I'm not gonna lie, I do like bands like Salem, White Ring, and †‡† (Ritualz) a lot. I think they have an interesting sound, and I like seeing how they develop and work with synthesizers, keyboards, feedback, and vocals. However I find Witch House far more interesting to discuss and to analyze than to actually listen to. Witch House is inextricably bound up with the advent of social networking--primarily Facebook, Soundcloud, Last.fm, and Twitter. Without the internet, Witch House would not exist. It would never have gotten the chance to exist. This rather irritating but fairly insightful article states the following,
Going into the 90's we had music produced by the children of baby boomers, singing self-centered anthems about how much it sucks to be white, middle class teenagers and this astonishing degree of entitlement was about the most insulting thing to me yet it went on to define rock music in the 90's. Things haven’t gotten much better.
I think that point is interesting, but I also think it's built on a weak foundation. What the article gets right is a specific pattern in music that has been replaying itself since the 1950's. The portion of the entitled, white population that wants to pretend that they aren't white and entitled will always find a genre to develop and identify with. Grunge in the 90's certainly did appeal to a largely well-off, Caucasian audience. However, I think it's safe to argue--that a decade or so later, 90's rock and "alternative" groups have staying power.
The problem with WH is that it's built on a an aesthetic and social philosophy--not on the actual music. When I think about why I find WH interesting, my first thought is, "Well, I like the album art a whole lot." And that's the issue. Witch House is more aesthetically interesting than musically captivating. The barrage of inverted crosses, triangles, and the casual tossing around of occult symbolism is certainly fun for the eyes, despite having become completely overdone. Witch House has even birthed a new stylistic ideology called "Gucci Goth." The name says it all: the synthesis of a mainstream designer marketed to the rich and entitled, and a countercultural subgroup which revels in its detestation of everything mainstream. WH is built on this essential paradox of the wealthy elite wedded with the social outcasts. A genre built on a creed so hypocritical can never last. Or perhaps the hypocrisy is intentional--perhaps I'm doltishly unaware of the grand joke, the irony of witch house. (But I don't think so.)
Here's the part where I reveal my dirty secret: I run the WNYU Witch House and Ambient Drone radio show. As the year has progressed--I have become more and more uncomfortable with this fact. For me, WH was something silly and fun, and I figured that it could be interesting to devote a show to it, seeing as it's current and evolving, with most of the artists based in Brooklyn and easily accessible through social networking. This turned out to be true, I've met many of the artists, received demos--and "randomly-affiliated-with-witch-house-people" make up a rough 19% of my Facebook friends. So I guess I succeeded in getting involved, and having the show is certainly worth it.
However, the sad thing about getting so close with the genre is seeing its inner workings--and they're not pretty. Getting to know Witch House is an experience freakishly similar to the time I learned Santa Claus wasn't real. The facade of mysterious music and beautiful people has broken down slowly over the year to reveal a shallow, internet based culture--where your closeness to people is based on how many mutual friends you share and how many times they like your albums on Photobooth of you smoking cigarettes and sporting caked on eyeliner. I once asked a person who happens to be very prominent in the WH world about her relationship with another artist. She responded with a giggle and replied, "Oh, we've never met in real life!" as if it were a silly question for me to even have to ask. A person's status in the WH culture is entirely dependent upon how socially opportunistic you are and how many of the bands you've sleep with. Of course, I'm not saying every one involved in making WH and listening to WH conforms to these standards--I have met some fantastic artists and great people as a result of my show. However, I've been disappointed at how little music actually factors in.
I honestly don't think anyone would have any issue with witch house if it were a fashion movement or a live-art trend. And if I unintentionally offend any one as a result of this post, I apologize. I'm merely stating my own personal experience as a person who has been listening to Witch House for a very long time. I think it has an interesting, innovative sound---but it lacks the key quality of a genre that sticks around: a sense of humor. Deifying the cult-meme Lil B' (The "Based God") with and talking in Hipster Runoff style might be considered "humorous"--but it isn't the kind of self-deprecating humor that lends a movement staying power. A sense of humor in music means a willingness to experiment with new sounds at the expense of one's reputation and above all--to not take oneself too seriously. Plenty of musicians in all genres are guilty of this, but Witch House suffers from a nasty case of pretentiousness as a result of being coddled and praised by the likes of Pitchfork and Nylon.
