Hyperpop Is Here!
(But Is It Bringing
Diversity Too?)
By Eloise Owen
Hyperpop fan collage featuring popular stars (left to right) SOPHIE, Laura Les & Dylan Brady of 100 Gecs and Dorian Electra. (Orange Mag/Isabel Canales)
As hyperpop emerges as an inclusive new music genre, fans and artists raise concerns about Black representation (or potential lack thereof).
When Laura Nichols, 16, stumbled across hyperpop music, she says it changed her life. Even though a younger version of her would have called the music “assault on the ears,” she is a now self-proclaimed “hyperpop maniac.”
“It’s a whole different, like, underground world” she says. “It helps me to embrace who I am, to explore myself in ways I was closed off before.”
Despite her enthusiasm for the genre, there seems to be a problem.
“The mainstream hyperpop artists, they’re white. As a Black person, I don’t see a lot of people that look like me producing the music or even liking the music I like.”
But what is hyperpop, and where are its Black artists and fans?
Although it is an ambiguous and debated term, “hyperpop” describes experimental music that combines elements of traditional pop and EDM music. As the name indicates, hyperpop sounds, frankly chaotic, making heavy use of autotune, distortion, and other jarring electrical sounds. It's exaggerated, maximalist, and flamboyant: a satirical spin on popular sound. At first listen, hyperpop’s wall of sound can be too much to process.
Today, the music thrives amongst teenage listeners on internet spaces. A great deal of hyperpop production is also done on the internet, an additional feature which has allowed for its boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways, even hyperpop’s frantic and overloaded electronic sound seems to reckon with the digital age.
It’s a sound that’s been years in the making.
Direct links to hyperpop date back to 2013 when producer A.G. Cook founded his label PC Music. Featuring artists like Charli XCX, SOPHIE and Bladee, PC Music soon developed a unique electronic sound and a dedicated following.
The breakout success of 100 Gecs’ sophomore album, “1000 gecs” also popularized the genre. Upon its release in 2019, the album charted at #1 on the U.S. Alternative Billboard chart and received strong critical acclaim with a 7.9 rating on Pitchfork. Since then, the album has appeared on numerous Best Albums of 2019 lists. Now, the duo has over 1.7 million monthly listeners and 30 million listens for their song “money machine.”
100 Gecs fan collage featuring Laura Les (left) and Dylan Brady (right) edited with neon hyperpop aesthetics, reminiscent of vaporwave and Y2K styles. (Underdog)
More recently, the music gained popularity in 2019 after Spotify created the playlist “Hyperpop,” featuring music from various artists matching the genre’s style. The playlist is a collaborative effort for Spotify, with input from popular hyperpop artists and producers such as A.G. Cook and 100 Gecs. The playlist currently has over 151,000 followers and approximately 80% of its songs are independent releases. On such a popular streaming service, getting featured on the playlist can significantly benefit an artist’s streams, follows, and future career.
Hyperpop’s dominance in online spaces and its heavy use of distorted, gender-bending aesthetics have also made the genre an inclusive space for many LGBTQ individuals. Many hyperpop artists openly identify as transgender, including Dorian Electra, Kim Petras, SOPHIE and Laura Les of 100 Gecs. Apart from these artists, countless other creators and fans also identify as queer, nonbinary and LGBT. In this way, hyperpop’s rule-breaking and genre-bending sound also allows young people a freedom of expression that can also disconstruct heteronormativity.
“One thing that did stand out to me when I got into hyperpop was how accepting and inclusive everyone was” notes fan Naja Niles. “So many people and artists and listeners are so casually trans and queer, and that’s just the community … I feel like, super included in that little music community even if it’s not like explicitly trans or queer or nonbinary.”
Although online hyperpop communities are celebrated by fans as inclusive spaces, some fans are beginning to call out the genre and its lack of Black representation.
While all music stems from previous styles, hyperpop has strong links to originally Black musical styles such as disco, house, techno and hip hop. Many hyperpop fans are calling out this issue on Twitter. However, others are voicing their gratitude to the hyperpop artists who have already recognized the contributions of Black artists.
