Nintendocore

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English

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WOTD – 23 September 2024

Etymology

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Members of metalcore band Horse the Band, often associated with the Nintendocore genre, in 2009: (from left to right) Nathan Winneke (who coined the word Nintendocore), David Isen, Erik Engstrom, and Daniel Pouliot.

From Nintendo (“Japanese multinational video game company”) +‎ -core (suffix denoting a music genre, especially one influenced by hardcore music), with reference to the simplistic sound effects of early video game consoles. The word was coined by the American musician Nathan Winneke,[1][2] the frontman of the metalcore band Horse the Band, as a joke; the band posted the word on the Internet and also printed it on a label on the compact disc of their first demo I Am a Small Wooden Statue on a Patch of Crabgrass Next to a Dried Up Riverbed (2001).[3]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Nintendocore (uncountable)

  1. (music, video games) An aggressive genre of modern rock music influenced by chiptunes (“music that samples or emulates the audio capabilities of older sound chips”) and video game music. [from 2001]
    • 2009 November 2, Amy Plachta, “You Never Knew You Loved … Nintendocore a Unique Sound Worth Exploring”, in Interrobang: Fanshawe College’s Student Voice‎[4], volume 42, number 11, London, Ont.: Fanshawe College Student Union, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-03-31:
      Did you ever wonder what it would be like to mix the theme song from the original Mario Bros. games with chugging guitars and the vocal stylings of someone who wasn't hugged enough as a child? You're not alone. In fact, there's an entire genre of music devoted to this sound – it's called nintendocore. Growing out of metalcore – a fusion of heavy metal and punk – nintendocore derives its distinctive sound from the use of synths reminiscent of mid-eighties video games.
    • 2010 May, Jake Brown, Alice in Chains: In the Studio‎[5], Nashville, Tenn.: Rock ’N’ Roll Books, →ISBN:
      In the ever-changing landscape of music, that's given way to such genres as emo, screamo, nu metal and Nintendocore, one question remains! Does anyone play rock music anymore?
    • 2020, Kevin Dutton, Black and White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World‎[6], London: Bantam Press, →ISBN:
      At the time of writing, Spotify currently lists over 4,000 online categories and sub-categories of music ranging from Nintendocore – a genre delineated solely by the overlay of bludgeoning, bowel-stewing grunge riffs on old-school videogame soundtracks – to Pornogrind, a maximum security subgenre of Grindcore (a convulsing fusion of rawboned, buzz-sawing death metal and tightly coiled hardcore punk).
    • 2020, Larissa Hjorth, Ingrid Richardson, Hugh Davies, William Balmford, “Playing during and post COVID-19 Pandemic”, in Exploring Minecraft: Ethnographies of Play and Creativity (Palgrave Games in Context), Cham, Zug, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 171:
      In the US, a well-known Brooklyn music venue hosted a Minecraft concert featuring much loved bands […]. The sprawling nightclub was painstakingly recreated and featured performances from the popular emo act American Football, "Nintendocore" videogame musicians Anamanaguchi and electronic artist Baths […].

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Mark Holmes, interviewer (2008 October 20) “Interviews: Horse the Band: Erik Engstrom + David Isen + Nathan Winneke: Part 1”, in Metal Discovery‎[1], archived from the original on 2016-03-06:
    M[etal] D[iscovery]: Who in the band coined the term Nintendo-core? / E[rik] E[ngstrom]: It was Nathan, right? / N[athan] W[inneke]: We were on our way back from a Death By Stereo show I think, and we were just making … we had like seventy different names we were making up, but it was just based off the fact that his new keyboards sounded like something along that direction. But it really worked out quite well.
  2. ^ Theo Farrant (2023 August 24) “International Strange Music Day: 7 Niche Genres You’ve Probably Never Heard Of”, in Euronews‎[2], archived from the original on 2023-12-09: “The genre was pioneered in the early 2000s by Horse the Band, whose frontman Nathan Winneke coined the name of the genre.”
  3. ^ Por Rob quoting Erik Engstrom (2009 June) “Entrevista a HORSE the band: «Somos más que nintendocore» [Interview with HORSE the Band: ‘We are More than Nintendocore’]”, in portALTERNATIVO‎[3] (in Spanish), archived from the original on 2024-03-16:
    Otra típica pregunta que supongo que os harán en todas las entrevistas: ¿la etiqueta de ‘nintendocore’ fue algo que os pusisteis vosotros o fue la prensa? / Si, lo hicimos en nuestra primera demo de la que solo hicimos 50 copias. Le pusimos una etiqueta en el CD con lo de ‘nintendocore’ y desde ahí la cosa despegó. Lo teníamos puesto en la web. No es algo que dijéramos en serio, fue algo que surgió así como, ‘nintendocore’, vale. Simplemente nos estábamos cachondeando de otros, no sé …
    Another typical question that I suppose you will be asked in all interviews: was the ‘Nintendocore’ label something you gave yourself or was it the press? / Yes, we did it on our first demo of which we only made 50 copies. We put a label on the CD with ‘Nintendocore’ and from there things took off. We had it posted on the web. It’s not something we were serious about, it was something that came up, like, ‘Nintendocore’, okay. We were just making fun of others, I don’t know …

Further reading

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