardware, and go that way. But truthfully, it’s just never… there’s a little something missing that’s kind of important, whether or not you think it’s important.

[Talked about more emulation]

One of the things that they have is a SID emulator, a 6502 I think is the chip? Which doesn’t sound exactly like you would want it too, it’s kind of digital. But again, at a certain point, once you have raw waveforms, you’re in this domain. You could almost do it with like an analog modular synth.

[Talks about the different sound of different chips]

They’re all a little different, but the idea is just these raw waveforms and using them in a certain kind of minimal way. Although, you know, the creativity that those composers milked out of those chips is nuts. I mean you’ve got a chip that has like two or three oscillators and a noise channel, and sometimes a sample channel, and somehow they get these like… I mean, arpeggiation comes into play to make chords, and just the way they will jump between these channels, and the tricks they pull, are just… there’s a lot of finesse. There’s a real mastery of a platform, which is to me kind of what any good musician is doing with an instrument. And by that I mean an expressive system, so an acoustic guitar, a drum machine…

[Talked about authenticity, difficulty involved in creating chiptunes, and the value of structural limitations]

Turino (1989) Critical Review #8

Turino's ethnography on the Aymara music ensembles of Conima in Peru highlights a prime example of strong parallels, reflections, and codependencies between musical practice and social practice. The fact that the Aymara perceive their worldview as far from arbitrary and have a strong sense of what is the "natural" way to do things, greatly informs the way music is created, performed, and sustained. It also makes getting the answers to the "why" questions a bit more slippery than usual.

The Aymara social system is based around extreme principles of non-confrontation, conflict avoidance, and solidarity. But within that is factionalism resulting from conflicts unresolvable by consensus, which are first ignored and then become silently divisive. These binary and ternary divisions are directly mirrored in the organization of musical ensembles, and the paradoxical solidarity is embodied by those ensembles' aesthetic priority of creating a single, dense sound.

The social system's emphasis on egalitarianism and inclusion also dictates the behavior of ad hoc ensemble players, players who don't rehearse with the ensemble, but join in the fiesta performances. This necessitates a public acceptance of (or publicly turning a blind eye to) flaws such as ad hoc musicians playing in different tunings or simply not knowing the songs as well. To assist the latter, new compositions utilize phrases considered "stock" for the genre, so ad hoc players can catch on more easily. These new compositions are also created in a communal, non-confrontational setting. Overall, Turino paints a picture of a culture where musical practice is social practice, and vice versa.

Discussion Question: What other cultures come to mind when you think of a close correlation between musical and social practice? Why, and how do they stack up compared to the Aymara?

Nettl Critical Review #6

Nettl sets up an interesting ethnomusicology at home study, generalizing his experience at the music departments of several midwestern universities into "Heartland U" and then describing it as an ethnomusicologist, an informant, and a total outsider. This unique setup eschews some ethical issues, but at the same time leaves the line between opinion and conclusions drawn from observation very vague.

He depicts Western art music study as set up similarly to a polytheistic religion, with various deities (great composers), each with their own personality and belonging to a certain tier. This seems a relatively accurate description of the attitudes within the Music Department, and this analogy helps flesh out some other important value connections between the music and the corresponding culture (hierarchy, specialization, individual achievement, doing the difficult, complexity, conformity, tension between hard work and natural talent). At a certain point, however, it seems like Nettl is just seeing and highlighting the parallels he wants to see, and the lack of specific informants backing up his assertions does not help his cause.

Discussion Question: What other styles/genres/cultures of music have a similar "deity" setup as Western art music? To what extent do the attitudes that musicians/participants have towards the deities mirror those 0f Western art music?

Shelemay 2001 Critical Review #7

Shelemay argues for the convergence of historical musicology and ethnomusicology at the crossroads of "Western Music," using early music as a specific example. She basically wants each field of study to do the one thing it has always been inclined not to do: for ethnomusicology, to study music not regarded as "other; for historical musicology, to study music and musicians in a present setting. She wants to encourage the collapse of Western/non-Western and past music/present music binaries.

In her specific study, she shows how the early music movement in Boston really is its own entity, existing in the current day, with musicians making creative decisions, forming a scene, reacting to demands of the current day and geographical opportunities.

Shelemay makes some good points about why her proposed direction would be appealing: finally bridging the gap between these two fields which would result in mutual gains, an intensely reflexive topic for fieldwork, and a situations where power relations are relatively symmetrical. But it seems to me that these two fields are fundamentally different because in each, the researchers want to focus on different aspects of the musical process. It seems like Shelemay is desperately trying to force this idealistic convergence between two fields that perhaps are separate for a very good reason, and want to stay that way.

Discussion Question: Do you think the binaries Shelemay talks about (Western/non-Western and past music/present music) can ever be collapsed, or are they here to stay?

Agawu (The Invention of African Rhythm) Critical Review #5

Agawu begins by establishing the common conceptions about African rhythmn, and then goes to point out some flaws in these ideas, namely, that rhythm is not pan-African and that many African cultures don't even have a word for rhythm. In these sections, he succeeds in identifying areas where researchers came up short.

In others however, he poses arguments that are problematic. He opposes the creation of new notation systems for African rhythm, saying that doing so is an attempt to reduce the size of the "supplement." What he's not addressing is the balancing act that is musical notation. Notation and supplement must be in balance. In Western music, staff notation comes up short, but it represents enough of the material to be worthwhile. The problem that I think ethnomusicologists were running into with African rhythms was that, using Western staff notation was not capturing enough; too much was being left as supplement and not enough was being represented in the notation to be worthwhile.

He gets into an even pettier argument about the terminology that researchers have used to represent their subjects, but acknowledges that they serve a "nominal identifying funtion." This, to me, is obnoxious. With some words, we use them because we have to, there aren't any other options. Language is never enough; it is always imperfect. Just accept it and do the best you can.

He eventually makes a good point that ethnographers should go into the field on the premise of sameness, which will bring out the differences naturally rather than forcing them artificially. And I can see how arguing for Western representation of African rhythm is a power issue, although I would also contend that representation that leaves too much missing is just as powerless.

Like most ethnomusicology articles, after complaining about problems with other people's work for 90% of the paper, this one closes with some vague, idealistic, half-hearted suggestions about ways to fix those problems.

On a personal note, reading these articles is making me seriously bitter. I guess I can understand why ethnomusicologists just seem to want to lash out at one another. I guess I'm doing it myself? My head exploded.

Discussion Question: Author after author is hung up on colonialism and Otherness. How can these things be dealt with, in concrete terms? Is it enough to just acknowledge that they are influences, and then move on?

Wong Critical Review #4

Wong takes an unconventional, but insightful tack by focusing on the musical consumption habits of a friend, and relating that to identity construction, especially in terms of race. Her powerful and valid statement, "Reception, consumption, and audience remain undertheorized in ethnomusicology and performance studies," serves as a jumping off point for this approach.

However, I take issue with the way she talks about music. It's very dispassionate; she presents ideas of music as nothing but politically charged noise, and says herself, "As an ethnomusicologist, I don't think it is ever 'the music itself' that attracts or compels - music has no agency of its own, people do..." This, probably somewhat deliberately and somewhat accidentally, pidgeonholes Rod's musical history to be solely about racial environments. While this helps serve her purpose of discussing Asian American identity construction, she glosses over some other interesting things going on - the correlation Rod proposes between being a student and being interested in more complex music, and the significance of his repeated use of phrases like "when I don't want to think" when describing his radio listening habits. I suppose it would be hard to examine all facets of his musical influences.

On a separate note, this Guinness World Record for Worst Ending goes to this closing sentence: "In focusing on quotidian experience through the intimate pleasures of musical sound, I hear Asian Americans doing serious identity work while getting down and rocking out." The record was previously held by the movie "Wanted".

Cooley/Barz Critical Review #ERROR:NaN

Cooley and Barz give a clear and concise overview of the evolution of the field of ethnomusicology and the parallel evolution of fieldwork, pointing out the origins of key ethnomusicology concepts (reflexivity, the science paradigm, connection between ethnomusicology and colonialism, nationalism as motivation, etc.)

One little thing I greatly appreciated was this sentence, after the authors had pointed out some flaws in early examples of ethnomusicology: "We do not wish to question the quality and integrity of the pioneering work of these early scholars, only to historically and socially situate their work and to suggest how their shadows impact our own fieldwork. " A lot of ethnomusicologists seem to attack authors with which they disagree, on a close-to-personal level which turns me off. It's nice to see someone giving others credit for doing a good, but not perfect job.

The article wraps up by explaining why the old standard of fieldwork is dead, and explains key qualities of the new fieldwork - still emphasizing face to face interaction, but now with an understanding of the interconnectedness of the local and the global and more open-ended ways to do fieldwork (other than 12 months in an "exotic" location).

