The Salient Aesthetics of Hyperpop

MM Paper, published in KEAMS Emille vol. 23 [ISSN 2713-7724 (Online)], 2026

Abstract: Hyperpop functions as a late-capitalist aesthetic formation in which maximalism and deviance operate as strategies of desubjectification, parody, and resistance within digitally mediated popular music. Maximalism is articulated as a compositional and artistic process that decentralizes authorship through excess and oversaturation, while deviance is understood as a deliberate departure from heteronormative, genre-bound, and capitalist norms. Rather than constituting a stable musical genre, hyperpop emerges as an ethos (Shorey 2020) shaped by postmodern selfreference, platform circulation, and the absorption of critique into market structures. Analyses of works by SOPHIE, 100 gecs (Laura Les and Dylan Brady), and brakence (Randy Findell) demonstrate how these artists mobilize exaggerated production techniques, vocal modification, and formal parody to both inhabit and destabilize pop music conventions. These practices situate hyperpop at the intersection of digital identity formation, queerness, and contemporary electronic music aesthetics, and provide a framework for further musicological and cultural analysis.