On March 18th of this year, Charli XCX released her highly anticipated fifth studio album Crash. Charli, the British artist and performer, is someone who many believe is situated in an unusual position in the music industry. If you’re not familiar with her newer work, you might remember some of the pop collabs from the 2010’s that she participated in such as "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, "I Love It" by Icona Pop, and some of her singles like "Boom Clap." Upon a first listen of these examples, you might observe that these are generally upbeat run of the mill pop songs, but what makes Charli stand out is the way would eventually become entangled in the world of hyperpop and as a result struggle to find an identity for herself as an artist.
The reason why I mention Crash is not only based on the fact that I’ve been listening to it religiously since it came out but also because it marks Charli XCX’s shift in artistic goals and aesthetics. In a recent interview with NPR, she says of the genre, “And I think now that hyperpop has become hyperpop, a genre where people can bracket a lot of artists with familiar sounds in one group, it feels less exciting to me to play within that space. I need to find what's next for me. What is the sound that can't quite be categorized, you know?“ and emphasizes a need, in Crash specifically, to experiment with more mainstream pop sounds and ideas.
My focus here is not necessarily on Ms. XCX and her musical journey, though it's a topic that I find endlessly interesting. I think that what we need to talk about is Hyperpop. Here, I'll attempt to explain what it is, what the big deal is, and what it means for people who are maybe feeling a bit out of the loop about the whole thing. I'll also throw in a few musical examples and artists who I think really exemplify the genre and hopefully help you to understand this niche community largely curated by Gen-Z and Zillenials.
To put it simply, hyperpop is pop music, but more. It's more electronic, textural, experimental, and Industrial sounding than what we're used to on the Billboard Hot 100. The term most people use to define it is Maximalism or an overt and excessive reaction against Minimalism. In music, the minimalist movement can often be associated with a handful of composers such as Phillip Glass, John Cage, and Steve Reich. Their works often incorporate stasis, drones, a steady pulse, and strict figures and motifs that keep the music controlled and adhering to a set of rules or conditions. If you're not familiar with these composers, this may be a bit difficult to understand conceptually, so I'll do what I know best and compare it to a weird social media phenomenon. If you're like me, you may remember the weird minimalism trend on youtube where everyone was convinced we need to get rid of half the stuff we own and have fewer "earthly possessions" and instead of buying lots of clothes, we cultivate capsule wardrobes of a few (often very expensive) staple pieces.
So.. Minimalism is kind of like that but with music. The overarching idea here is that less is more.
Let's return to Hyperpop though. If minimalism is a YouTuber's carefully curated and sanitized-for-camera wardrobe, Maximalism is more like the iconic bedroom from Howl's Moving Castle. The sound is fuller and higher pitched. The texture is thick with layers upon layers of intricately mixed sounds. It's even difficult to put into words, but key terms that come up when I think of hyperpop might include: metallic, crunchy, grinding, liquid, robotic, electronic, experimental, scratchy, bright, piercing, jarring, Y2K, internet, and many more. The sonic aspects of it derive from several places, but I would pinpoint EDM, Nightcore (sped up and pitched up versions of preexisting songs), and pop music to be key instigators.
Hyperpop, to many, is not even defined as a genre or subgenre, but I've now heard it referred to as a microgenre. Without unpacking what all of that means, I would simply take this to mean that it's niche and an offshoot of preexisting genres. Hyperpop became popularized in music communities by the work of A.G. Cook and the PC Music label. Cook is known as being a giant producer in the industry and has collaborated with and mentored many known artists in the genre including Charli XCX, SOPHIE, 100 gecs, Dorian Electra, Easyfun, and many more. Interestingly enough, "PC Music" is also referred to as a genre in and of itself, inspired by artists who work under Cook's label, though it's emphasized that an artist doesn't need to be a part of the label to be referred to as PC Music. When the Spotify playlist titled hyperpop debuted in 2019, it would set the scene for the creation of an entire community and subculture dedicated to this music. Hyperpop derives from all of these factors, largely seeing influence from Cook, and SOPHIE - A prolific artist who sadly passed away in 2021.
