| Witch house | |
|---|---|
Sample of a typical witch house beat | |
| Other names | Drag, screwgaze,haunted house |
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | c. 2007–2008,New Orleans andNew York City |
| Typical instruments | |
| Other topics | |
Witch house (sometimes referred to asdrag,[1]screwgaze orhaunted house)[2] is amicrogenre ofelectronic music that is musically characterized by high-pitched keyboard effects, heavily layered basslines andtrap-style drum loops. Aesthetically, it employsoccult- andgothic-inspired themes.[3][4]
The witch house visual aesthetic includes occultism,witchcraft,shamanism, terror- andhorror-inspired artworks, collages and photographs as well as significant use ofhidden messages and typographic elements such asUnicode symbols.[5][6] Artworks by witch house visual artists have incorporated imagery from horror films such asThe Blair Witch Project,[7] the television seriesTwin Peaks,[8] and the fantasy showCharmed,[9] as well as mainstreampop culture celebrities of the 2000s. Common typographic elements in titles, such as bySalem andWhite Ring, include triangles, crosses andUnicode symbols. These elements are seen by some as a method ofgatekeeping (in an effort to keep the sceneunderground and more difficult to search for on the Internet).[10]
Instead, witch house adapts mergesambient house,dubstep,Houston hip-hop,drone,shoegaze,industrial,gothic rock[2] andnoise.[11] It is also heavily influenced byDJ Screw, particularly hischopped and screwed sampling method of.[12] Witch house actSalem was influenced by 1980s ethereal wave bands such asCocteau Twins,[1] The use of hip-hopdrum machines,noise atmospherics, creepysamples,[13] darksynthpop-influenced lead melodies, densereverb, and heavily altered, distorted, and sometimes pitched down vocals are the primary attributes that characterize the genre's sound. Vocals can either berapped, sung by either a female or male or a song can be entirely instrumental. The genre rose to prominence in the early 2010s with renewed interest in individually produced electronic music and Internet subcultures that spawned on sites likeTumblr,Bandcamp &SoundCloud. Witch house is often equated with other visually-dependent genres such asseapunk andvaporwave, which also achieved popularity over Tumblr.
The termwitch house was coined in 2009 by Travis Egedy, professionally known asPictureplane.[14][15] The term was originally conceived as a joke,[16][17][18] as Egedy explained: "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..."[16] Shortly after its mention inPitchfork, blogs and other mainstream music press began to use the term.Flavorwire said that despite Egedy's insistence, "the genre does exist now, for better or worse".[19]
Some music journalists, along with some members of musical acts identified as being in the genre's current movement, consider witch house to be a false label for a microgenre, constructed by certain publications in the music press, includingThe Guardian,Pitchfork, and various music blogs.[20][21] The genre was also briefly connected to the termrape gaze, the serious use of which was publicly denounced by those who coined it, who never expected it to be used as an actual genre term,[22][23] but viewed it as simply a joke intended to mock the music press' propensity towards the creation of microgenres.[21]