Hyperpop

Hyperpop is a loosely defined electronic music movement and microgenre that predominantly originated in the United Kingdom during the early-to-mid 2010s. It is characterised by a maximalist or exaggerated take on popular music, and artists within the genre typically integrate pop and avant-garde sensibilities while drawing on elements commonly found in electronic, hip hop, and dance music. Deriving influence from a varied range of sources, the origins of the hyperpop scene are commonly traced to the output of English musician A. G. Cook's record label and collective PC Music and its associated artists such as Sophie and Charli XCX. Music associated with this scene received wider attention in August 2019 when Spotify used the term "hyperpop" as the name of a playlist featuring artists such as Cook and 100 gecs. The genre spread within younger audiences through social media platforms, especially TikTok. The movement is often linked to LGBTQ+ online communities, and many key figures identify as transgender, non-binary, or gay. "Digicore" and "Glitchcore" are contemporaneous movements that are sometimes conflated with "hyperpop" due to its overlapping artists. Hyperpop reflects an exaggerated, eclectic, and self-referential approach to pop music and typically employs elements such as brash synth melodies, Auto-Tuned "earworm" vocals, and excessive compression and distortion, as well as surrealist or nostalgic references to 2000s Internet culture and the Web 2.0 era. Common features include vocals that are heavily processed; metallic, melodic percussion sounds; pitch-shifted synths; catchy choruses; short song lengths; and "shiny, cutesy aesthetics" juxtaposed with angst-ridden lyrics. The Wall Street Journals Mark Richardson described the genre as intensifying the "artificial" tropes of popular music, resulting in "a cartoonish wall of noise that embraces catchy tunes and memorable hooks. The music zooms between beauty and ugliness, as shimmery melodies collide with mangled instrumentation.