Fieldnotes: 8bitcollective

For my first set of fieldnotes, I took a look at 8bitcollective, "the first completely open chiptune-related media repository and file sharing community." As of this writing, the site has 16,271 registered users, not including unregistered guests, of which there are generally around 60 online at any given time. I hoped to gain some insight into the importance, advantages, and disadvantages of this online scene; as well as learn about some of its users - their motivation, their processes, their thoughts about the site.

One of the first things I checked out was the 8bitcollective wiki, authored by various site members, which gave additional meaning to the description of "completely open." It's contents include information about just about everything chiptune related, mostly written in an informal voice. The intent of the wiki seems to be to bring anyone and everyone up to speed on all fronts; one article even explains an inside joke on the site.

The wiki also showcased one of the key values of this community. The Hall of Shame reveals how much community members HATE intellectual property theft. While this may seem counter-intuitive for a site that publicly distributes music for free, the key is in the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA License, under which all music posted to 8bitcollective is licensed. Violators are posted here in the wiki, along with accounts and sources explaining what they did.

The next part of my fieldnotes will consist of looking at a few sample postings, some recent and some older, and examining the interactions that go on between poster and commenters. Every song posted has its own page, with a comment section, a more submissions from this user section, and a "like"s section (which lists the names of users who have indicated that they like this particular song). Each user also has their own page, featuring all of their submissions, comments given and received, and other submissions they have "liked." Additionally, a large chunk of the main page of 8bitcollective is "Latest Music Submissions," which means that whatever is new instantly gets some exposure that way.

Example 1 (Hot off the presses):

Canadian Curled Mustache (NL2.3), uploaded by "Oslo Fireflower" on March 4th 2010, 07:16 PM

"Description: My dreams involve Capri sun and Zero gravity. This song is for a kid named Cole."

I'm not sure about the significance of the description; it sounds a bit like inside jokes / personal references. In conjunction with the title, the description conveys a sense of humor. It is worth noting that (NL2.3) stands for NanoLoop 2.3, the program used to make the song. It appears most of Oslo Fireflower's music is made with NanoLoop, since most of his songs feature this tag. Oslo Fireflowers first activity

When I refresh the page fifteen minutes later, there are already 5 comments. The first one, posted at 7:21, from "spindle", begins, "YAY NEW OLSO FIREFIREFLOWER SONG!!!" indicating that spindle has come across Oslo Fireflower before. Sure enough, spindle has liked and commented on two other Oslo Fireflower songs, both glowing with approval. Spindle mentions some very specific musical elements he likes in the song, and compliments Oslo's NanoLoop skills.

To get a sense of the "who" in this situation, spindle's bio reads simply "i'm 13. 8th grade. name's jake." This provides some interesting demographic info, but not as much as what spindle says in another comment: "yes i am 13.lol alot of people on here are like 18-26." This seems to be a reasonable estimation of the average user profile, but more research will tell.

Oslo comments back to spindle at 7:24, thanking him for the comment and telling him about another project he's working on involving African instruments, and spindle responds enthusiastically at 7:21, forming a pretty continuous dialogue.

Another user, "FlashMob", jumps in at 7:29, saying "dope song lot of emotion...and nice wubzz:)" Emoticons are prominent in the comments sections, usually happy ones, but I have no idea what wubzz is. Olso returns the compliment at 7:33: "flashhh ahhhhhh he'll save everyone of uss. or something like that. you're the best man," making a Queen reference along the way. FlashMob and Oslo have a history as well, each one liking several of the others songs and exchanging positive comments and a little bit of tech talk.

The next day's comments bring more positive feedback, and more users who have a history with Oslo, one even refers to him by his first name, a piece of information that isn't available simply from his bio page. Oslo can't keep up responding to comments one by one anymore and simply replies, "Thanks everyone!!!! you're all greattt!"

From this case, I'm starting to see that one key element in this community is specific relationships between users that span multiple submissions for each, and involve a two-way street of mutual feedback. Another thing that struck me is how overwhelmingly positive the comments were. This could point to a number of things: a very supportive environment, a very superficial and disingenuous environment, users following site etiquitte and social codes, Oslo being a really good chiptune artist, or Oslo having a specific group of supportive friends on the site. I'm not passing judgement on which of these it is (or if it's something else entirely), just exploring the possibilities.

I think I'll post more examples in a separate post, this one is getting long. Next up is taking a look at one of the most liked songs of the week.