Hyperpop roundup
The Best Hyperpop Artists to Know
From A. G. Cook's studio to Charli XCX's chart run: the honest rundown of the artists who actually built and broke this sound.
Right, let's not overcomplicate this. If you want to actually understand hyperpop, not just nod along when a mate mentions it, the fastest way in is through the people who built it and the people who blew it up. Here is the honest rundown, no gatekeeping required.
The Founders and Pioneers
A. G. Cook
Founded the London label PC Music in 2013 and has been the closest thing this scene has to an architect ever since. Cook's production treats pop's artificial edges — Auto-Tune, compression, synthetic timbres — as the point of the song, not something to hide. He has been described as the “godfather” of the movement, which is a big claim, but his fingerprints are genuinely all over it.
SOPHIE
The late producer SOPHIE is one of the most important names on this entire list. Her metallic percussion, elastic basslines and radically synthetic vocal textures pushed pop's artificiality somewhere genuinely new, and her influence on modern sound design reaches well beyond anyone who would call their own music hyperpop.
Hannah Diamond, GFOTY and Danny L Harle
Three more names from the same early PC Music orbit, each doing something slightly different with the same exaggerated pop language — Diamond's polished emotional directness, GFOTY's deliberately heightened pop persona, and Harle's euphoric, high-energy electronic production.
The Breakout Act
100 gecs
If one act made hyperpop impossible to ignore, it is this duo. Their 2019 album 1000 gecs smashed pop, dubstep, ska, screamo and hip-hop together with real songwriting underneath the chaos, and it remains the single most-cited crossover release in the whole genre's story.
The Mainstream Bridge
Charli XCX
Not every artist on this list stayed underground, and Charli XCX is the clearest example of that crossover. Her work with PC Music-associated producers carried the aesthetic's bright, maximalist, audibly-processed sound into properly mainstream pop, making her the name most people mean when they say hyperpop “made it.”
The Theatrical Outlier
Dorian Electra
Electra brings theatre-kid energy and pointed gender play to the same sonic toolkit, and their 2019 album Flamboyant is a genuinely distinct entry point — proof that the genre's exaggeration works just as well aimed at identity and performance as it does at pure production.
The Next Generation
glaive, ericdoa, underscores and brakence
A younger wave, often discussed under the newer label “digicore,” that grew up on SoundCloud and leans harder into emo influences than the original PC Music crowd did. They are proof the sound kept mutating rather than freezing in 2019.
Jane Remover and 2hollis
Two names that keep coming up in coverage of where all this is heading next, even though both artists' own work stretches well past any single tag — which is arguably very on-brand for a genre that has always resisted being pinned down.
Also Worth Knowing
umru
A producer associated with the darker, more abrasive, digital-sound-design end of the scene, umru represents the more experimental edge that sits a little further from the pop hooks of Cook or 100 gecs, and is worth a listen if you want proof the aesthetic extends well beyond bright, radio-friendly maximalism.
Why This List Skips Around Genres
Worth being upfront about: almost nobody on this list makes only hyperpop, and several would probably resist the label if you asked them directly. That is not a flaw in the list — it is genuinely how this corner of music works. Artists move fluidly between hip-hop, emo, EDM and straight pop, borrowing the exaggerated production toolkit without necessarily identifying with the tag full-time. Judge them by the records, not the label stuck on top.
A Fair Warning About This List
None of this is a fixed canon. Genre classification here is genuinely unstable — several names above have pushed back on the label at different points, and any “best artists” list, especially for anyone active after 2021, involves a fair bit of editorial judgment rather than settled consensus.
Keep Going
Want the records these artists actually made? Head to essential hyperpop albums explained. Curious how they all fit together chronologically? Our history of hyperpop lays it out properly, and if you are still getting your bearings, our beginner's guide is the place to start instead.
The Bottom Line
From A. G. Cook's studio to Charli XCX's chart run, this is a genuinely small world with an outsized influence. Start with any name on this list, follow your ear from there, and you will understand the genre far better than any single definition could tell you.
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