I threw myself right into the crowd
2025 Mix 39: Riffing on hyper/hypopop, then songs that don't work but in ways that are really interesting, followed by songs that do work but in ways that aren't
Today’s mix has a ton of songs that don’t quite work in ways I find really interesting. “Working” is maybe a little overrated—interesting is often the whole ball game since “good” is never guaranteed, even when your track record is impeccable. If you aim for good but can’t get there through interesting, you’re in trouble, because good’s not really up to you. But at the same time aiming for interest and being ambivalent about good is a trap, too. Interest has to be the means to the end of good—just because it’s the game doesn’t mean you don’t want to win.
I’m being a little oblique here (is anything I just wrote true? Maybe not?) because of what I’m working through below: trying to grapple with the idea of hyperpop, and my baby-steps intervention into the balanced prefix space with hypopop, which is the same general phenomenon as hyperpop but with a subtly different approach.1
As always, you should not take my neologisms seriously until they click—maybe just for you, or maybe for the world, but right now that mostly means you (hi!)—at which point you should take them very seriously.
When I use the hypo- and hyper- terms I’m thinking about a sense of a song trying to get out from under something that I happen to like—a kind of plain songcraft that it sometimes seems pop artists, particularly in American (and maybe British and some other western Anglophone) pop, find burdensome. Other regions have no problem with it, though, even when absorbing and adapting the techniques and strategies of the hyper/hypo stuff without getting all hung up. (Brad Luen wrote well about some of this—a widespread arty allergy to pop clarity—in a recent piece: “For 2020s vocal music outside of chart-pop and Kendrick calling Drake names, the standard preference of American music criticism—and to a large extent, of American musicians—has been for some degree of obfuscation.”)
I fear that the hyper/hypo talk will end up like trying to remember stalagmites versus stalactites, a hopeless distinction that mostly makes you just want to refer to everything as “pointy”—or just, you know, point.2 Pointing with intention is in fact a skill I talk about a lot in an educational context in my day job (won’t go into it here); it can be a weirdly counterintuitive act, and sometimes a critical act in two senses of the word.
Anyway—👇!
1. Debbii Dawson: I Want You
US
So yes, I’ve come to think (though not that seriously) about a lot of moves I’m hearing in pop as being hypopop, an extension or evolution of the hyperpop era. I’d include artists like PinkPantheress and Addison Rae, and might now add to that list Debbii Dawson, who is working not only with Max Martin acolytes and Addison Rae producer/soundscapers Luka Kloser and Elvira Anderfjärd, but also the big man himself, who imposes some of his pop formalist structure on those cute little ouroboroses in a terrarium that Luka/Elvira specialize in.
By hypopop I mean the sublimation of the Songful Pop Impulse into waves of sound and feeling with the older structures visible just under the surface, in contrast to the sublimation in hyperpop of the Songful Pop Impulse into an overstimulating deluge of flickers and flashes around a song stuck in a glass box. The difference between the two—though maybe it’s more of a distinction in search of a difference as far as your ears are concerned—is immersive sensory deprivation (hypo) versus alienating sensory overload (hyper), two routes of tripping the same pop pleasure centers from unexpected, indirect angles—both following roundabout routes to endorphin release but usually getting there (when it works—which it does, sometimes).3
So this is hypopop where you can sense much more of the light of pop clarity than usual, could in fact hear it as a Max Martin throwback—but you might also sense this in a way that is alternately distracting (ruining the sensory deprivation stillness) and exciting (reminding you that you didn’t exactly sign up for the dunk tank).
2. Kim Petra: Freak It
Germany
And speaking of Max Martin and shaky pop neologisms, Kim Petras has finally ditched Dr. Luke for Frost Children, hyperpoppish provocateurs whose sound strikes me as cynical in an off-putting way, but who also seem sincere, so I’m perhaps misreading them. And they kind of knock it out of the park on this one, the closest Petras is likely to get to a liberatory JOYRIDE! that, as with all too-hyper pop variants, is more comfortable with the ride than the joy. Needs an accordion. But whatever, I’m happy for her.
3. Pell, ANTWIGADEE, Dawn Richard: Go Crazy (Tarriona “Tank” Ball Remix)
US
I can practically hear this killing at an NPR Tiny Desk, which puts me in mind of a joke about Tiny Desk that has made it impossible for me ever to use “Tiny Desk” as a descriptor without thinking of it. This does not improve the song experience, but it is amusing.
