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From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Chiptune is a distinctive style of electronic music which features integrated circuits (chips) capable of producing very simple waveforms as the primary or only instruments. The style has its roots in the first electronic sound experiments by engineers and avant garde musicians in the early to mid 20th century. As personal computers with sound capability became more widespread in the late 1970s and 1980s, first in the hobbyist culture and then in the mainstream with models like the Commodore 64 and the Atari ST, a recognizable chip style began to emerge as dictated by the limitations of those machines. Although sound synthesis technology has long since made the original 'chips' obsolete and many listeners find the style harsh and annoying, a vigorous subculture of chip style composers and fans exists today with members scattered throughout the world. The chip style is sometimes considered a subgenre of tracked music.