Or maybe it's just me. Yes, what music you listen to defines who you are, and it shapes the way you interact with people. Music can foster meaningful relationships and change a person's life. But WH is starting to remind me of my horrendous experiences in middle school when I attempted to sit at "the cool kid's table." When music becomes a fashion-statement, I'm done.
I think you're missing the idea behind all those movements since the 50's you mentioned - and that is, that most people aren't thinking twice about being white and privileged and what to do about it. things just kind of happen. I'm not sure all these genres actually lived their lives out, comparing themselves to anything and deliberately going against the grain.
ReplyDeleteodd, that anyone would. less odd, is wishing life was like Robotussin - hence witchhaus!
75 whiteys on an island, no sense of competition or street cred, no race for last place to prove who is lacking the most of that dirty ambition stuff that's wrecked civilization... you're still going to have fun on Robotussin.
plenty humourless acts of art are still valid, and it's not a requisite to be creative; maybe only to pay rent in a few hungry, com-plaintive minds trying to bleed the marrow out of anything spontaneous, like a music style.
10 to 1 that witchhaus bands aren't betting the farm on their longevity, and that they have funny times apart from recording them or neurotically overacting their go-with-the-flowness to sate the finger pointers.
i suppose this would be a good time to look upon a something and say "it is what it is".
Thanks for the long comment! I do agree with you on some points. I probably didn't stress enough in my post how much witch house I actually listen to--I listen to a LOT of it. And yes, there's a certain element of doing drugs, and making music for the fun of it. But what I'm taking issue with is the fact that some of these people act like they're fucking rockstars...and I mean I don't give a shit how they treat people in their personal lives, however this overblown sense of their own self worth is impairing one of the aspects of music that I find really important--community. I think it's really important for a genre to be able to cultivate a community where fans aren't treated like minions, but like people who have opinions. Witch House isn't a world of human beings--it's a world of computer friendships and being too strung out on coke to even function. And yes, I'm making huge generalizations, there are a lot of people involved in WH that I think are amazing musicians and great people, but I just felt like voicing my opinion. And I mean, yeah, it's cool, it's fun, and it's interesting--as a fad, a trend, but it's completely transient, which is why I think it's completely ridiculous for people to get so caught up in it. And yes, you are very very right--it is what it is, and it's not going to change. I'm just analyzing in particular why it can't last, and certain elements of it that irritate me, not suggesting or saying that it can, or should, be changed.
ReplyDeleteI'm usually a fan of what you post but this a lot of bullshit. You're basically saying "I liked witch house while it was cool but now that it's becoming huge I think I have to hate it".
ReplyDeleteDon't you have a Witch House radio show?
That is not what I'm saying in the least bit. I'm not criticizing Witch House for getting popular, I'm criticizing it for losing the little bit of integrity it actually had at one point. I still listen to it frequently--but my waning enthusiasm for the fact that I have a show devoted to it doesn't have to do with its increasing notoriety, it has to do with the way people treat each other, and the complete lack of community surrounding the genre.
ReplyDeletewitch house is pretty hilarious when you really think about it. like a little incestuous orgy cult of outcasts that have created their own faux culture in order to feel like they "belong." naturally, they only belong on the internet - when they step away from their macbook airs and into reality, i imagine it is painful and each minute outdoors without the support of 3,000 facebook friends takes its toll on the psyche of a witch house superstar.
