What is Nightcore?

Nightcore is a primitive, internet-native art medium consisting of sped up, pitch shifted remixes of existing tracks accompanied by anime imagery in the form of Youtube thumbnails. While the name “Nightcore” reads as a genre name, it was not originally intended as such; “Nightcore”, referring to the practice of remixing songs at a higher tempo and pitch is derived from the Norwegian DJ duo Nightcore who released sped up, pitched up remixes of dance music in the early 2000s. From their website (Copyright 2003):

Our name, ‘Nightcore’, means that we are the core of the night, so you’ll dance all night long. 1

Chosen as a stage name, “Nightcore” alluded to its future. Independently but concurrently with the birth and growth of Nightcore, the suffix “-core” has evolved from denoting an influence from “hardcore” music to being a generic genre signifier that appends a concept to denote the essense of a genre or subculture. Self-branding as “Nightcore” became an unintentionally hyperstitious act. Although originally intended to be an individual moniker, the name “Nightcore” contained the latent cybernetic potential for proliferation and Nightcore quickly transcended the authorship of the original duo to become something else.

Post-Authorship

Nightcore is an internet-native art form which inherently prioritizes sum art output and dismisses social mores of accreditation and permission as harmful and unnecessary friction.

Nightcore transcends authorship in a trifold way:

  1. Nightcore has been totally disconnected from the authorship of the now obscure original “Nightcore” duo
  2. Nightcore edits ignore the authorship of the original song writer
  3. Nightcore edits ignore the authorship of the uploader/remixer2

Nightcore stands as “art” rather than “content” because the uploaders do so without claiming any credit for their remixing and offer it freely to listeners. Uncommercialized and free of the baggage of authorship, the Nightcore remix is revolutionary praxis that subverts self-contained, self-sourced, non-iterative & individual ventures (content) which is only prime for hassle-free monetization. Nightcore is ripped, reused, remixed & remade; network-iterated and incrementally improved copyleft plundering is what art actually is.

The Nightcore Egregore

The nature of the medium (pitched and sped up remixes) situates Nightcore in a grey area of “parody”, brilliantly eluding any copyright infringement issues that could potentially impede free memetic flow and allowing it to flourish on Youtube. Nightcore has thus avoided becoming poorly documented ephemera, the fate of much net art; individual Nightcore videos have managed to stay up on Youtube for 10+ years which has allowed the medium to become culturally canonized and grow, keeping the feedback loop operating to proliferate the form. Exposure to Nightcore backlog prompts one to create more Nightcore edits and this feedback loop is accelerated by the ease of which a novice can nightcore a song in minutes with free software like Audacity.

Ontologically divorced from permissions and memetically fit for natural selection on the network, Nightcore has become a collective thoughtform that supplants authorial originalism and mischievously reasserts itself in the role of the author. Nightcore remixes are not attributed to the uploader, remixer, or original composer; they are attributed to “Nightcore”3. The author of Nightcore remixes is in fact an egregore called “Nightcore”4. Nightcore makes itself; the egregore gives its followers the instructions to reproduce itself, parasitically piggybacks off the popularity of a given track, and wraps itself in anime aesthetics optimized for consumption. Native to the network, the Nightcore egregore feeds off the desire for and proclivity toward acceleration. It is globally distributed and sustained by a network of uploaders and listeners who contribute to a decentralized ritual of energetic elevation based on the transcendental act of acceleration5. High metabolism, hyperenergetic, frictionless, Nightcore creates the soundtrack for network acceleration as we careen toward Network Spirituality at 999 mph.

Footnotes

  1. This is not an illuminating explanation, but it is most easily attributed to Europeans trying to explain the rationale behind their thought process and actions in nonnative English. ↲

  2. 3a. the thumbnail art is traditionally uncredited art scraped from Deviantart, etc. via Google Images right clicking ↲

  3. Nightcore remixes are generally titled “Nightcore - Songtitle” with Nightcore taking the place of the artists name. ↲

  4. Paradigmatic of mostmodern artforms. Consider how songs written with and performed on a guitar are not attributed to “Guitar” as an entity, but all songs that use the Vocaloid software engine live in the cultural conciousness as “Vocaloid music”. “Melt” is by a network spirit called Hatsune Miku; Supercell is just a conduit. ↲

  5. The modern march tempo is typically around 120 beats per minute; House music at 120 bpm often recommended for running or walking; 120 is the default tempo for an initialized project in a DAW; 120 bpm occupies a position in collective thought as a sort of baseline or standard for the human heart or pace. By increasing the speed and pitch of a track, Nightcore produces an elevated hyperenergetic state and brings the rave to the network. The party gets bigger as the network grows in its role as a nexus for connection. ↲