RED BULL RADIO
Postmodern Pop Bundle: Vol 1
Red Bull Radio explores scenes and sounds from across the globe. Its latest campaign to maximize the impact of its programming is to release a series of themed segments in ‘bundles’. Each bundle consists of one “Fireside Chat” (a 60-minute self-hosted interview from an iconic artist) and 3 “Choice Mixes” (unique, themed DJ sets that tell a story).
I leveraged this platform to tell the story of a fascinating trend in emerging pop music, with the goal of elevating its significance beyond its apt, yet reductive, genre descriptor of “Hyperpop”. For this project, my responsibilities included creating and pitching the bundle, managing artist relations, and working with co-curator, artist, and featured talent Dorian Electra to select the other musical contributors.
The “Postmodern Pop” bundle description and its components are outlined below.
Red Bull Radio Postmodern Pop Bundle Description
The Postmodern Pop Bundle is a screenshot of a remarkable moment in time for internet music. Young, digitally native artists, raised through a hyper-speed lens in the information age, are collaborating from across the world to lead forth a bold new sound: too strange to be strictly considered pop music, but too immediate to be considered anything but.
These artists are inclusive in culture and wildly creative, pulling influences from bubblegum bass, Y2K pop, industrial music, punk, and everything in between to create something new and distinctively futuristic, yet rooted in familiarity. This music embraces change as a constant and engages in deconstructionism as an act of personal artistic progression, and as a way forward for the pop music genre.
Artists such as Charli XCX, SOPHIE, 100 gecs, PC Music affiliates, and Dorian Electra have been at the forefront of this movement, but the community extends to farthest corners of the internet.
Last year, Dorian Electra, a gender-fluid, DIY, anti-pop maven self-released their debut album, Flamboyant – which took a critical, yet comical eye to issues of toxic masculinity, gender norms, artistic ego, and the fetishization of the corporate power structure – and embedded these themes into some of the sharpest tunes of the year.
Other innovators within this scene include Chinese traditional music revisionist Alice Longyu Gao, Denver-based Y2K revivalist That Kid, LA-based multidisciplinary artist Mood Killer, and many more – all of whom are sculpting the shape of pop to come.
Dorian Electra: Fireside Chat
Dorian Electra has built a career for themselves through tenacious entrepreneurialism; from remaining a decisively unsigned artist in spite of racking up over 10 Million streams on Spotify, to booking their own tour dates and shooting their own music videos. Dorian Electra's creativity, and their unparalleled ability to rally a community of creative friends around them, is a masterclass in DIY excellence. In this Fireside Chat, Dorian Electra will discuss their various points of inspiration, and how they turn all of it into a reality by doing it themselves (with friends).
Alice Longyu Gao: Choice Mix
Alice Longyu Gao is a resilient DJ, songwriter and “performance art practitioner girl.” Trained by professors from Shanghai Conservatory of Music and People’s Liberation Army Academy of Art, she plays piano and sings soprano. As a DJ, she is active in the fashion and art industries. For this Choice Mix, Alice Longyu Gao will blend their versatile points of influence to create the new soundtrack to Chinese Street Fashion.
Mood Killer: Choice Mix
Mood Killer wants to make you dance and think, using their creepy, campy music to raise socio-political discussions through a queer, outsider lens. The genderless pop star is equal parts Marilyn Manson and Devo, creating wierdo work that's a direct response to straight, cis Amerikkkan culture. For this Choice Mix, Mood will perform a set of “Music I Should Not Like” – a collection of unlikely sources of inspiration for them: from Coldplay, to dubstep, to YouTuber try-hards, to death metal – all infused with banging club music to help it go down smoothly.
That Kid: Choice Mix
Denver's That Kid lifts visual and sonic aesthetics from Y2K pop and thrusts them into the future in the form of sugary, hyper-speed bangers. For this Choice Mix, That Kid will debut a set of “Songs That Would Be on My Myspace in 2020”. Although the title is self-explanatory, one can expect Y2K deep cuts, mixes of futuristic bangers, and some nostalgic jams from the Myspace era itself.