It’s 12 am. The music is loud. You’re surrounded by friends and strangers, and you feel free enough to scream at the top of your lungs. The synthesizers hit you first, running from your chest down to your feet. Then you feel the 808 bass before you even hear it. But this isn’t your regular club night. It’s a hyperpop night. 

With hyperpop, there’s no formula for the sound, but certain elements keep showing up. The genre can be characterized by high-tempo music, hard, sharp snares, and electronic rhythms. For AJI, a Toronto-based DJ and producer, hyperpop is about pushing everything to the limits. Musically, it’s like “screaming and letting it all out,” they said. They described the early days of the genre as “taking pop music and turning it up to the max,” before eventually taking other genres and sounds all the way there too. 

To get a sense of what the genre sounds like, Missbiblexo, a hyperpop DJ, recommends tracks like “Hi” by Hannah Diamond, Gfotybucks by GFOTY,  “Hey QT” by QT, and early Charli XCX songs like “Vroom Vroom.” 

What started as a largely internet-born sound has taken on a life of its own, developing its own subgenres, like Bubblegum bass, and its own aesthetics, communities and spaces. The genre is also increasingly finding a home offline too, pushing beyond SoundCloud releases and online communities to packed dancefloors all over the world. 

Hearing hyperpop through your headphones is one thing. Experiencing it in a room full of people, lights and color, is another. The music moves quickly; the mixes can jump from one sound to another as there’s very little interest in staying inside the boundaries of one genre. 

If you’ve never experienced a hyperpop night, you’re in luck. There’s a hyperpop party in Toronto this Friday at Adelaide Hall, and AJI and Missbiblexo will be taking over the stage and the decks. You can expect “a younger crowd, a little bit like crazy, definitely like super online…,” said Missbiblexo.

At its core, the genre remains a free space where creatives can release music, build their own audiences and find listeners looking for something outside of the mainstream. And while hyperpop was once considered niche, more listeners are beginning to discover the genre without it having to compromise what made it exciting in the first place. Its sounds continue to show up in new spaces, introducing more people to its maximalist world, and its next phase is likely just as loud and unpredictable as the genre itself. 

Get your tickets to HYPERPOP NIGHT.