Hyperpop

• 1. Origins And PC Music

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  In 2013, A. G. Cook launched the record label and art collective known as PC Music in London. This small group of artists laid the groundwork for what would become hyperpop. The label introduced a sound that combined bubblegum pop with experimental electronic elements. Artists like Sophie, Hannah Diamond, and GFOTY began creating music that felt both cartoonish and deeply sincere. Their work drew from 1990s and 2000s electronic genres such as trance, Eurohouse, and chiptune. The style was initially called bubblegum bass before it evolved into something broader. Critics later described this early output as the first era of hyperpop. It established a template where production could be outrageous yet melodic. The scene remained underground but influential within niche online communities.

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• 2. Musical Characteristics And Ethos

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  Vice journalist Eli Enis defined the genre not by rules but by an ethos of transcending genre altogether while operating within pop contexts. Songs often feature brash synth melodies, Auto-Tuned vocals, and excessive compression or distortion. Metallic percussion sounds mix with pitch-shifted synths to create catchy choruses. Short song lengths are common alongside shiny, cutesy aesthetics juxtaposed with angst-ridden lyrics. The Wall Street Journal's Mark Richardson noted how the genre turns artificial parts of pop up to an extreme level. This creates a cartoonish wall of noise full of memorable hooks. Joe Vitagliano of American Songwriter described it as bombastic and iconoclastic with a late-capitalism-dystopia vibe. Artists like Sophie and 8485 explore themes of gender fluidity through vocal modulation. The movement allows performers to experiment with androgyny in their voices. It draws heavily from queer culture and ballroom influences. The Atlantic observed that the style swirls together Top 40 tricks from the present and past.

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• 3. Mainstream Breakthrough And Spotify

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  The year 2019 marked a turning point when the duo 100 gecs released their debut album 1000 gcs. Their viral hit Money Machine helped reinvent and popularize the genre on a global scale. In May 2019, the album amassed millions of listens across streaming services. The Independent described their sound as taking hyperpop to its most extreme conclusions with stadium-sized trap beats processed to near-destruction. Later that August, Spotify launched a dedicated Hyperpop playlist led by senior editor Lizzy Szabo. She found the term hyperpop already existing in the platform's metadata thanks to data analyst Glenn McDonald who added it in 2018. The playlist featured artists including AG Cook, Popstar Patch, Slayyyter, Gupi, Caroline Polachek, Hannah Diamond, and Kim Petras. In November, Cook added non-hyperpop artists like J Dilla and Nicki Minaj which caused controversy among smaller artists relying on the playlist for earnings. This strategic curation brought the microgenre into the mainstream consciousness.

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• 4. Pandemic Era And Alt TikTok

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  During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, the movement saw a greater rise in popularity linked to social media algorithms. Albums like Charli XCX's how i'm feeling now and A.G. Cook's Apple appeared on critics' end-of-year lists. Rolling Stone described Alt TikTok as one of the main countercultures on the app pushing music further into the mainstream. On the 25th of September 2020, Pitchfork cited Alt TikTok as having an influence on wider music trends. By July 2021, Hyperpop artist ElyOtto's song SugarCrash! became one of the most popular songs in TikTok history used in over 5 million videos. Ringtone Mag suggested part of the reason for its rise was its nature favoring heavy beats to which creators could dance. Los Angeles-based virtual hyperpop raves called Subculture gained prominence through six-hour long Zoom parties welcoming over 1,000 guests at their peak. These events later hosted physical raves across US cities after lockdowns ended. Subculture organizers Gannon Baxter and Tyler Shepherd expressed mixed feelings about using the term but Shepherd stated it was just a tool to quickly convey what realm of music they were talking about.

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• 5. Commercial Peak And Artist Backlash

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  In June 2024, Charli XCX released her album Brat which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200. It earned the highest critical ratings of 2024 on Metacritic becoming the most commercially successful hyperpop album of all time. The album inspired fashion and cultural trends like Brat Summer and its visual aesthetic was reappropriated by Vice President Kamala Harris during her campaign. However, Kieran Press-Reynolds of Pitchfork remarked that other pioneering artists had not gained commercial success since the initial rise. He credited this dispersal to conflicting visions among practitioners and the fact that some promising musicians did not want fame. On the 17th of September 2024, Google displayed a Doodle paying tribute to pioneer SOPHIE on her birthday. Following this, on the 1st of June 2025, another Google Doodle focused on LGBTQ+ artists who pioneered hyperpop for Pride Month. That same year in August 2021, Charli XCX asked Twitter users if hyperpop should be considered dead prompting discussions about the genre's future. Prominent musician Glaive stated he and Ericdoa were working on killing the movement though three months later said it would never die.

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• 6. Evolution Into Microgenres

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  By the mid-2020s, the style fragmented into derivative movements such as digicore, glitchcore, and sigilkore. Digicore developed alongside hyperpop during the late 2010s to early 2020s with the term adopted in 2019 by an online community of teenage musicians communicating through Discord. The microgenre saw a rise in popularity during the pandemic adding trap-based influences but maintaining heavy autotune and high-pitched vocals. Glitchcore is often characterized by the heavy use of audio effects like pitch shifters and rapidly chopped vocals designed to resemble glitches. Originally pioneered by Yungster Jack and David Shawty, Kyann-Sian Williams of NME called it hyperpop on steroids. Robloxcore emerged in late 2020 when artists like lungskull began uploading music into the game Roblox. Their tracks Foreign and Threat gained wider popularity online attributed to TikTok and certain games within the platform. Dariacore was coined by Jane Remover following her 2021 album Dariacore gaining popularity on SoundCloud in 2021 and 2022. Sigilkore started on SoundCloud in the late 2010s combining aspects of cloud rap and trap music with dark themes including occultism and vampires.

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