ReplyDeleteI like the bunny :)
ReplyDeleteThe above comment is the best.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Emma. I started to go pretty deep into WH at the outset if only because it had the trappings of imagery and (somewhat) sound of all those late 70's through 80's obscuro coldwave and minimal synth bands mashing together with similarly lost house sounds (all of which I was super into before). But really even early on it felt like it was only a handful of artists that were making any worthwhile music-also coincidentally the same artists preceded the coinage and subsequent coat tail riding of newer WH artist after Witch House was coined as a genre. SALEM was Witch House before "Witch House". Ariel Pink was Chillwave before "Chillwave." Genre is dumb. The biggest lesson to learn in music is that music genre is almost never an artistic creation - it's a confinement, and more often than not a lazy journalistic mechanism to simplify a group of musicians as an overall sound. It's best to just focus on musicians that are catching your ear and just go with that. I've been where you are before and it feels sorta shitty to be so deep into a music genre (friends with artists, etc) that it half feels like you're betraying them to say the truth about them and a exposing what you've come to understand as an ultimately hollow movement. I feel like there'll always be the chameleon musicians who hear of a new genre of musicians emerging and then jump on board and drastically change their sound to adhere to it and you know what- their music always sucks and it's obvious why. So the artists within the 'witch house' sphere now who actually have talent will transcend the genres limitations and the upside down cross waving glow sticked out melodicless wannabes will be left in their irrelevancy.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of:
http://www.pendu.org/
?
Kinda freaks me out, like it's becoming a lifestyle...
Emma you're bril but I'm not sure your post is sound, because I think what attracts me to witch house to the extreme levels of like, writing a blog comment about it is that the doom, gloom, and relative experimental-ness of witch house music is a welcome change from indierockTM (Sufjan, not Sebadoh), which long ago became a humourless plague upon this earth, polluted beyond any possibility of meaningfulness in its trite, canoe-championing boring-ness and killing my interest in staying in tune with music trends for years -- in comparison to which the (I generally assume/hope) tongue in cheek occult imagery and ridiculous slowed down pop remixes (the good ones sound great, but come on, they've also got hella novelty/pop power themselves) are a breath of fresh air. Or dead air. 666.
ReplyDeleteTrue: I don't know any of these artists in person, so maybe that helps... though I think it's really cool that there's an online community of WH artists & appreciators, because 1. otherwise my facebook newsfeed would a yawnfest & 2. I feel like some of the people I've met have had positive impact on me both personally & artistically -- Daniel from GucciGoth for example is both funny and smart as hell, and made us some great mixes for Freud's... via the internet.
I wish I had more time to give thought to what attracts me to GOOD WH sound other than "it's not The Decemberists THANK SATAN", but all I can say is that a good reverb scream evokes something in me that feels real, and if the guy on stage is wearing drapey shit and killer wedges, I'm gonna have a crush on him... even if I can tell he'd be a pain in the ass to hang out with.
Cross double cross up-side-down-heart, I'm out,
Kristel.
About the "Gucci Goth" issue … given that aesthetics are such an important part of WH's appeal (like it or not), I don't think the genre's ties to high fashion are hypocritical. Anyway, high fashion and fringe musical genres do have something in common -- neither is middlebrow.
ReplyDeleteI think you have a really good point Kristel--WH isn't any worse than the barfalicious Top 40 we are constantly exposed to. And yeah, certain people I think are hilarious and embody the tongue in cheek humor that every genre needs. And lastly, I will never deny that WH evokes something in me that makes me feel different. Seeing White Ring live was an ethereal experience and reminded me why I started listening to WH in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm mostly trying to say is that perhaps people have started to take themselves too seriously--to the extent that in my opinion, WH culture has become more about glam and less about the actual music. There certainly are artists I respect a lot, for example, I know that Juan Carlos (aka Ritualz) has a fantastic taste in music and really truly cares about what himself and others are producing.
I'm more just wishing that if I went up to an artist after their set and asked them something like "what kind of synthesizer are you using? and, what's the sound you're going for?", that they wouldn't be too coked out to answer, and that they would WANT to answer. I mean, I'm comparing WH to something like the punk scene, where everyone is extremely open and one the whole, very humble.
In the end, witch house is witch house in all its fucked up, hilarious, and sometimes irritating glory. It's not gonna change, but I'm still gonna be a critic nonetheless, just like I am of other genres like freak-folk and hardcore. I'm really happy that this post stirred up a little bit of conflict--I think really everyone who has commented is correct in some way or another.
Okay I'm off to try to diffuse an altercation on my Facebook wall between Sean Gray of Fan Death and the "founder" of Gucci Goth, Daniel Dodecahedron. This is priceless.
I really like a lot of the tunes but the culture is mysterious to me... do these bands tour? I get the impression they don't. And I think that's kind of what's up with the "kids" these "days" is that meaningful culture can exist on a computer and that's fine. I'm not judging either way, but I would like to see more of this stuff "out in the world"
ReplyDeleteI feel like this would be better received if I actually knew you but...
