Witch House

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Witch House is an electronic music genre that emerged in the late 2000s. Its development stemmed from a combination of musical influences. These included the drum programming and rhythms of Southern hip-hop, specifically Memphis Rap; the hypnotic and surreal sound manipulation techniques of chopped and screwed; the minimal and gothic tones of darkwave and ethereal wave; the production style of late 2000s synthpop and indietronica, particularly chillwave; and the textural density of shoegaze and dream pop.

SALEM is credited with pioneering the genre, which was further developed by artists such as CRIM3S and Unison. The genre is characterized by its dark, occult, and often horror-inspired aesthetic. Musically, it features altered, slowed-down, and processed samples layered over slow, hip hop-derived drum machine rhythms, prominent basslines, or high-pitched leads, and dense synthesizer textures. The name "witch house," coined by Pictureplane's Travis Egedy in 2009, was not universally accepted by producers, but it gained popularity within the movement, superseding alternative terms.^[1]

The early witch house scene was centered on platforms such as Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Producers utilized a distinct visual aesthetic, incorporating obscure and surreal imagery with elements of Satanism, witchcraft, and horror, including references to films such as The Blair Witch Project and the works of David Lynch. The visual style also drew inspiration from extreme metal and punk. The use of Unicode symbols, triangles, crosses, and empty spaces in artist names and releases was a common practice.

The genre's sonic diversity led to the emergence of related styles in the early to mid-2010s. Some artists explored a dark, aggressive electronic pop sound that incorporated elements of electroclash. Clams Casino's cloud rap incorporated witch house atmospheres and sample manipulation into hip-hop production. Crossovers between witch house and rap also occurred. Wave emerged from the fusion of witch house and cloud rap with electronic dance music. Vaporwave shares some roots with witch house's approach to sample processing.

Although its mainstream presence declined in the latter part of the 2010s, witch house continues to influence underground music. Post-industrial artists combine its ethereal sound with distorted percussion and atonal elements, and hip-hop artists incorporate witch house-inspired production techniques.

Visuals[]

While Witch House definitely revolves more around music, it has been visually interpreted, taking a lot of cues from the Vaporwave school of aesthetic thought. It has been interpreted in three ways, which have sometimes been known to merge:

Revolving around more technological visuals with dark undertones.
Revolving around more actual witchcraft, in the sense of Pagan magick and/or Wicca.
Revolving heavily around the dark aspect, often using imagery that may be found in horror.
Artwork revolving around surrealistic collages & psychedelic obscure art as well as being inspired by retro horror movies (especially the directors David Lynch, Dario Argento & David Cronenberg).

While there is a lot of crossover with the Witchcore aesthetic, make no mistake: Witchcore takes more of a nature-based approached based on actual witchcraft and neopaganism, compared to the more dark tech-y Witch House aesthetic, which can invoke Satanic imagery and is similar to Devilcore and Catholic Horror. That being said, the Teen Witch subtype of Witchcore does tend to have more overlap with Witch House compared to general Witchcore.

Fashion[]

Witch House fashion can draw upon a lot of Nu-Goth, Streetwear, Techwear, and Vaporwave fashions (although in the case of Vaporwave inspirations, it's done less in the bright colors often associated with it and instead uses more of a monochromatic color palette with hints of red mixed in). Witch House fashion can also draw upon a lot of 90s Grunge and Mallgoth fashion choices as well.

Music[]

HOW_TO_MAKE_WITCH_HOUSE — HOW TO MAKE WITCH HOUSE

Musically, Witch House has a droning, dark, and gothic sound to it. Also, the genre is characterized by the use of high-pitched keyboard effects, heavily layered basslines and trap-style drum loops. Influences include Goth Ethereal Wave, Shoegaze, Noise, early industrial bands as well as DJ Screw via the chopped and screwed technique. Many Witch House artists have released slowed down and backmasked remixes of Pop and Hip-Hop songs with a dark distorted sound, calling it "drag" or "zombie rave" mixes.

Some of the most relevant and representative artists are: