The Glitched-Out Sound and Spontaneous Rise of 100 Gecs

It would be hard to find a pop music group more polarizing than 100 gecs. Within the first 30 seconds of their 2019 breakout hit “Money Machine,” most listeners formed strong opinions on their genre-mashing, glitched-out, Auto-Tune-infused style. Their music is chaotic and referential, constantly bouncing between nightcore, dubstep, death metal, ska, and emo, all while being catchy as hell.

100 gecs’ anything-goes aesthetic could be seen as an outgrowth of internet meme culture, but their songs are more than the musical equivalent of copypasta comments. Their unique sound and spontaneous popularity have made them figureheads of “hyperpop,” a term devised to describe similar bleeding-edge pop artists. But is hyperpop really a genre? Or is it just a Spotify playlist curated by a select few musicians? Is it a community of musically aligned artists or just a buzzword people can slap on anything?

On this week’s episode of Get WIRED, we’re lending our podcast feed to our friends at The Pitchfork Review for a conversation between Pitchfork editor Puja Patel and the members of 100 gecs, Laura Les and Dylan Brady. The three discuss 100 gecs’ songwriting process, the squishiness of the hyperpop label, and the responsibility of charting a new future for pop music.

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