Music composers and producers have been a crucial part of popular culture since the Renaissance. Bach, an organist and composer from the late 1600s, drew inspiration from the rhythmic innovations of the Renaissance. He popularized the art of polyphony which is the combination of multiple, independent melodies being played together to give music texture. Music techniques like polyphony are still used in modern music from the past century.
A recent group I think of when culture-shifting production is brought up would be The Beatles. Their sound stunned the ears of parents in the 1960s who heard their children blaring guitar feedback alongside the mystic mumbles of John Lennon from their bedrooms.
Thomas Galla (12, MST), who took Dr. Ertz’s music composition course, feels The Beatles’ production styles inspire him.
“I feel like as you get into it [music production], you understand how innovative The Beatles were in some of their albums like Sgt. Pepper’s,” Galla said.
Music has always been one of the main art mediums that capture and help form human perception of life. In 2026, young artists have access to music production software like FL Studio, GarageBand and Bandlab at their fingertips. This is the reason for the surge of new, electronic sounds coming out of the genre and its subgenres like indie (short for independently produced) and hyperpop.
Noah Fields (12, HSU) shares his experience producing music, which he taught himself to do through watching YouTube videos on how to operate FL studios. He hasn’t released anything yet, but he says he is heavily inspired by jazz and bossa nova.
Fields says his interest in jazz music, like that of Louis Armstrong, aided him through beat composition. For others like Adharsh Jaikumar (12, MST) rap and experimental genres led him to making “goofy beats.”
“I also made a lot of rap-type beats. I drew a lot of inspiration from A$AP Rocky and he’s known for sampling [music] and chopping them up,” Jaikumar said.
Celebrity producers like Sophie Xeon who produced songs for famous names like A$AP Rocky, Charli XCX, Madonna and more tend to get stuck taking the backseat in another artist’s career due to the behind-the-scenes role of producing beats for artists to sing over. Sophie Xeon, professionally known as SOPHIE, DJed music under her own name as well to share her talents besides just making the beat for “Vroom Vroom” by Charli XCX.
You may have heard SOPHIE’s music online as a TikTok recently surfaced of a person dancing to her song “VYZEE” with the caption “#housemusic.” The original has since been deleted, but it created controversy online as the creator of the video was purposefully omitting the more experimental parts of the song to reach the mainstream community online. The video creator also stated in the video that he “wished the whole song sounded like this.” “This,” being a more generic, pop sound to appeal to heteronormative music standards.
Long-time fans of SOPHIE argued in the comments that describing her music as “house music” doesn’t correctly capture the effort she put into progressing the experimental subgenre of “hyperpop” for the queer community. House music does also have roots in the queer community, starting in the Chicago vogue-ballroom scene in the 70s. Still, hyperpop would’ve been the preferred genre label in this case.
Those who agreed with the original “#housemusic” poster’s claim also engaged in misgendering the artist SOPHIE in the comments section. Many fans believe that before SOPHIE died from slipping from a balcony in 2021, her audience had not reached its full potential. The ears of music enjoyers, specifically queer music enjoyers, had not yet been accustomed to the maximalization of squeaky samples and spiky drums and peculiar sounds. SOPHIE’s albums released during her lifetime include “Product” and “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” released in 2015 and 2018 are early hyperpop works of art that created a format to allow identity to be present through production techniques.
Before Gen Z became the post-Covid, anxious generation it is now, music by artists like SOPHIE, Charlie XCX and more was viewed as “unlistenable” and “before its time.” The article Understanding Hyperpop: the First Generation Raised by the Internet on The Gazelle, calls hyperpop an internet micro-genre birthed in the 2010s by artists in or adjacent to the trans community. Desires of escapism from popular culture and an increase in acceptance and pride of queerness has concocted a space for more music enjoyers to resonate with the bass heavy, chaotic sounds of hyperpop.
Data Transfer Data Transfer by Roman Allgeier (11, YPAS) shares a song he produced inspired by the “digital world.” Allgeier also makes music he describes as ‘J-pop’ or Japanese pop which shares experimental components with indie and hyperpop music.
While there are newer, SOPHIE-inspired artists like 2hollis from this genre that 2020s music media struggles to take seriously, there are artists like Jane Remover who has gained respect for her musical innovations after SOPHIE. This artist emerged under various different monikers but the ones that gained the most popularity were her releases as Jane Remover, venturing and Leroy. She released the album “Dariacore” under her Leroy project which is a staple of the many subgenres born of hyperpop. The Dariacore sound became a genre in itself.
When the “Dariacore” album was released in 2021, she released her first album project “Fraitility” under the Jane Remover name. The “Fratility” album is rhythmically mellow and representative of the older part of our generation’s transition into adulthood into an isolated, pandemic-ridden world. She maintains the hyperpop elements of jarring melodies mashed with crashing drums as she sings lyrics like “I don’t really wanna be someone that gets in your way” on “movies for guys.”
Remover’s most recent album, “Revengeseekerz,” features a big jump from her previous work with slower-paced hyperpop and breakcore to a more rap-oriented take on the genres. Some see this as a fault of Remover and her trying to appropriate Black culture, but her commitment to production quality proves that is incorrect. This album has more potential for a mosh pit or even raves with its noisiness on tracks like “Dancing with your eyes closed”’s usage of flickering percussion. “Revengeseekerz” is an undeniable child of SOPHIE’s production techniques with drumbeats airy enough to cool off large crowds of warm bodies dancing.
Though I am a new addition to the Jane Remover fanbase, I can tell there are varied opinions on whether Remover’s discography has lived up to fans of her earlier music’s expectations. Remover’s following has only grown since the release of “Revengeseekerz” and it will hopefully grow more as Remover blends different genres to appeal to more groups of people. Pride month is near but my hope is for queer artists like SOPHIE and Jane Remover’s names to be a large part in 21st century music conversations. Other current artists from this sphere include 100 gecs, underscores, Ninajirachi, Arca, Slayyyter and many more.
While not every one of these artists don’t share the same queer identity, the LGBTQ+ community has been a vessel for the hyper genre’s popularity. Hyperpop artist’s concerts display flashing lights and rave visuals that allude to many different meanings.
It is important to see the value in having an open ear to new sounds we hear in the music world. We will look back on the experimental music of our time in high school as older generations look back on The Beatles.