“After the Black Lives Matter resurgence and murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, all of the hyperpop artists I follow used their platform to take a stand,” says Niles. “Like, ‘I make hyperpop, I make EDM, I make house music, and I need to recognize that this came from Black culture, and even though I’m a white person or I’m not a Black person, I need to recognize this and I need everyone who listens to my music to recognize this.’ And that felt really cool to me.”
Reckoning with Music's Past & Present
Unfortunately, recognizing the contributions of Black creators has not been a common trend in music history.
“If you want to look for a recurring theme in popular music,” warns author and ethnomusicologist Benjamin Harbert, “it has been that Black artists don’t have access to national or international markets and don’t often have ownership over their contributions to the music.”
The history of race in the United States helps explain the enduring segregation of the music market. For hundreds of years, America has maintained the myth of white superiority, which has trickled down to popular culture, too. Traditionally, white artists have had wide berths to steal material from Black musicians, fully appropriating genres such as jazz and rock.
In response to a segregated market, many Black artists and visionaries launched their own enterprises, including iconic record labels like as Stax and Motown Records. These niche labels were responsible for the careers of many Black artists from the 1960s on. Unfortunately, the success of these artists did not go unnoticed by larger white-owned labels, which have bought up many of these smaller labels since the 1970s.
Even after the end of segregation in the civil rights movement, artists have continued to whitewash Black music to make it more “palatable” to audiences. While Elvis Presley may be regarded as the “King of Rock and Roll,” for example, rock music originated with Black artists such as Jackie Brenston and Chuck Berry.
In the late 1950s, the music was regarded as demoralizing until popularization by white artists. Throughout the 1960’s, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones continued to borrow from Black and eastern sources to reinvigorate rock sound. In the 1970’s for examples, the Bee Gees also heavily profited from the adoption of Black disco music for white audiences.
Apart from rock, this trend continues with house, rap and many other Black art forms throughout music history.
Now, Black musical influence is often more latent in popular music. While all music is a blend of styles, popular music artists such as Iggy Azalea, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus continually return to Black sources to reinvigorate themselves and their music.
Miley Cyrus famously appropriating Black cultural aesthetic for the song "23." (YouTube/Mike WiLL Made-It)
“If any scene is dominated by primarily white artists, that doesn’t actually mean that white artists are the only people working in that scene,” notes Pitchfork writer Cat Zhang. “Rather there seems to be an issue with how people gain visibility and credit.”
Considering the visibility of white hyperpop artists like A.G. Cook, 100 Gecs and Fraxiom, Black artists are seemingly less recognized in hyperpop. However, this may also be an issue of genre labeling. As hyperpop star Alice Gas posted to Twitter, “Y’all complain about whiteness in hyperpop but anytime a black artist makes hyperpop y’all just call it rap.”
Issues with genre categorization have become a hot topic in the music community. In recent years, rappers like Tyler the Creator have spoken out about how major award shows and the music industry places Black musicians in a box. Too often, Black artists are categorized as “Rap,” “R&B,” or “Urban,” instead of “Pop” or other labels despite their genre-bending music.
For some artists, the term "hyperpop" has also been a source of contestation, as many artists who make music that falls under category prefer to designate themselves as "genreless." For example, artist Charli XCX and Dorian Electra previously refused to designate themselves in the genre. With increasingly, however, more artists have become comfortable with the term.
The categorization of Black artist Rico Nasty demonstrates this phenomenon in hyperpop as well. As an artist Rico Nasty has previously collaborated with hyperpop producers such as Dylan Brady and is featured on Spotify’s hyperpop playlist. Much of her work also has the musical elements commonly characterized as hyperpop, yet Rico Nasty is still popularly regarded as a rapper instead.
If considered a hyperpop artist, Rico Nasty would be one of the most popular in the genre with over 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify among her four full-length LP’s.
Black rapper/hyperpop artist Rico Nasty as a “cyberpixie” in her music video iPhone. While she defies genre, the artist clearly employs a vibrant, distorted hyperpop aesthetic in her imagery and music. (YouTube/Rico Nasty)
“I feel like there are actually a lot of artists of color within this scene who are all making incredible music, but I think it’s definitely much easier for white artists in this genre to get attention,” according to hyperpop artist That Kid, who is Black and queer. “We need to make sure these artists are really being given a platform to share their art, when they drop merch, buy a shirt or a poster, anything. Stream the music they release. There just needs to be more support overall for black artists and creatives.”
