The LGBTQIIA+ community is often “othered” and as a result, has created a channel of expression through music they easily identify with. Hyperpop is a demonstration of how animated producers can be, adding a variety of textures to music that gives it a certain feeling. This is carried by high-pitched vocals that have been processed to engrave a sense of childishness to the ear with pulsating basslines that are suitable for a rave.
This genre was a step away from the infamous “Glitchcore” sound that dominated the alternative scene in the late 90s leading into the new millennium. Glitchcore has more erratic pauses that would texturise a song like sandpaper would to a gravel road. It was fitting for artists like A.G Cook to then coin the next direction of the sound with the rise of pop synth and vocals that represented femininity in delivery.
Another act that has seemingly stamped their existence within the Hyperpop space is 100 Gecs, a duo that has always seen the necessity of creating sounds that even they have never conceptualised. They speak of how their creative process is always the best part of their music journey because they discover themselves more in the rubble of sounds than in the cleanliness of a mastered project.
One of the most celebrated producers of Hyperpop culture is the late Sophie Xeon, who was and still is the embodiment of how a transgender artist found her community through soundscapes that have told more stories that relate to them. She was an activist for trans awareness and the daily struggles faced by the LGBTQIIA+ family using catchy auto-tuned vocals that celebrated her femininity in a rather masculine-enforced world.
Sophie found various ways to plant seeds of affirmation in her music that nourished the soil of sonics, watering it with her blood, sweat and tears. Her music then blossomed into a fruitful branch of the genre that addressed socioeconomic issues all while making the audience feel validated on the dancefloor.
Her album Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-insides (2018) is a token of excellence that joins the listener to her path of self-discovery in her medical transition as a woman. An example would be her body positivity in songs like Faceshopping where she addresses how “real” she becomes when she did what was considered “fake” speaking to cosmetic and gender-affirming surgery as a trans woman.
Her production style was centred around breaking sonic norms by means of using heavy machinery sounds in her music, and being very childlike in her production to speak to her inner child, satisfying her younger self’s music pallet.
Her untimely passing in 2021 took her fans by surprise and is still widely spoken about as she had passed on by means of accidentally falling off her balcony while gazing at a full moon. As poetic as her demise sounds, it spoke to how she lived every moment in awe of how great life becomes when you live it intentionally. Her life has inspired even the next generation of hyperpop producers and consumers to take a page from her book and use it as a template for their journey to reach their desired outcome in life.
With the culture of Tik Tok growing exponentially, the sounds produced by everyday subscribers seemingly draw from Hyperpop characteristics by pitching songs higher, making the tempo faster, and mixing smooth vocals with distorted beats all while becoming the most animated versions of themselves visually.
Hyperpop is sonically and aesthetically the direct opposite of what emo/gothic, alternative consumers would be with their animé/barbie/Harajuku-inspired fashion that can be referenced to the latest trend called Aliyahcore, which has taken the streets by storm.
These variants have led to more queer-identifying people gravitating closer towards the genre as their escape pod of individualistic creative expression. A room of safety that they have culminated within their social groups that they themselves have the master key to.
