Pop Culture dictionary
Hype House
[ hahyp hous ]
What does Hype House mean?
Hype House is a collective of young social media content creators and influencers who are especially popular on the video app TikTok. It is also the name of the mansion in Los Angeles the group uses and some members live in.
Where does Hype House come from?
Hype House is part of a trend called content houses or collab houses (short for collaboration). These are large, nice homes where internet influencers live and create content together. These houses and collaborations appear to help boost their audiences and individual brands. This trend goes back to at least 2014, when the YouTube group Our Second Life began living together in a place they called 02L Mansion. It continued into the 2010s with other YouTube collaborators, such as Jake Paul’s Team 10, also renting mansions.
Hype House begins in November 2019 when TikTok star Chase Hudson and YouTuber Thomas Petrou rented a mansion—which they named Hype House—in Los Angeles, California. Shortly after, Hype House launched its own Instagram and TikTok accounts. These accounts are dedicated to sharing and promoting photos and videos of various social media influencers and stars of its content collaboration group—also known as Hype House.
House, in Hype House, refers to the physical house but also the sense of the group as a collaborative body. Hype is slang for “excited,” “exciting,” or “excellent” more generally.
Hype House is made up of 19 members, mostly in their late teens or early twenties and very popular on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Including cofounder Petrou, four of the group live in the actual house full-time. And what do they do? Create content for social media, especially TikTok, and help promote members’ content on their own channels. Their TikTok content often features members humorously or artfully lip-syncing and dancing to popular songs. As of January 2020, the official Hype House TikTok account boasted well over six millions followers, their Instagram over one million. Their YouTube channel has nearly 200,000 followers.
@thehypehouse @jack.wright x @avani
The popularity of Hype House inspired other TikTok and Instagram users to form their own Hype House-inspired groups focused around locations (“Texas Hype House”) or other defining characteristics (“Hound House,” for dogs). These don’t actually have houses and are not affiliated with the Hype House collab. In early January 2020, Taylor Lorenz notably reported on the Hype House hype for the New York Times.
Anyway, outside the original Hype House none of the local hype houses have actual houses. They’re just collab groups for kids from different states or ethnicities or sub groups to meet each other and help each other go viral! Most “houses” say u have to be 12-18 to join
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) January 13, 2020
Examples of Hype House
Who uses Hype House?
As noted, Hype House can be used to refer to the actual mansion in Los Angeles or to the Hype House collaborators and their various social media accounts.
Still waiting on my invite to the hype house
— Jaren Thomas (@JarenHodgson) January 20, 2020
Hype House is also increasingly being used as term for any collaborative, theme-focused TikTok account.
hi me and jillian made a wdw hype house :) @jackaverymusic @corbynbesson @JonahMarais @ImZachHerron @jackaverymusic @whydontwemusic pic.twitter.com/6u0jXZQLw8
— — mika 🦋 (@numbcnc) January 12, 2020
As with many TikTok and Instagram stars, Hype House is very popular among younger people, especially fans of members of Hype House before they joined the official collective.
i can’t believe i used to make jokes about benji going to the hype house and now it’s actually. happening
— sam (@krolgaray) January 19, 2020
ok so i love the hype house …. especially addison rae
— 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚎 ♡ (@wannabemongeau) December 29, 2019
Of course, the trend has its commenters …
Interesting thing about these TikTok hype houses is that they’re racially segregated
— Mother Suspiriorum Fan Account (@coucouaaron) January 13, 2020
… and its haters.
Can we just all ignore the hype house out of existence
— Xavier D (@xavvvierrr) January 20, 2020
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Hype House like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Hype House that will help our users expand their word mastery.