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Hirokazu Tanaka

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Hirokazu Tanaka, nicknamed Hip or Chip Tanaka, is a Japanese musician, composer and sound designer, born on 13 December 1957. He is regarded as a pioneer of chiptune. His mother was a teacher and had him take piano lessons. At secondary school he played in a cover band of the Beatles and Elton John, and in his teens in a reggae band that twice opened for Sly and Robbie. His love of reggae has never gone away.

Music and breakthrough

In 1980, after studying electrical engineering, he started at Nintendo as a sound designer. He made the music for Space Firebird and built a new sound chip for it. In Donkey Kong he supplied the sounds for Mario's steps and jumps, with subtle variations. He was one of Nintendo's in-house composers in the 8- and 16-bit era. His credits include Metroid, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Land, Tetris, Mother, Dr. Mario and EarthBound. He also helped design and program the audio of the Famicom and the Game Boy, as well as the NES Zapper, the Game Boy Camera and the Game Boy Printer. From 2001 to 2023 he was president of Creatures Inc.

Influence

Tanaka showed that with a few simple sound channels you can make a melody that carries an entire game. For a generation of listeners his work was the first encounter with electronic pop music, and his sound lives on in today's chiptune.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the music of Metroid or Super Metroid. Notice how few sound channels there are and how atmospheric the melody and the bass nevertheless sound.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: Artists8-bit and chiptune