Witch house (music genre)
| Witch house | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Chopped and screwed, juke, industrial, noise, drone, trap, gothic rock, shoegaze, synthpop, house, hip hop |
| Cultural origins | Late-2000s, United States, Germany, Australia, Denmark, and United Kingdom |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer, drum machine, sequencer, sampler |
| Other topics | |
| Vaporwave | |
Witch house (also known as drag or haunted house) is an occult-themed dark electronic music genre and visual aesthetic that emerged in the early 2010s. The music is heavily influenced by chopped and screwed hip-hop soundscapes, industrial and noise experimentation, and features use of synthesizers, drum machines, obscure samples, droning repetition and heavily altered, ethereal, indiscernible vocals.
The witch house visual aesthetic includes occult, witchcraft, shamanism and horror-inspired artworks, collages and photographs as well as significant use of typographic elements such as Unicode symbols.[1][2] Many works by witch house visual artists incorporate themes from horror films such as The Blair Witch Project,[3] the television series Twin Peaks,[4] and mainstream pop culture celebrities. Common typographic elements in artist and track names include triangles, crosses, and other Unicode symbols, which are seen by some as a method of keeping the scene underground and harder to search for on the Internet as well as references to the television series Twin Peaks and Charmed.[5][6]
Influences and style
Witch house applies techniques rooted in chopped and screwed hip-hop – drastically slowed tempos with skipping, stop-timed beats[7] – coupled with elements from genres such as noise, drone, and shoegaze.[8] Witch house is also influenced by hazy 1980s goth bands, including Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Christian Death and Dead Can Dance,[9] as well as being heavily influenced by certain industrial and experimental bands such as Psychic TV and Coil.[10][11] The use of hip-hop drum machines, noise atmospherics, creepy samples,[12] dark synthpop-influenced lead melodies, dense reverb, and heavily altered, distorted, and pitched down vocals are the primary attributes that characterize the genre's sound. The concept started out as a joke, with Travis Egedy (commonly known by the stage name Pictureplane) and his friends coining the term in 2009 to refer to their style of music.[13][14][15] Shortly after being mentioned to Pitchfork,[13] blogs and other mainstream music press began to use the term.
Many artists in the genre have released slowed-down remixes of pop and rap songs,[16] or long mixes of different songs that have been slowed down significantly.
History of term
The term witch house was coined in 2009 by Travis Edgey, who performs under the name Pictureplane.[17] Egedy described witch house as follows:"It’s a joke. Myself and my friend Shams... were joking about the sort of house music we make, [calling it] witch house because it’s, like, occult-based house music. ...I did this best-of-the-year thing with Pitchfork about witch house.... I was saying that we were witch house bands, and 2010 was going to be the year of witch house.... It took off from there. ...But, at the time, when I said witch house, it didn’t even really exist..."[13] However, Flavorwire said that despite Egedy's insistence, "the genre does exist now, for better or worse".[18]
Witch house has been said to be a false label for a micro-genre, constructed by certain publications in the music press (including The Guardian, Pitchfork and various music blogs). These claims have been made by some members of musical acts identified as being in the genre's current movement, as well as by music journalists.[19][20] The genre was also briefly connected to the term rape gaze, the serious use of which was publicly denounced by its coiners, who never expected it to be used as an actual genre,[21][22] but viewed it as simply a joke intended to mock the music press' propensity towards the creation of micro-genres.[20]
Bands and artists
Notable bands and artists with music described as "witch house" include:
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- ∆AIMON[23][24]
- Balam Acab[25][26]
- Bruxa[26]
- Clams Casino[27]
- Crystal Castles[28]
- Crim3s[26]
- Glass Teeth (stylized as GL▲SS †33†H)[29][30]
- Holy Other[31][32]
- Horse MacGyver (formerly ///▲▲▲\\\)[33][34]
- Mascara (stylized as M△S▴C△RA)[35]
- oOoOO[25][26][36]
- Purity Ring[37]
- Ritualz (stylized as †‡†)[1][36]
- Salem[25][26][36]
- Zola Jesus[10]
References
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