ReplyDeleteThe only concrete objections that you make are artists being "coked out" or being overly concerned with relationships you don't think are substantive(?) enough. Then you apologize profusely for over generalizing and name drop for a bit.
Besides that obvious irony, I think whats really obnoxious in your argument- and pretty much any argument made in the last 5 years- is that by merely mentioning that something relies on or is catalyzed by social media or the internet that there's an inherently good reason to be skeptical implied. Its 2011! The internet/(in)authenticity discussion isn't interesting or reliable.
I also think that, despite a million things you could critique about the politics or social implications (or whatever you think your mode of inquiry is) of witch house or any other genre of music, this sense of humor stuff is really off point. I totally disagree with the necessity of a sense of humor in art or composition. I think more than anything senses of humor have made music cultures shitty by leaving everyone involved totally unaccountable for what they're saying or doing or producing. Any statement, musical, artistic or otherwise, all of a sudden eludes any kind of critical examination because "it's a joke" "where's your sense of humor man?" "dude, whatever, its funny." And I think that sucks. Especially in contrast to the trends and directions in electro and house music in the last 5 years. (an addendum to that statement might be house thats come from outside more traditional black and gay scenes) I, for one, am excited to see house music that's not about being zany and shit, tons of insane neon colors and ironic purple high tops or nods to nintendos and shit . And even if witch house risks being annoyingly self important at times, the sense of sincerity is an appreciated virtue of the music… even if you can't actually get behind the message, the fact that someones putting out a statement they're happy to be held accountable for isn't "pretentious" its a beneficial quality, honest or not.
I think that hardcore actually provides one of the best examples of when "doin it for tha lulz" takes a turn for the worst: whacky thrash! talk about a fucking disaster that totally consumed one of the hardest most aggressive musical traditions and reduced it to content related to burritos, pizza, zombies and retro skateboarding. for YEARS. I think that even has to do with the appeal of black metal: as insane as some of the shit those dudes believe in, all of a sudden there's actually an opportunity to hear or say something with a straight face.
Lets not forget, house music was a real, racial response to among other things the epic white disco-takeover and the an OG forum for raw gay life: fucking 783947 dudes in the back of a club, poppers, blow, violently gay ass subculture that was a real threat to mainstream america. (And now its Ellen and gay marriage? wtf happened!!!) While by far and away not the only thing, though, the least this music can convey, regardless of who's behind it, is a sense of sincerity.
Frankly, one of the most disappointing things about †‡†'s new e.p. "Ghetto Ass Witch" is the line it crosses into the realm of completely fucking ridiculous (that cover, the lyrics, etc) from a place that I found a lot more appreciable: dark, bleak, grim and most of all sincere.
…Look, thanks for listening grammatical disasters and all. Please don't troll me. All you anons are pussies.
Thanks Jesse, I really respect your opinion...it's very well articulated. Though I don't agree with you...thanks for taking the time to comment, and for having the balls to not bitch me out as an anon. Jeez I'm getting so much shit for this, however it's generating some really good intellectual discussions so it's totally worth it.
ReplyDeleteThe truth of the matter is that this genre is like a time bomb. And they will not explode into fame, but rather a desolate nothing. I can't wait. The whole genre and many of it's listeners, no offense to you or any other, are generally pretentious assholes, who, like you said, take their internet notoriety to such extremes that they miss out on REAL music and REAL life.
ReplyDeleteWe also need to face it, there is nothing new between witch house musical groups. They all sound the same, and they are all pretty talentless. I don't care if you can make a 10 minute song of just hiss. It's boring and anyone could do it!
Then the whole fashion/style issue comes into play. People like them because it is 'different'. Witch House groups reflect something 'dark', and hipster listeners, not having their own personalities ever since they became scene kids in middle/high school, are now trying to be goth of all things, and they believe this music, this shit stain witch house crap, is an easy access to become such!
It's a matter of acceptance. They want to feel accepted. They want to look as if they are "cool" or above everyone else. So they sacrifice their ears and pretend. That's what this is. Pretending, just to gain attention. It's not about the music anymore.