Like Britney Spears on Steroids: Re-Introducing PC Music, the Label Who Single-Handedly Created “Hyperpop,” and Whose Cyberculture Aesthetic is Rapidly Changing the Music Industry

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If I asked you who A.G. Cook was and then showed you a photo of him—complete with shoulder length dark hair, thick bangs, and wire-rimmed glasses—you’d be forgiven for assuming he was an eccentric science-fiction writer from the mid-1800s. But he’s not. He’s real. And he’s young. And he’s the mastermind behind PC Music, the music-label-that’s-not-a-label, subculture-that’s-not-a-subculture, parody-that’s-not-actually-a-joke that has been making waves within the music industry since emerging in the early 2010s. He’s Showing up the mirror to those at Pitchfork and NME who are caught between pretending they like it and admitting they don’t really understand it.

Actually, now that I think about it, PC Music’s collective approach would be entirely at home within a science-fiction novel. Like if the Barbie Dreamhouse got invaded by cyborgs carrying turntables and mixers and commanding a knowledge of Ableton Live. Granted, I’m probably five years late to writing this article, but after A.G. Cook released two studio albums in the past two months, his debut “7G” on Aug. 12, followed a mere 37 days later by his second album “Apple” on Sept. 18, I figured I’d give it a go.

I suppose PC Music can best be described as a “collective,” who first found a home online on SoundCloud in 2013 following Cook’s graduation from Goldsmiths in London, where he studied music. Although PC Music has “signed” numerous artists, including EasyFun, Hannah Diamond, GFOTY and Tommy Cash, it functions more as a home-base for these artists, providing a channel by which they can release their projects without containing any of the traditional trappings and obligations set forth by an established label.

Indeed, the artists involved are free to release their music elsewhere, as QT did in 2014 when her single “Hey QT” was released first on PC Music, before being released on XL recordings almost simultaneously. Although first releasing individual songs in 2013, the label released their first official album, the compilation “PC Music Volume 1” online on May 2, 2015, marking their first concerted effort to release a project somewhat resembling a major label release. However, PC Music thrives on anonymity, and its amorphous structure allows the artists—who label themselves “extended art installations,” cultivating digital personas that shield their real identities—have been met with calculated skepticism by critics who view their music as a sort-of art school attempt at consumerist commentary which misses the mark of thoughtful criticism, and makes shitty music as well.

As Sam Wolfson, writing for The Guardian in 2014, notes, “Here’s my take: PC Music is a process between imagination and reality. It began as a dream: invented pop stars, Photoshopped magazine covers, a conceptual sports energy drink. But now, those things are becoming a reality. QT drinks are in production in the US. Its affiliated producers such as SOPHIE are now producing for pop stars like Madonna and Charli XCX. And it really is on the covers of magazines (well, this one at least),” before he suggests the label’s longer-term focus as being “the realisation of an imagined technological universe.”

This recalls elements of “culture jamming,” the anti-consumerist activism pioneered by such groups as the Guerrilla Girls, The Yes Men and Adbusters, which attempted to change the media narrative and challenge existing power-structures by launching satirical campaigns and engaging in fake advertising which, although rooted in parody, sharply critiqued socio-cultural inequities present within popular culture.

Indeed, in a broader sense, PC Music’s insertion into music’s contemporary landscape seems perfectly timed to reckon with the rise of streaming and the resultant importance of personal branding, as artists become less reliant upon major-label gatekeepers and build devoted followings based upon Instagram followers and SoundCloud streams. Writing for Pitchfork, Sasha Geffen argues that PC Music’s ethos is integral to the notion of “inverted consumerism,” whereby the pseudo-label and it’s pseudo-artists have “hijacked the familiar hooks of advertising—fast, feminine voices that demand connection, bright colors and catchy jingles,” which suggest an adherence to materialism and 21st-century web-based consumerism, except that these affectations feel chosen purely for their aesthetic value. The brand itself is in fact devoid of the music industry’s capitalist arm.

As Geffen concludes, “You cannot buy PC Music. A few of Sophie's singles can be purchased on iTunes, and "Hey QT" is slated for an official release in May, but that's it. I saw plenty of audience members wearing clothing with PC Music logos on it in the crowd at SXSW. They had all made it themselves—there is no merch from the label. There is only a love of the music, and what it inspires people to do.”

All of this sounds like an anti-capitalist dream, but aside from it’s political leanings, PC Music is also credited with creating the subgenre that has come to be known as “hyperpop,” whose defining features are an undeniably electronic-based production which simultaneously integrates pop hooks, choruses and melodies, resulting in a unique sound that is hyper-produced and also incredibly pop.

Trading on the idea that the laptop is an ubiquitous component of modern technology, A.G. Cook explains in a New York Times profile that “Everyone has a laptop or an iPad or something. It’s the folk instrument of our era—it’s just everywhere. And you hear the person behind the electronic device.”

