Hyperpop roundup
The Best Hyperpop Songs Right Now
Some genres are better explained through six minutes of listening than six paragraphs of description. Here are the seven tracks that do the job.
Some genres are best understood through manifestos and interviews. Hyperpop is better understood through six minutes of actual listening than six paragraphs of description, so let's do that instead of talking around it. Here are the tracks that still explain the whole idea better than any definition manages to.
SOPHIE — “BIPP” (2013)
SOPHIE's early single is where the blueprint really starts: a bright, rubbery synth line, a vocal treated as pure texture, and a sense that the whole track is smiling slightly too widely. It still sounds strange over a decade on, which is exactly the point.
SOPHIE — “It's Okay to Cry” (2017)
A pivot from anonymous studio work into something far more personal, pairing SOPHIE's own voice with a soft, synthetic warmth that proved this style of production could hold genuine emotional weight, not just novelty and shock.
Charli XCX — “Vroom Vroom” (2016)
Produced by SOPHIE, this title track is often pointed to as the moment a proper pop star let the underground's sound design fully take the wheel — distorted bass, chaotic energy, and a chorus that refuses to sit still for a second.
GFOTY — “Bobby” (2013)
One of PC Music's earliest releases, and a useful reminder that the exaggerated, deliberately artificial pop aesthetic was there from the label's very first days, not something that arrived once the sound got a catchier name.
100 gecs — “money machine” (2019)
Arguably the single most recognisable hyperpop track that exists. A shouted, pitched-down verse collides with a hyperactive chorus, and the whole thing became a genuine internet phenomenon — remixed by, among others, Charli XCX, Rico Nasty and Kero Kero Bonito, which tells you plenty about how far its reach actually extended.
100 gecs — “ringtone” (2019)
The other essential cut from 1000 gecs, built around a melody that genuinely does sound like a 2000s ringtone reimagined as a pop chorus. It captures the genre's early-internet nostalgia as well as any single track could.
Dorian Electra — “Flamboyant” (2019)
The title track from Electra's debut album is maximalist pop theatre in miniature — camp, confident and entirely unbothered about restraint, which is more or less the job description for hyperpop as a whole.
Listening in the Right Order
| Track | Artist | Year |
|---|---|---|
| BIPP | SOPHIE | 2013 |
| Bobby | GFOTY | 2013 |
| Vroom Vroom | Charli XCX | 2016 |
| It's Okay to Cry | SOPHIE | 2017 |
| money machine | 100 gecs | 2019 |
| ringtone | 100 gecs | 2019 |
| Flamboyant | Dorian Electra | 2019 |
Played in that order, the list traces a genuinely coherent arc: from PC Music's earliest, most deliberately synthetic pop experiments, through a proper pop star borrowing the underground's sound design, to the internet-phenomenon chaos of 100 gecs and Dorian Electra's theatrical maximalism. Six years, seven tracks, one continuous conversation.
Why These Seven and Not Fifty Others
A genre this genuinely young and fast-moving does not have a settled canon, and any “best songs” list, including this one, involves real editorial judgement rather than fixed consensus. What these seven share is that each one still works as an introduction: play any single track for someone new to the sound, and they will understand more about it than a paragraph of description could manage.
What to Actually Listen For
On a first pass, it is easy to hear these tracks as pure chaos. Listen again and the craft becomes obvious: Auto-Tune used as an audible, deliberate effect rather than something to hide; bright, metallic synths standing in for what a guitar or piano might do elsewhere; sudden structural swerves that feel intentional rather than sloppy. None of these songs are accidents. They are exaggeration used precisely, which is a much harder trick to pull off than it sounds.
Where to Listen Next
Want full albums rather than individual tracks? Essential hyperpop albums explained picks up from several names on this list. If you want to know more about the artists themselves, our guide to the best hyperpop artists to know is the natural next stop, and our beginner's guide fills in the wider context if any of this still feels unfamiliar.
A Note on “Right Now”
Despite the title, this is not a chart snapshot that will feel dated by next month. These seven tracks are treated here as the defining, essential entry points into hyperpop, the ones that still hold up years on and still get pointed to whenever someone new asks where to start. That is a more useful kind of “right now” than a fast-moving streaming chart could ever offer.
The Bottom Line
Seven tracks, roughly six years, and a genuinely coherent arc from underground curiosity to internet phenomenon. Put them on in order and you will hear hyperpop explain itself far better than any critic, including this one, ever could.
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