While That Kid has over 100,000 monthly listeners and millions of listens on Spotify, he still remains a relatively small artist compared with Charli XCX’s staggering 8 million monthly listeners.
“Honestly, most people don’t really like hyperpop. Only so many Black people are even going to be interested in the genre,” says Valley magazine music journalist Morayo Ogunbayo. “Then you talk about enough people interested enough to make a career over it … It’s experimental music. It’s not something that’s tried and true, so you can’t just go into it knowing you’ll find success, so because of that it ends up being for white LA teens a lot of the time.”
Pursuing a career in music can be extremely difficult. In fact, 90.7% of musicians are undiscovered, according to Music Times. On the other hand, artists considered mainstream account for only 1.1% of all musicians, yet occupy 88.4% of Twitter followers and 79% of YouTube streams as of 2014. For most, music is not a viable career or means of income.
Right now, most hyperpop artists are independent or associated with smaller labels. Without the support of larger labels, many artists have to finance music production themselves.
“Money is in fact an issue,” notes Black trans artist Kunt Pills. “I find a lot of Black hyperpop artists having to produce their own thing, all on their own. They might not have enough money. I’m one of those people. I can’t do much because I don’t have enough money. I just have to make it work.”
That being said, hyperpop’s popularity in online spaces has allowed many artists to gain popularity independently through social media.
“The playing field in popular music is very level now in the sense that everyone is going through the same pipeline,” notes Apple Music hip hop programmer Yomi Desalu. “You need to get the music out on a grassroots level first ... If you’re going for a record that’s going to cross over to the mainstream, that’s TikTok.”
The popularity of hyperpop is due in large part to TikTok. Since its founding in 2016, the app has assumed over 800 million users worldwide according to Chartmetric, with 30 million in the U.S. alone. Of these users, 66% are under 30 years old, a key demographic for electronic music.
“TikTok has certainly made songs popular and shaped the aesthetic,” says Pitchfork writer Cat Zhang. “You get really fast paced rainbow visuals with kind of like, a glitch aesthetic as well, paced to the pulses of this really frantic hyperpop music. Those edits will become effective at promoting songs that are less known on SoundCloud. They’re like micro music videos essentially.”
Video featuring a complication of "glitch core," a visual aesthetic closely related to hyperpop music present in many TikToks (YouTube/Iconic Videos)
On TikTok, videos under the #hyperpop hashtag have over 15 million views collectively. Popular artists 100 gecs have over 100,000 followers on the app, with over 162,000 videos made featuring their songs. Videos with Charli XCX songs surpass 900,000.
“Even for major labels, social media is 100% the tool,” explains Desalu. “It’s threefold. One, because you’re able to put your music out a lot easier. Two, it’s how you build your audience and three, is generating revenue.”
As of 2019, recorded music in the industry accounted for over $21.5 billion dollars of revenue according to Statista. 56% of this revenue comes from streaming. That accounts for over $11.9 billion in revenue, a number that is expected to grow by 20.7% annually. In terms of digital music sales, streaming now accounts for more than 90% according to IFPI Data.
In this sense, it’s clear what’s at stake for hyperpop’s commercial success: a significant amount of profit.
“Hyperpop has the potential to be a very lucrative thing in the music industry,” according to Hyperpop label founder Shay Gravagno. “I think the inevitability of such an energized movement is that it is going to inevitably affect the radio, the mainstream … I think a lot of bigger labels are becoming aware of this.”
In 2020, hyperpop duo 100 Gecs signed to Atlantic Records. With an estimated annual revenue of $680 million, Atlantic is the fourth largest label in the world only after Warner, Sony and Universal, according to Wikimedia. Superstar Charli XCX is also signed to Atlantic, signifying the label’s interest in hyperpop’s success.
“For any genre to be successful, it’s necessary for it to delve outside of it’s core demographic,” explains Desalu. “It’s important to have diversity within genres because it helps to fight homogenization. It opens the door for a larger fanbase. Hip Hop is probably one of the biggest recipients of that.”
Although Hyperpop seems to lack this wide-appeal and diversity, it is still a relatively new genre. The genre is also much smaller than hip-hop, which accounted for over 27.7% of the market share in 2019, according to Nielsen Music’s annual report.
