Since then I have been reconsidering the topic of memetics and looking for other examples upon which to base my alphabet.
I started thinking more about other internet based memes, aside from those of the humorous kind, the majority of which have either proved too juvenile, obscure or complex to form a decent basis for a writing system and as such I started looking at the culture of Witch House, a musical genre which was born and almost entirely sustained via a network of internet blogs, forums and myspace pages.
As a genre title Witch House is in its self something of a meme, as explained in this interview with Travis Egedy of the group Pictureplane - "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...".
Despite coming under criticism as a loose and poorly defined genre, there is a unified asthetic of typographic and visual trends that have become intrinsically linked to the genre, in particular, the use of obscure keyboard symbols as band names, e.g; †‡†, †▲βU∩∩Y▲† and GL▲SS . As the genre title might suggest, these aesthetics are all linked to themes of the occult and have also inspired a slew of beautifully LO FI videos and animated giffs from fans and musicians a like, some favorites I have posted below
Despite only really gaining recognition fairly recently, this genre is now (by internet standards at least) old news and the buzz around it has dissipated, its attempts at exclusivity and uber underground aesthetic the source of a fair amount of ridicule. What really interests me about all this however, is that this genre is a perfect example of memetics working to produce something artistic and creative and perhaps most importantly, the use of typography as a meme.
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