Witch house (music genre)

Witch house
Stylistic origins	Chopped and screwed, hip hop, shoegaze, industrial, noise, darkwave, ethereal, dubstep, gothic rock, chillwave, horrorcore
Cultural origins	Late 2000s, primarily North America
Typical instruments	Synthesizer, drum machine, sequencer, sampler pitched down vocals, samples, rapping
Mainstream popularity	Mostly underground in 2010s

Witch house (sometimes referred to as drag) is a music genre. The term Witch-house started as a joke that was originally used to describe occult-based house music by Travis Egedy (commonly known by the stage name Pictureplane) and his friends in 2009.^[1][2][3] As the tongue-in-cheek term grew in popularity, shortly after being pitched to Pitchfork Media,^[4] blogs and other mainstream music press continued the use of the term for marketing purposes, and thus now use the label to describe a subgenre of industrial music. It generally features a fusion of techniques rooted in Swishahouse hip-hop – sluggish tempo with skipping, stop-timed beats^[5] – coupled with elements from genres such as noise, drone, and shoegaze.^[6] Witch House is also influenced by hazy 1980s goth bands, including Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Christian Death and Dead Can Dance,^[7] as well as being heavily influenced by certain early industrial bands.^[8][9] Many artists in the genre have released slowed-down remixes of pop and rap songs,^[10] or long mixes of different songs that have been slowed down significantly. Common typographic elements in artist and track names include triangles, crosses, and other geometric shapes,^[11][12] which is seen by some as being part of a larger unified aesthetic within the scene as well as a method of keeping it underground and harder to search for on the internet.^[13][14]

As of August 2, 2011, Pitchfork Media are continuing the use of the term, but are now using Witch House to market and describe †††, a solo project of Chino Moreno, of the American alternative metal band Deftones.^[15] Which features a collection of minimal and soothing, electronic-based, ambient rock tracks.^[16]

Criticism

The term Witch House has been criticized as not representing a cohesive genre or scene and being a result of a compulsion to label everything, ultimately simply used as a label for marketing purposes. The genre was at one point connected to the name rape gaze, the use of which has since been publicly denounced by its coiners, who "never expected it to be used for an actual genre."^[17] Other critics view it as simply a gimmick.^[18] Witch House has also been said to be a micro-genre constructed by certain publications in the music press (among them The Guardian, Pitchfork and various music blogs). These claims, among others, have been made by some members of musical acts identified in the supposed genre's current movement, as well as by musical analysts.^{[9][19][20][21][22]}

Travis Egedy, commonly known by the stage name Pictureplane, describes Witchhouse as the following:

"So what is the real story on witch house? Egedy explains.

It’s a joke.

Travis Egedy: Myself and my friend Shams—he makes house music, too—we were joking about the sort of house music we make, [and we were calling it] witch house because it’s, like, occult-based house music. It was 2009. And then I did this best-of-the-year thing with Pitchfork about witch house, and it was me and Shams and Modern Witch. I was saying that we were witch house bands, and 2010 was going to be the year of witch house, that it was going to get really witchy and stuff. It took off from there. Different people started posting about it on blogs, and it sort of became an internet meme. And someone attached the name witch house to the sounds that bands like Salem were making—the slowed down, spooky, Goth juke kind of stuff."

"...But, at the time, when I said witch house, it didn’t even really exist..."^[23]

Further fueling criticism in the media of the sub-genre.

