@article{Christiana2021,
       author = "Christiana, Anthony",
       title =  {{Hyperpop: How Streaming Services Create and Control Genre Through Curation}},
       howpublished = "\url{https://ir.hamilton.edu/do/42d54d5b-ac94-49e9-9c90-7fe2333ac6e2}",
       institution = {Hamilton College},
       year = 2021,
       month = jan,
       school = {Music},
}

Creator

Date

January 31st, 2021

Description

In the past two years, the "microgenre” hyperpop has garnered a cult internet following as well as the attention of journalists and skeptics who seek to contextualize the genre in a variety of ways. Hyperpop is an offshoot of pop; it is best understood as an exaggeration of mainstream pop tropes. But, beyond just defining what hyperpop is through song analysis and genre theory, this paper seeks to center hyperpop in the study of how genre exists in contemporary culture. Specifically, I draw on recent research to argue that music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are more than what they might appear, that is, expansive music databases. Instead, these streaming services wield a curatorial power which allows them to construct genre and create taste through somewhat nonapparent mechanisms (interfaces, algorithmic results, aesthetic authority, etc.). Wielding this curatorial power, streaming services codify and create genres like hyperpop. And subsequently, they become the arbiters of cultural taste through the manipulation of genres.

Type of Work

• Research Paper

Institution

Hamilton College

Area of Study

• Music

Advisor

Sponsor

• Levitt Public Affairs Center

Series

Levitt Research Fellows Program

Part of Collection

Levitt Public Affairs Center

Rights Statement

The copyright for this work is held by its creators and Hamilton College. More information