It is impossible to escape the enormous chunk of social media market share that TikTok has absorbed in just a few years. The Bytedance owned platform has over a billion registered accounts, a fraction of other platforms but the influence to match. Once popular options such as Facebook have stagnated in growth and become a cesspool of misinformation, perpetuating the traditional tropes of social media. Remember when the joke was “all people do on Facebook is post pictures of their lunch” (or some alteration of this quip)  well, it's true and it looks like that won’t change. Needless to say, the next viral music sensation will not be born on Facebook.

Meanwhile, TikTok has grown significantly, creating millionaire influencers overnight and becoming an increasingly attractive platform for advertisers. But this silly little piece isn't about marketing tactics per say. It is a theoretical dive into connecting the dots on how artists creating reactionary marketing strategies will in turn create new genres of music and enhance the popularity of hyperpop and its adjacent genres.

Low attention spans and the ability to edit audio on social media has created an entirely new way of consuming music. Songs with a sped-up tempo capture more attention because more of a song can be put into a smaller frame of time. Tracks are played at breakneck speed, altering their original form. Drums are faster, vocal pitches are higher. Very seldom will a song gain as much traction in its raw state than in its altered form. Songs such as “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy and “NOSTYLIST” by Destroy Lonely became overnight sensations due to their remixed versions, skyrocketing the streams of the original track. Secondary markets are being created within music wherein artists can essentially create a new stream of revenue from re-releases of their most popular songs. This gives the new internet born-subgenre legitimacy. Songs are warped to be faster, completely changing how they are perceived. Similarly, a genre emerged through the i internetBut this isn’t the first time that internet culture has created a genre.

Taking influence from styles such as house, dubstep and trance, Nightcore became a staple of underground internet culture. The genre is the internet’s take on pop music, remixing already popular songs to make them faster, more dance-friendly and higher pitched. Nightcore emerged in the 2000’s as a result of pioneering artists posting their remixes on the internet during the early years of YouTube. Even with little mainstream success, the genre flourished online and served as the soundtrack for alternative online culture. If you see a Youtube thumbnail with an anime girl from, it's probably a nightcore mix. In the mid-to-late 2010s Hyperpop emerged, building on the foundation that Nightcore had set, but with more originality. Hyperpop is a distorted reflection of mainstream pop music with abrasive sounds, mystifying vocal blends and an eccentric pacing. Highly experimental and hard to engage with for some at first, the genre has begun to rise in popularity with artists such as 100 gecs. 100 gecs is one of those artists that seems to flow in and out of genre, giving an almost ironic view of pop music, while being heavily entrenched in electronic, dance and even rock. Hyperpop has a rich history in early European rave scenes, however the genre’s current metamorphosis is more aligned to the aforementioned Nightcore. The genre is heavily popularized by internet culture, but finding backing in the mainstream.

To fully explore the genre bending nature of Hyperpop it would be best to compare it to a genre that went through a similar transformation, Shoegaze. Hyperpop is to pop what Shoegaze was to rock in the late 80s and early 90s. In the 80’s, hair rock was a prominent genre of the sitting amongst a plethora of other rock archetypes. This brand of rock music was relatively formulaic although memorable and characterized by attitudes, stage personas,hair and tight pants. Rock of the 80s was of stark contrast to Shoegaze. Contrasting genres to mainstream rock existed in Punk and hardcore, but there was a purposeful antagonism. Punk was energetic and intended to throw sand in the face of the mainstream. Shoegaze was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Shoegaze is not necessarily an intentional refutation of contemporary rock music at the time, but a rubber band effect of culture created the genre. Natural progression towards one extreme created another extreme. Energetic and pop adjacent music created a solemn and experimental counterpart. Shoegaze’s name is derived from bands staring at guitar pedals as they perform. Effects laden chords, syrupy progressions, and a dose of distortion blend into each other for long durations to create the signature shoegaze sound. A complete 180 from what people perceived rock to be. Hyperpop follows the same path that Shoegaze trailblazed, they are completely different genres entirely, but they both defy mainstream sound.

Hyperpop and its adjacent genres will fall into the limelight as tiktok influences social and artistic  culture. There have already been stars rising from these burgeoning genres such as London artist Pinkpantheress, who gained her core following off of Tiktok. Mere teases and snippets of her self-advertised music became sensations online in 2020, sparking trends and becoming popular sounds immediately. Eventually her first singles such as “Pain” were released and her stardom rose, leading her to collaborations with artists such as Lil Uzi Vert, Mura Masa, WILLOW and fellow rising star Ice Spice. Her music tends to share characteristics from lo-fi, breakbeat, hyperpop and alt-pop. Pinkpantheress’ songs only span roughly a minute and a half to two minutes, incredibly short and easy to dive into. Her first project to hell with it only clocks in at 19 minutes with a total of ten tracks.

Not only new artists, but artists previously entrenched in mainstream pop have delved into emerging genres, revitalizing their sounds and lending experienced voices to new sonic ventures. Charli XCX completely revitalized her sound, transforming into a dreampop infused dance-pop artist. Genres are being bent by all levels of popularity.


As emblemized by Pinkpantheress’ meteoric rise to fame and groups like 100 gecs establishing themselves as mainstream talent, shorter form, faster paced genres are increasing in popularity. In the year 2023 it has never been easier to have your music heard. Singer-songwriters and experimental producers are put on the same stage, able to share their unique work with an international audience. It has never been easier to take a genre and bend it to one’s liking, because there are people out there that may enjoy it too.