Weirdcore is an aesthetic based on the look and feel of early 2000s internet images. It is supposed to capture the amateur look of the era; they often achieve this by combining amateur photography with virtual visuals, such as text and other elements (shadows, censored areas, etc.).
Thematically, Weirdcore often conveys a feeling of dread, brought forth by it's low quality imagery and a lack of context in regards to the location or the message being shown. This does not mean that Weirdcore is deeply rooted in horror, however, as the feeling of fear left on the viewer is merely a side effect of placing them in an unfamiliar setting.
Visual
The amateur photography portion of an image is often what is known as a liminal space, an aesthetic that Weirdcore has a strong connection to and often relies on. The virtual part of an image often (but not always) manifests itself in the form of plain looking text which conveys a message that is incomplete or out of context, thus leaving the viewer to ask questions and make their own interpretations in regards to the meaning of the statement presented to them (Keep in mind that text is not a necessary part of Weirdcore). It is important to know, however, that both of these "portions'' of Weirdcore do not need to be present simultaneously to make a good image; for example, a Weirdcore image may be constructed exclusively out of virtual elements and could still be categorized as such. The same applies to amateur photography, but regardless of how the process of creating Weirdcore is approached, the images should still aim to put the viewer in an unfamiliar and, occasionally, somewhat hostile context.
Origins
Currently, the exact origins of Weirdcore are undated, but may go as far back as the early 2010s or as soon as 2019. The genre started to pick up popularity when a YouTuber by the name of DavidCrypt uploaded a video explaining the Weirdcore aesthetic. Whilst there are popular Weirdcore creators, it is often hard to find the most popular or the origins of the content and creators, as most current Weirdcore content is uploaded to tumblr, which doesn't show follower accounts.
Music
- Portal 1 OST
- Soup 0.9 Soundtrack
- Yume Nikki OST
- Cyriak
- Petscop OST
- pilotredsun
Games
- Soup 0.9
- Yume Nikki
- .flow
- LSD Dream Emulator
- Roly-Poly Nanakorobi Yaoki
Subgenres
Endcore
Endcore (sometimes called Blisscore) is an aesthetic themed around dreams and childhood, focused around specific shared dream experience of exploring a seemingly endless field. In the dream, individuals will be exploring a wide, often empty field (some claim to see individual trees or flowers or even small animals, but sparsity of life is a core theme of the aesthetic). Individuals in the dream will usually take the form of themselves as a young child, usually around the ages of 4-9. The dream itself is also incredibly uneventful, with the only notable events happening being clouds moving incredibly quickly, interacting with flowers and small animals and climbing hills, yet despite it's mundane nature the dream is still memorable.
The name "endcore" comes from the field in the dream being seemingly endless, making the field itself feel like a purgatory. The aesthetic is also referred to as Blisscore, coming from the Windows XP wallpaper 'Bliss'. Due to how specific the aesthetic is, many endcore images end up looking very similar, with large fields and blue skies.
Resources
There are many places online to get in touch with the Weirdcore community:
- Discord: https://discord.gg/eJmTkDgVmg
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/weirdcore/
Gallery (NOTE:credits being added)
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