Introduction (AKA: Why would I write about a niche micro-genre for a final?)
Although the term 'hyperpop' first entered mainstream public consciousness in 2019, when Spotify published a playlist of the same name, it's been notoriously hard to define exactly what this genre is. The genre's roots can be traced to the Soundcloud Beat scene of the 2010s, as well as the work of late music producer SOPHIE. Elis Enis in his article ‘This is Hyperpop: A Genre Tag for Genre-less Music’. describes the genre as working under a “winking parody” of modern pop, utilizing “a collective allegiance to gaudy auto-tune” and being created by a “tight-knit internet community” of artists, many of whom are “queer, trans, [and/] or POC” (Enis). This is the best explanation that I think is possible for the genre that I've been obsessed with ever since Kero Kero Bonito released their first album in 2014, when I was first introduced to the concept of experimental pop. As both a queer person and a DJ part of the hyperpop community, the genre (and the artists that make up the genre) are an important part of my life.
Hyperpop, while a relatively niche genre, has been rapidly growing in popularity over the past three years, with the Spotify playlist alone boasting 254,000+ followers, heavily featuring queer artists such as Arca, Chester Lockhart, Dorian Electra, COBRAH, and TAAHLIAH. It is this cast of characters that I will be examining in comparison to the works of queer theorists Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick, Judith Butler, Victoria Clarke and Kevin Turner, and Jackie Goldsby in this project.
While the hyperpop community is tight-knit and comprised primarily of queer individuals, the genre and resulting subculture hasn't been examined or compared in relation to existing queer theory. As such, I've formatted my analysis into this blog to allow a more public access to the internet at large. Whereas hyperpop is often stated to be inaccessible due to its largely abrasive sound, the ideas that its artists create and grapple with should be available to a greater audience and I invite others to continue the discussion started here.
- Willow
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Bibliography