With labels like Atlantic becoming more invested in the genre, some attribute hyperpop’s apparent lack of representation to a focus on commercial success.
“This is a deliberate commodity,” notes Georgetown University cultural studies professor Ellen Gorman. “It doesn’t necessarily have to do with diversity. There’s no sense here of, even excluding Black, trans people, or others. It’s all about what can we sell? What are these people going to like? What is the artist going to look like? This is very deliberately conceptualized, thought through stuff…The same is true with early rock products, early punk products.”
No matter their size, labels, artists and producers all have an interest in appealing to their audience. Taken the size and buying power of different demographics, both emerging and existing genres have a significant financial incentive to appeal to white consumers in particular.
By 2023, the buying power of white audiences in the U.S. is projected to be nearly $14 billion dollars according to the Selig Center. Despite the fact that white individuals account for 73.6% of music artists according to Data USA, white people will make up 82.3% of the potential buying power. In contrast, Black will consumers only share 0.09% of the country’s buying power yet account for 13% of the music market.
“Given that white artists that have had more access to larger markets,” notes Harbert, “it’s often the white artists, and much more so the white producers and record label owners, who end up benefiting financially from this. So, it might be a mixed pot of culture, but it’s an uneven distribution of profit that comes out of that.”
Despite the barriers to financially benefiting from their music, many artists recognize hyperpop’s power simply as a form of expression. For many artists and fans, hyperpop has even become a way of coming to terms with life in the digital age.
“I see a lot of use of electronic music these days as reckoning with this phenomenon of becoming cyborgs, becoming post-human,” Harbert shares. “Not lyrically, but the feel. I hear a lot of digital sounds as a way of feeling that change, as a way of putting that change into form that you can then examine outside of yourself.”
For Black artists in particular, examining emerging technology and shifting conceptions of what it means to be human is nothing new. For years, artists of the African Diaspora have used afrofuturism as a cultural aesthetic through which to explore these very ideas. Although the term was coined in 1993 by Mark Dery, the origins of afrofuturism even date back to early in the 20th century.
“Afrofuturist art forms employ the lens of blackness to re-imagine the future, or futures, about black life and power” explains Taylor, who also teaches a course on Afrofuturism at Georgetown. “It’s a conception of the future, one that may or may not have a science fiction element, that sees the future in which Black people have agency and they are unapologetically Black.”
“Afrofuturism is singularly identified with Blackness,” Taylor adds. “Artists with no claim to Blackness simply can’t tap into this creative potential.”
In music, Afrofuturism first emerged in the 1950’s thanks to jazz musician Sun Ra. Combining Afrocentric musical sources with cutting-edge sounds, Ra set a standard for Afrofuturist music which integrated science fiction and history to create imaginative visions of the future. Since then, artists such as George Clinton, Outkast, Janelle Monáe and Erykah Badu have continued popularized Afrofuturistic aesthetics in music.
Video George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic performing "Bring The Funk." Their performance showcases a futuristic style and accompaniment complication classified as Afrofuturist (YouTube/Parliament)
“For me and my music, hyperpop is absolutely Afrofuturist,” adds Kunt Pills. “It’s obvious. Hyperpop takes a lot of inspiration from the early Afrofuturist aesthetics… It’s imagining ourselves in the future when the world is telling us we’re stuck in the past. It blows your mind listening to it.”
For Black musicians like Kunt Pills, hyperpop’s futuristic aesthetics take on a much deeper meaning when combined with the cultural philosophy of Afrofuturism. With this music, it’s a significance with real world implications.
“Importantly, Afrofuturism is not merely the stuff of science fiction, mythology, or music,” Taylor also notes. “This has real-world implications. African governments have long engaged in futurist thinking. It extends to policy and development, too. It influences how people are viewed and valued.”
For those who care about the future of hyperpop, seeing more Black artists and fans really does matter. Despite the genre’s potential issues with inequality with representation, Laura Nichols sees the revolutionary potential of this music for Black fans too.
“Even if it’s an inclusive genre, the lack of representation perpetuates, you know, so much. There’s a standard of how Black people are supposed to look, what kind of music they’re supposed to listen to, what kind of music they’re supposed to create,” she says. “We all have to break that stigma and explore ourselves, what better way to do it than with hyperpop.”