HexD
Music microgenre based on bitcrushing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HexD is a microgenre of hip-hop and electronic music that emerged in the late 2010s to early 2020s, characterized by heavy use of bitcrushing mixed with sped-up and pitched-up vocals, resulting in a distorted "glitched-out" sound.
- Hex
- hexxed
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| Cultural origins | Late 2010s to early 2020s; United States |
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Etymology and characteristics
HexD is primarily characterized by the use of bitcrushing, a production technique that produces distortion through the reduction of bandwidth and digital audio data.[1] HexD artists usually apply bitcrushing to specific instruments or the entire master track, speeding and pitching up vocals as well as overall instrumentation.[1] The term hexD originates from a style of DJ mixing that makes extensive use of bitcrushing and digital effects, a process described as "hexxing" a song.[2] Alternative Press magazine described HexD as "sped up, bitcrushed and glitched out".[3]
The visual aesthetics of hexD draw influence from anime, internet aesthetics, and early Web 2.0 era iconography and artwork primarily associated with the 2006 online GIF editor Blingee.[2][4] The genre was briefly known as "surge", after the Dismiss Yourself compilation album Surge Compilation Vol. 1 (2020) but was later differentiated from the label.[5]
History
Precursors
In 2011, Untrance released a mixtape titled "Deleted Seniors", which featured EDM music mixed with heavy bitcrushing, marking one of the first times the extreme use of the effect was incorporated as an aesthetic quality in music.[2]
Origins
Although the use of bitcrushing in trap music was originally pioneered by West Coast-based producer she_skin.[citation needed] The term "hexD" was coined by Hexcastcrew member Stacy Minajj, who released the DJ mix Rare RCB hexD.mp3 in June 2019, which samples and remixes songs from the influential online rap collective Reptilian Club Boyz.[4][6] Writing for Pitchfork, music critic Kieran Press-Reynolds stated that the underground scene in the early 2020s was "splintering every which way, from wailing digicore to bitcrushed hexD."[4] He cited Reptilian Club Boyz as being alongside other groups in "the nexus for a new vanguard".[4] Nashville rapper Hi-C who founded the collective, has been noted as "a key influence on the development of HexD".[7][8]
Subsequently, the YouTube channel and netlabel Dismiss Yourself, which focused on obscure internet music, uploaded the Stacy Minajj RCB mix to their channel on August 23, 2019, which became instrumental to the wider proliferation of the hexD genre.[9][1] In March 2021, Alternative Press magazine labelled the group Fax Gang as "hexDers" and merging the style with shoegaze.[10][11] The publication further stated, "ZBITO18 and the rest of HELLOKITTYWAFFENDIVISION provide a comprehensive catalog of hexD-ed (aka sped up, bitcrushed and glitched out) neon Myspace-core rave insanity."[11] Followed by an article from April that year stating, "The blackwinterwells-led helix tears collective is SoundCloud's most exciting rabbit hole of glitchcore/hexD emo-rap transcendentalists".[3] On April 5, 2021, Dismiss Yourself released the various artists compilation album Surge Compilation Vol. 1, which further popularized the movement.[9][12][11][5]