Hyperpop is Your New Playlist for 2021 

It takes a unique kind of sound to truly capture the sonic frequency of the modern age. 

Incorporating an eclectic mashup of genres, hyperpop has boldly exaggerated the DNA of more traditional pop music to become its very own maximalist beast. 

Born from the trailblazing production ethos of PC Music, SOPHIE and Charli XCX, hyperpop’s glitchy, internet-obsessed aesthetic was emblazoned by the popularity of TikTok videos, YouTube and Twitch streaming. Empowered by DIY home software like Splice and BandLab, hyperpop’s idiosyncratic visual language seems to be just as important as the tracks themselves. 

This is hyperpop: your new playlist for 2021. 

The Origins of Hyperpop 
Founded in 2013 by British producer and godfather of hyperpop, A.G. Cook, PC Label became the lynchpin for the collaborative spirit of hyperpop.

Playfully reinventing the straight-lipped, serious-demeanour of the underground music scene, Cook’s record label and art collective promoted a more chaotic and parodic inversion of pop music from the 1990s and 2000s. 

Bringing in the likes of Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, and Danny L Harle, PC Music subverted musical tropes, manufacturing a synthetic, glitched-out landscape that laid the foundations for later hyperpop superstars like Charli XCX.

Slicing up the concept of a ‘professional studio’ with bedroom beats, hyperpop’s visual language quickly became an integral part of the genre, with crude cuts, pixelated pop references, memes, and green screens establishing a new symbolic paradigm. 

A fundamental idea simmering beneath the surface of hyperpop quickly reared its head: Who is ‘allowed’ to become a popstar and why? Who defines the parameters? 

Indeed, when A.G. Cook was invited to curate the hyperpop playlist for Spotify in 2019, he again blew-up any one, monolithic idea of hyperpop, causing discord and confusion amongst its many listeners when he added Lil Uzi Vert to the playlist. Surely, he didn’t belong here? 

Still, Cook’s continued inversion of the status-quo is fundamental to the shape of hyperpop’s sound. 

Here are some of the albums that are crucial to hyperpop’s sonic composition. 

Pop 2 (2017) 
The fourth mixtape by UK artist Charli XCX, Pop 2 was a crucial step in establishing hyperpop’s global popularity. 

Emerging from the relative humdrum of the pop industry in 2017, Pop 2 features an incredible roster of talent that shines across the mixtape’s 10 tracks. 

Recorded just a few months before its release, the mixtape was again produced by hyperpop godfather A.G. Cook, who expressed a desire to completely ‘restart in terms of the image and style of it’.