With the rise of user-friendly digital audio workstations like Ableton Live, Logic Pro and FL Studio, which work seamlessly on personal laptops, the beauty of PC Music’s operation lies in its easy access and DIY structure. Where a cheap acoustic guitar and a knowledge of basic chords were once the only requirements to start playing folk, country, or rock n roll, today a laptop and a SoundCloud account offer much the same promise to rookie music producers. Truly anyone can participate.

It is this adherence to DIY production techniques that initially made PC Music so successful, and it’s creators have now utilized their growing mainstream popularity to broaden the scope of their operation, pivoting from the uber-specific, statement-making catalogue that gained notoriety on SoundCloud in 2014, and now aim to normalize the sound of their specific brand of electronic noise, complete with it’s cyberculture influences and surrealistic, heavily-branded take on contemporary pop.

Musically, PC Music sounds a bit like if the Depop aesthetic had a definitive musical taste. Which now that I think about it, it does. PC Music’s rapid rise has coincided perfectly with the advent of SoundCloud, the growth of TikTok and the development of the e-boy and e-girl subculture. It’s internet music for internet kids; perfectly constructed for quick, punchy usage within a TikTok video or as the theme song for a CharliXCX campaign, and it certainly draws anime influences, resulting in an entire musical subgenre that is decidedly #y2k and very #kawaii.

Hyperpop, to me at least, sounds a bit like putting your favorite Britney Spears song in a blender for about five minutes. Which I guess is just 100 gecs. I’m kidding, kind of. Complex explains that hyperpop itself “refers to the sparkly, exaggerated electronic pop subgenre that erupted in the middle of the ‘10s” and was nurtured on SoundCloud, a “fast, experimental, electronic pop” that has also given rise to the even more specific musical subculture of Glitchcore, which borrows from the same fast-paced, electronic, hyper-stylized energy, but transfers it to a more Drum & Bass, Soundcloud Rap or Indie Rock sensibility. I don’t know if those genres really fit together naturally, but if it hasn’t become clear yet, it’s pretty irrelevant whether or not they actually do. PC Music is at its heart an experiment. It’s about playing around with different sounds and discovering what you can create; disregarding whether or not it seems to make sense.

But, as SOPHIE becomes an electronic heavyweight in her own right, and A.G. Cook and Danny L. Harle both earn producing credits on increasingly mainstream projects (Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama to name a few), it’s clear that this is more than a trend, more than a few songs, and more than just a few producers. PC Music is here to stay, and it’s about to become the future of electronic music. So listen up.

The PC Music Starter Pack

PC Music Releases

Apple by A.G. Cook (2020): https://open.spotify.com/album/6t1kxWGH4qa00TDKRvFzVW?si=p8pJBLkGRXyRnam30xhdSw

7G by A.G. Cook (2020): https://open.spotify.com/album/0PHVIdlkceOpjYgvUER4Nd?si=opn7Ii7XQgCualEFTBGb8Q

PC Music, Vol. 1 by various artists (2015): https://open.spotify.com/album/6v7bvadPuidJL6o6kepl1f?si=ppvBakTfRW26tgvkhgJaog

PC Music, Vol. 2 by various artists (2016): https://open.spotify.com/album/2GRIt25aRsrVdnaPacHJoR?si=3pGdmO6HQ9OvcVqa31TX2Q

PC Music Elsewhere:

How I’m Feeling Now by Charli XCX (A.G. Cook and Danny L. Harle are producers) (2020): https://open.spotify.com/album/3a9qH2VEsSiOZvMrjaS0Nu?si=VLK2VCocTdCAR4F87y7TfQ

Sawayama by Rina Sawayama (Danny L. Harle produces) (2020): https://open.spotify.com/album/3stadz88XVpHcXnVYMHc4J?si=V5ToG8-TSj-aaVMhKK_L0A

Shiver by Jónsi (A.G. Cook executive produces) (2020): https://open.spotify.com/album/4KnqXO9cm2LLOzZruvIv5r?si=CVkYsC2yR4iuQArlc1vgGg

Pang by Caroline Polachek (Danny L. Harle executive produces, A.G. Cook produces) (2019): https://open.spotify.com/album/4ClyeVlAKJJViIyfVW0yQD?si=zJe-zNsNSgaxni1vIcTwbw

YES by Tommy Cash (A.G. Cook and Danny L. Harle are producers) (2018): https://open.spotify.com/album/4KnqXO9cm2LLOzZruvIv5r?si=VaUxC5z0SkCR5e9NytAtRQ

Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides by SOPHIE (SOPHIE executive produces) (2018): https://open.spotify.com/album/23lnmHhZwyercCJhmyPXYN?si=kfiGc42xQZmuD-NAWjDZ7w

“hyperpop” playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX7HOk71GPfSw?si=XfXKAVm6TiaJp6O2hcFDSg

“The Sound of Glitchcore” playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0nAwOSVQ19qbswrjPdmQkq?si=7yzXzWdVTDCzQT-Vp2-xiA

Like Britney Spears on Steroids: Re-Introducing PC Music, the Label Who Single-Handedly Created “Hyperpop,” and Whose Cyberculture Aesthetic is Rapidly Changing the Music Industry

The PC Music Starter Pack

PC Music Releases

PC Music Elsewhere:

Further Reading