Now that we have a bit of a better understanding of Hyperpop, I'll give some specific song examples that I think exemplify the genre.
Faceshopping by SOPHIE (you may have heard this if you're on TikTok!)
Vroom Vroom by Charli XCX
Haunted by Laura Les (of 100 gecs. You may have heard this in season 2 of euphoria!)
Baby My Phone by Yameii (Another Tik Tok hit!)
Money Machine by 100 gecs
As you can see with the above examples, hyperpop has found a place in the online culture of Gen-Z, widely circulated on platforms like TikTok and Twitter, and provided exposure to artists I never would have heard of otherwise. Simply going on TikTok and searching #Hyperpop yields a whole world of information that I don't think any of us are quite ready to grapple with just yet. Even writing this post, I found myself struggling to truly explain why I think this is important to music as a whole, the pop industry, and the youth of today. That's okay! Here are some of the thoughts I have so far.
The kids love it!
As I stated earlier, I think there is a tie-in with hyperpop and youth culture in general. Searching the tag on TikTok will show you an overwhelmingly young group of individuals of diverse gender identities and races. Visual aesthetics are often bright and tap into previous fascinations with Anime, Y2K clothing, Punk and Emo subcultures, and many others. Hyperpop seems to have resonated with many, including a few tongue-in-cheek quips about the genre and ADHD and being trans.
It serves as a place for music-making in the LGBTQ community, with emphasis on the T.
Something that stuck out to me I saw in a Master's Thesis by Patrick Williams, who says of SOPHIE, "Her songs feature voices ranging from the whistling hyperfeminine to the androgynous industrial. I contend that through vocal manipulation and novel digital synthesis on her 2018 album OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES, SOPHIE extends her trans self into the digital realm, free from binary gender restraints."
and in an article called, "The Gec-Effect:" How 100 gecs Queers Genre and Gender, Miles Luce says, "The genre offers both a music and cyber community for trans and queer youth while epitomizing theorizations of queerness as transgressive or subversive. No academic publication has yet attempted to address or analyze 100 gecs, a prominent hyperpop duo, from a queer theoretical perspective."
It allows for some more "mainstream" artists to branch out
Now I'm using mainstream very lightly here, but surely some readers may be familiar with Rico Nasty, Vince Staples, and yes, the iconic Rebecca Black of Friday fame (who totally rebranded, by the way). Vince's album Big Fish Theory is not only an excellent rap album but largely produced by SOPHIE, who was a good friend of Staples. You can hear her influence in many songs, but it's clearest in Yeah Right. Rico nasty is another rapper who has included hyperpop in her music with IPHONE, produced by Dylan Brady of 100 gecs. Lastly, Rebecca Black returned to music after her viral song Friday which was released in 2011 (this makes me feel OLD!) to release a hyperpop version of Friday that features Dorian Electra, Big Freedia, and 3OH!3. I actually don't have words to describe the remix, but I urge you to experience this with me.
I say all of this to say that as a master’s student still navigating the world of scholarship and academic writing, I think I and many others would love to see more analysis of Hyperpop. In my research in creating this newsletter post, I found myself scratching my head trying to find academic writing on the topic. Not that this is a necessity, and I will acknowledge that this is still a developing community and genre, but I think there is a lot of opportunity for musical and interdisciplinary study about Hyperpop - And I truly hope that this is something people might start to become interested in discussing. The way that topics of subculture, queerness, youth culture, and social media can be related to music in the context of hyperpop should easily pique the interest of music scholars studying popular music.
To conclude this (largely experimental) post, I will drop a few links that I think will supplement this nicely.
This video is from PBS and does a really simple breakdown and explanation of hyperpop.
A TikTok by Songpsych (who makes really great videos, by the way) explains PC music
A Pitchfork article that introduces some of the key figures in PC music
An academic article on Hyperpop and streaming services.
Okay, that's all I have for this week. There will be more coming soon and if you made it this far, thanks for reading!