References

1. ^ Nguyen, Tuyet (2010-12-30). "This is witch house | Music | The A.V. Club Denver/Boulder". Avclub.com. http://www.avclub.com/denver/articles/this-is-witch-house,49199/. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
2. ^ "Weird emergence | San Francisco Bay Guardian". Sfbg.com. http://www.sfbg.com/2011/01/04/weird-emergence. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
3. ^ By P.J. Nutting (2010-12-30). "Which house for witch house?". Boulderweekly.com. http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-4113-which-house-for-witch-house.html. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
4. ^ Nguyen, Tuyet (2010-12-30). "This is witch house | Music | The A.V. Club Denver/Boulder". Avclub.com. http://www.avclub.com/denver/articles/this-is-witch-house,49199/. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
5. ^ Lindsay, Cam. "The Translator - Witch House • Spark •". Exclaim.ca. http://exclaim.ca/Features/Spark/translator-witch_house. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
6. ^ Watson, William Cody (2010-09-12). "Slow Motion Music". Impose Magazine. http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/slow-motion-music. 
7. ^ Wright, Scott (2010-03-09). "Scene and heard: Drag". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/mar/08/scene-heard-drag. Retrieved 2010-06-10. 
8. ^ "Haunted: A Witch House Primer". Flavorwire. 2010-09-22. http://flavorwire.com/118771/haunted-a-witch-house-primer#more-118771. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Maness, Carter (2010-08-25). "Brooklyn's Vanishing Witch House: White Ring and CREEP burn your trends and have real music to show for it". Nypress.com. http://www.nypress.com/article-21562-brooklyns-vanishing-witch-house.html. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
10. ^ Caramanica, Jon (4 November 2010). "DJ Screw's Legacy: Seeping Out of Houston, Slowly". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/arts/music/07witch.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all. 
11. ^ "Witch House: Listen With The Lights On | RVA Magazine | Richmond, VA". Rvamag.com. http://rvamag.com/articles/full/8762/witch-house-listen-with-the-lights-on. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
12. ^ "Witch House ▲Esthetics". Synconation. 2010-12-21. http://synconation.com/misc/witch-house-%E2%96%B2esthetics/. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
13. ^ Baxter, Jason (2010-12-20). "What is the "Witch House Font?" | Line Out". Lineout.thestranger.com. http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2010/12/20/what-is-the-witch-house-font. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
14. ^ "How To Be a Witch House Poser". Flavorwire. 2011-01-19. http://flavorwire.com/143984/how-to-be-a-witch-house-poser. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
15. ^ "Deftones Dude Has a Witch House Project". Pitchfork. 2011-08-02. http://pitchfork.com/news/43411-deftones-dude-has-a-witch-house-project/. Retrieved 2011-09-20. 
16. ^ "Deftones' Chino Moreno Unveils New ††† (Crosses) Project". Exclaim. 2011-08-02. http://exclaim.ca/News/deftones_chino_moreno_unveils_new_crosses_project. Retrieved 2011-09-20. 
17. ^ "Salem - King Night". Pitchfork Media. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14718-king-night/. 
18. ^ Sokol, Zach (2011-02-01). "The Witch House Debate: Is †he Music Genre Wor†h ∆ Lis†en? · NYU Local". Nyulocal.com. http://nyulocal.com/entertainment/2011/02/01/the-witch-house-debate-is-%E2%80%A0he-music-genre-wor%E2%80%A0h-%E2%88%86-lis%E2%80%A0en/. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
19. ^ "Pitchfork Backtracks on 'Rape Gaze' Because Creep Said So". The Daily Swarm. 2010-10-12. http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/pitchfork-backtracks-rape-gaze-because-creep-said-so/. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
20. ^ at 3:52 PM (2010-05-24). "Pitchfork showcases new subgenre "Witch House"". Brooklynvegan.com. http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2010/05/pitchfork_showc.html. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
21. ^ Baron, Zach (2010-10-08). "The Horrifyingly Named Micro-Genre "Rape Gaze" Explained - New York Music - Sound of the City". Blogs.villagevoice.com. http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2010/10/the_horrifyingl.php. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
22. ^ Spin, The (2010-08-25). "‘New’ ‘Genre’ Alert: Which House? Witch House | Nashville Cream". Nashvillescene.com. http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2010/08/25/new-genre-alert-which-house-witch-house. Retrieved 2011-07-20. 
23. ^ Nguyen, Tuyet (2010-12-30). "This is witch house | Music | The A.V. Club Denver/Boulder". Avclub.com. http://www.avclub.com/denver/articles/this-is-witch-house,49199/. Retrieved 2011-07-20.