What is Hyperpop?

At its core, hyperpop is an exaggerated, over-the-top explosion of pop music, electronic noise, and digital maximalism. It takes everything mainstream pop music is built on—catchy melodies, auto-tuned vocals, electronic production—and cranks it to its absolute extremes. Vocals are warped beyond recognition. Basslines hit like a car crash. Synths sound like they were pulled from a corrupted video game file. It’s hyperactive, chaotic, and sometimes borderline unlistenable, but that’s exactly the point.

Where Did Hyperpop Come From?

Hyperpop didn’t just appear out of thin air. It evolved from a long line of weird, futuristic takes on pop music, pulling influence from genres that were already pushing sonic experimentation to new levels.

• PC Music and the Sound of Fake Commercialism
  • If hyperpop has a birthplace, it’s PC Music, the London-based label founded by A. G. Cook in 2013.
  • The artists on PC Music took mainstream pop and mutated it into something artificial, plastic, and surreal, almost like they were making music for a fake, futuristic ad campaign from a dystopian future.
  • Tracks like Hannah Diamond’s “Pink and Blue” or GFOTY’s “Bobby” were catchy but felt oddly inhuman, like a virtual influencer had taken over the radio.
• SOPHIE and the Art of Synthetic Chaos
  • If PC Music was all about making pop music feel hyper-artificial, SOPHIE made it feel like it had been melted down into liquid plastic and reassembled as a mutant superweapon.
  • Her 2015 compilation PRODUCT was an assault of distorted bass, glossy textures, and high-pitched vocal processing, creating a blueprint for hyperpop’s mix of beauty and destruction.
  • Songs like “Bipp” and “Faceshopping” turned pop music into something futuristic and alien but still undeniably catchy.
• Nightcore and the Speed Freak Aesthetic
  • Hyperpop also owes a lot to Nightcore, that wonderfully cursed internet phenomenon where people take normal songs and speed them up to chipmunk levels of ridiculousness.
  • The idea that faster = better is a huge part of hyperpop’s DNA. Many tracks sound like they’re playing at 1.5x speed, creating a sense of manic energy that makes even the most basic pop melodies feel chaotic and electrifying.
• Emo, Scene, and 2000s Myspace Trash Culture
  • Hyperpop isn’t just sonically extreme—it’s also deeply nostalgic for the messiest, most cringe-worthy parts of 2000s internet culture.
  • A lot of its aesthetic pulls from scene kids, emo, crunkcore, and Myspace-era weirdness, where being loud, colorful, and “so random XD” was the vibe.
  • Artists like 100 gecs openly embrace this energy, making music that sounds like the inside of a Hot Topic during a sugar rush.

What Does Hyperpop Sound Like?

Trying to describe hyperpop is like trying to explain a really intense dream—it makes sense while you’re experiencing it, but when you try to put it into words, you just sound insane.

• Auto-Tune, Vocoder, and Vocal Warping
  • Hyperpop loves to obliterate the human voice. It’s common for vocals to be pitched up, down, stretched, chopped, and buried under layers of effects until they sound like a robot crying in the club.
  • Some songs embrace a glitchy, cyborg-like vocal style, while others go full high-pitched helium anime girl mode.
• Glitchy, Distorted, and Overcompressed Production
  • If there’s one rule in hyperpop, it’s that nothing should sound clean or natural. Everything is synthesized, overproduced, and intentionally pushed into the red.
  • Drums hit like cartoon sound effects, basslines sound like they’re being played through blown-out speakers, and synths are bright, glossy, and completely unhinged.
• Genre-Blending and Total Chaos
  • Hyperpop doesn’t care about sticking to one genre. It happily steals from electroclash, trap, trance, metal, bubblegum pop, and whatever else it can get its hands on.
  • A single track might start with a sugary-sweet vocal hook, suddenly turn into a screeching noise breakdown, then drop into a half-time trap beat, then blast into eurodance mode at 200 BPM.
• Fast Tempos and ADD-Friendly Structure
  • Many hyperpop tracks feel like they’re sprinting toward the finish line, with breakneck tempos and sudden shifts in speed.
  • There’s often no time to get comfortable—a song might start in one style and then completely flip into something else within seconds.

Essential Hyperpop Artists and Albums

Hyperpop is still a young genre, but it has already produced some truly chaotic, influential, and beautifully insane music.

• 100 gecs – 1000 gecs (2019)
  • If one album truly broke hyperpop into the mainstream, it’s 1000 gecs.
  • It’s obnoxious, ridiculous, and impossible to categorize, with tracks that mix pop-punk, screamo, dubstep, and pure internet absurdity into something that somehow works.
• SOPHIE – Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides (2018)
  • A stunning blend of industrial noise, hyper-feminine pop, and metallic sound design, this album is both aggressive and beautiful at the same time.
• A. G. Cook – Apple (2020)
  • A PC Music masterpiece, filled with glitchy synths, warped vocals, and hyperpop’s signature mix of sincerity and irony.
• Dorian Electra – Flamboyant (2019)
  • A hyperpop artist who blends queer aesthetics, baroque pop, and high-energy chaos into theatrical, genre-bending bangers.
• Charli XCX – how i’m feeling now (2020)
  • Charli XCX has basically become the mainstream face of hyperpop, and this album proves why. It’s glitchy, raw, and full of hyper-digital pop anthems.
• Laura Les – i just wanna be a stupid bimbo (2022)
  • A mix of nightcore-style hyperpop and emo nostalgia, this project is pure Myspace-era chaos in the best way possible.
• Osquinn – drive-by lullabies (2021)
  • A lo-fi, emotional take on hyperpop, blending distorted beats with soft, melancholic melodies.

Hyperpop is a genre that thrives on being too loud, too fast, and too much all at once. Whether you find it exhilarating or completely unlistenable, one thing is for sure—it’s impossible to ignore.