Come 2026, there’s a vindication in the air for longtime hyperpop appreciators; the genre seems to be pleasing the widest audience it has in years. To me, this paradigm shift has several signifiers, spearheaded by a specific collaboration; from personally soundtracking my Covid-era school journeys, Charli XCX and underscores have, six years on, announced their plans to join forces on tour. underscores’ April will support the hyperpop legend – whose ‘BRAT’ album was arguably the album of her career, if not the decade or more – after her own ‘Tell Me (U Want It)’ became one of the standout singles from her acclaimed 2026 album, 'U'. Many dedicated fans have signposted Charli’s elevation of April as a signifier of a return to DIY, community-oriented, and experimental roots. Coming off the back of unprecedented commercial success, this collaboration seems primed to throw these elements into the wider cultural eye.
Naturally, the atypical genre has always had a complex, push and pull relationship to the mainstream – whose affections it periodically wins. Most aptly, this was encapsulated in ‘BRAT’s domination, but it has roots that stem from SOPHIE – the late legend who arguably fathered most current pop and hyperpop – to Tiktok’s quarantine-era love affair with artists like 100 gecs and Glitch Gum. Now, a wave of newly emerging figureheads are, at varying points into their careers, garnering expansive fanbases. While a community of male artists like 2hollis, Nate Sib, and Romulus seem to be on the receiving end of fandom once delegated to the Swedish Drain Gang collective of Bladee, Ecco2k, and others, it’s currently indisputable that women lead the cutting edge of hyperpop’s mainstream gains. The vivid aesthetics and communal ties of underscores, Jane Remover, Ninajirachi, Tiffany Day, and more are garnering an unforeseen wide appeal.
Under this emerging generation, the pop of hyperpop is arguably the most vivified it has ever been, with the latest releases of those like Ninajirachi and Tiffany Day being more distinctly palatable than much of the genre. Though, among artists, their relationship to mainstream appeal is just as tumultuous and complicated as the vice versa. The FADER recently named April “one of the most commanding pop stars of the moment”, citing her 2026 album, ‘U’ – which has garnered endless critical acclaim – as "pop maximalism". This speaks to how recent releases are leading with more agreeable elements, strung together by hip-hop baselines and folky guitar tunes that are recreated acoustically by older musicians online. The paradox between hyperpop and the mainstream is summarised by April’s reference to Madonna as "the dream", before rejecting multi-million funding or any desire for global stardom. In particular, Jane Remover shows the most tangible undertones of resentment or resistance when acknowledging how their most "pop" records accumulate the largest audience. To those in the know, they're famed for their unique ability to genre-bend, from rock, to trap, and more. Maybe their rejection is the natural response of a jack-of-all-trades refusing to be held as the master of one.
Jane’s shade of rejection is reflected on a wider scale in Charli XCX’s current album rollout, which is delivered in a slew of anti-marketing tweets and figureheaded by the line: “Nothing’s gonna save us, not music, fashion, or film”. Alongside lyrical acknowledgement of how “politics make a good press strategy” – a likely reference to 2024’s 'Kamala is brat' phenomenon – Charli expressed her sole desire to return to collaborative roots, feeling little pressure for a commercial follow-up. True to the sentiment, her other post-‘BRAT’ move, mockumentary film The Moment, was directed by long-term friend, Aidan Zamiri; it delivered a satirical indictment of moments like her Mastercard collaboration, showing the shallowness in how the album infiltrated every corner of our culture. Charli’s recent actions seem thick with a specific rejection: that, in hyperpop, there’s no fulfilment in commerciality.
Before ‘BRAT’, 2020 saw Charli collaborate with fans to create ‘how i’m feeling now’ - an album created almost entirely online with her audience. These fans, nicknamed "angels", are enthralled by her collaboration with April, who they hold as a throwback to this collaborative, DIY-era. Truthfully, it does echo in her career, with ‘U’ followed up by hours of Ableton livestreams that broke down her process for fans. And, it reverberates further, as its community roots are clearly what elevate this new generation. They frequently appear on each other’s remixes and use Boiler Room sets to champion their fellow artists. Particularly, their corner of the internet broke in April, when underscores’ pop-up DJ set saw a stacked guest list, including Jane and Nina, performing inside a U-Haul truck.
The community of hyperpop runs deep, an overtime blossoming passed between generations which earns it the reverence as a ‘Lovefield’. As April now joins Charli, she once supported alternative legends, 100 gecs. Her opening set was the first live show Jane ever saw, the night the two met, and the beginning of an ever-since collaboration. Legacy artists are scattered amidst the career paths of these current stars, where production credits and features from the likes of Porter Robinson and Danny Brown twinkle in constellations. Their unrelenting stance as pillars of the genre-community continues to propel newer artists into legendary lineups. Just recently, Charli had April photographed alongside Kim Petras and Jane performing amidst A.G Cook and Finn Keane’s "cult project", Thy Slaughter.
Hyperpop’s intergenerational devotion to DIY and community is a stellar pattern imprinted onto fans. The model is passed onto audiences, members of whom are garnering their own niche fame in a wave of TikTok DJs, where avid fans await their next mashup. Their skilled crossing-over of fan favourite names speaks to a cultural literacy modelled by Jane’s Soundcloud origins; her prior pseudonym, Leroy, created their own "dariacore" - where pop culture references littered each track with glitchy wit. Furthermore, a current phenomenon within the digital community sees amateur fans dabble in recreations of underscores’ ‘The Peace’. These Bandlab tributes are made possible by the hours April spent live, post ‘U’, showing how her phonetic breakdown of “Baby can we talk?” restructured into the internet’s new favourite melody. It’s community-orientated spectacles like these which see the genre flower into a ‘Lovefield’ – threaded with the magnetism that continues to pull the mainstream, all the while tethering dedicated fans with its unique ability to foster creative spaces.
Evie Johnson
Image: underscores ‘U’ Official Album Cover