4. Lealani: Onomatopoeia
US
I like the idea of turning the word “onomatopoeia” into onomatopoeia for itself—like how Britney Spears’s “Radar” is not just about being “on my radar” but is also about “Amahraydah,” the experience of syllables representing sounds of their own bespoke impact and import first and containing semantic meaning a distant second. I’m sure there’s lots of annoying theory that goes into this further, in fact I’m pretty sure I’ve tried to read some of it before, but it’s not that deep—sounds are cool.
5. ILLIT: Toki Yo Tomare
South Korea
6. aespa: Rich Man
South Korea
Two K-pop tracks to continue a consistent but rarely euphoric K-pop streak on my mixes. ILLIT have a Japanese-language song that sounded old enough that it made me wonder if it’s a rerelease (not that I could tell), and aespa cast themselves as rich men without sampling Fiddler on the Roof. You can just sing “If I Were a Rich Man” at double speed along to the chorus if you want.
7. 255 f. Naira Marley, Zinoleesky: Damage
Nigeria
Zinoleesky! Why am I not keeping up with him more carefully? He remains my favorite Naija pop vocalist, bruised but assertive, forcing grain into Afrobeats’ impossibly smooth surfaces and now managing to keep his personality above the quicksand of amapiano log drum crossover, a sort of invasive species continuing its malicious spread through Afrobeats. I guess that makes Asake a cane toad smuggler?
8. PANDORA, Skive: Glitch
Greece
More oddball club-pop from Greece—makes me wonder if Marina Satti had a big impact on the pop scene there or if this is just the usual multidirectional global ferment. Pleased to see that they seem to have filmed this video with the ugly pixelation filter on a c. 2000 MiniDV camcorder.
9. Kesha, Orville Peck f. Hudson Mohawke: Tennessee
US
Kesha’s latest album was another “I’m happy for her” collection that I didn’t end up returning to much—prefer her featuring anywhere and everywhere, including stomp-clap country crossover where her signature bottle of Jack (mouthwash) wins out over the archetypal bottle of Jack in country iconography, no minor feat.
10. Jens Lekman f. Matilda Sargren: On a Pier, On the Hudson
Sweden
Another Jens Lekman album, another collection of impressively well-crafted songs that I bristle at in a narcissism of small differences sort of way—that is, when I listen to Jens Lekman I hear all of the impulses and shortcomings that flood out whenever I try to make music myself (my music doesn’t sound anything like Jens Lekman’s—for one thing, it’s not very good—I just mean I have a game-recognize-game reaction to so many of his songs that do genuinely deserve a cookie but I resent noticing they’ve asked for one). This is one of his attempts to go further afield with some light disco, and in one sense it shakes him out of some twee comfort zones but in another it doesn’t quite work. And yet here it is.
11. KUSK, Óviti: Hjá Mér
Iceland
An awkward midpoint between hypo- and hyper-, and a reminder that at some level these fraught (or maybe meaningless) hyphenates have mellowed into production styles and instrumental palettes without any particular attachment to a zeitgeist. This probably improves the styles, as they can be used more casually now and still have benefits: e.g., hyperpop rocketed us out of a sluggish low-BPM ice age; hypopop keeps the kinetic energy of the pop banger but manages to salvage whatever worked about the somnambulant Vibes Era (the vibes, I guess? People tell me vibes are nice; I’ll take their word for it). So this comes across as generic, but with the sort of music that should be incapable of sounding generic. But most music, no matter how out there it seems at some point, eventually comes back inside and domesticates itself.
12. Sudenur Güntekin, VA: Zindan
Turkey
And because these hypo/hyper things are much broader production styles now, you can also use little microflourishes—the way the Autotune bend is employed on the outer edges of the vocal, bringing out the prettiness of the melody with subtle contrast, like applying a smoky eye rather than garish facepaint.
13. Just a Band: Ha-He (Mike Muema 3 Step Remix)
Kenya
I’d say that 3 step hasn’t traveled nearly as effectively as amapiano so far, even though it has a much simpler and more replicable template. I think it’s maybe too contingent on production genius, doesn’t benefit from collaborative playfulness around a grab-bag of ideas and conventions like amapiano does. It also doesn’t have mix-and-match elements (shaker, log drum, melodies as the spirit moves you) that can be repurposed elsewhere. The important thing is not importing the template, but having something new to apply to it.
14. Portable, Terry Apala: Sandra Benede
Nigeria
This is the sort of replacement-level Naija pop that almost never turns my head anymore—Zinoleesky rises above this sort of production earlier in the mix with personality and grain, but I have no idea at all why this one works. Maybe it doesn’t! And yet it does.
15. Qing Madi: Scumbag
Nigeria
Meanwhile, some of that old-school distant Naija pop glassiness sounds great in contrast, doesn’t it (the inevitable log drums are made subservient to the rest of the production, at least). And Qing Madi, on top of being an interesting vocalist in her own right, also has the added benefit of plastering the word scumbag all over, which stands out no matter what else is going on.
16. Luukas Oja: Turpa kii
Finland
Ah, we’ve emerged from the long and troubled “this is interesting because it doesn’t quite work” stretch and have entered the “this really works and it isn’t that interesting” stretch. Finnish rock! It’s pretty good, I like it!
17. Haku。:それしか言えない
Japan
18. kurayamisaka: Metro
Japan
19. N-FENI: Loud Grandpa
Japan
A bam-bam-bam J-rock suite, one song I recommended to Jel (“Metro”), one song Jel recommended to me (“Loud Grandpa), and a third song from Mark Sinker fave Haku。, for whom I have developed a vicarious soft spot.
20. Pahua: Vaquera Galáctica
Mexico
A fun, if slight, electro/folk mix, handles the EDM like a hot potato, no part of the song wanting to get stuck for too long holding the synths.
21. Die Spitz: Punishers
US
22. NewDad: Everything I Wanted
Ireland
Two serendipitous Coachella small-font snags in my playlists this time out—Austin nu-gaze and Irish indie, the latter tipping into windowpane generally on the material of theirs I’ve heard but not on this particular song, which, like Twenty One Pilots, understands how to take advantage of a Metric life raft when they see one.
23. Hatchie: Lose It Again
Australia
Ending things with Hatchie, who are just as good as ever, which is to say permanently stuck in third gear but on a lovely backroad so you don’t really mind. (Did I only use that metaphor because this is a recurring visual in the video? Maybe!) See, I can vibe, sort of, if I concentrate really really hard on it. Hm.
***
That’s it! Until next time, try to vibe with whatever gear you’re stuck in.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from NewDad: Everything I Wanted
It’s impossible for me not to think of prefixes “hyper” and “hypo” outside the context of diabetes (too much sugar versus not enough), and so in my mind they become two poles of a chronic condition of western pop music. But you are not me and most likely are not diabetic, so I am relegating this to a footnote instead.
I did commit the difference to memory as a kid, with an annoying mnemonic I got from Dilbert, long before the strip’s author, er, decompensated: “Stalagmites might hang from the ceiling, but they don’t.”
I think there’s a connection here with A-pop—other regions and genres are making alternative forms of songcraft work without making a big neurotic deal about it. There’s a certain strain of effort that I notice when I consciously apply the term “hyper” (or “hypo”) as opposed to just noticing certain sonic elements as tools used in the normal course of making a good song.
Yeah, pretty much like you, I always remembered it as "stalactites STICK TIGHT to the ceiling, stalagmites MIGHT not."
I was listening to the new self-titled Purity Ring album and thinking this is a very good example of creative poptimism, optimism that newly using pop changes and a babydoll pop vocal derived, I'm sure, from Magdalena Bay is no bad way for a witch house act to go. I liked the result, but it reminded me of something I liked a few years ago when I was less specific about what modern sounds I liked, and that something was pastel synth pop. Purity Ring now is like its cyber-folky witchification, So I wonder if an element of hypopop is hyperpop with a pastel synthpop comb run over it. As for songwriting, I think a lot of newer hyperpop - eg Jvcki Wai's 'Spoil U' - can be seen as equivalent to freakbeat, that is, fast R'n'B changes played with skittering drums and guitar feedback, replaced in the electronica version with D'n'B rhythms and autotune, contrasting with the more songwriterly trend of hypopop.