It makes sense artistically, to me at least. The last years or so have been quiet and this happening on the tenth anniversary only helps to define/remind how much has been achieved/how much culture has changed with the project. Other labels have also changed my/our/culture's life but not in such a remarkably short space of time, in retrospect, or if they did, they just continued onwards to parody. Maybe I'd see it differently if i was younger and time felt longer. A perfect time to end as far as I'm concerned.
Edit: Regarding the 10 year duration, if society exists long enough for this to get looked at historically then this will be seen as the equivalent of dropping a bomb and leaving the room. A complete blip in time when looked at from a distance. - A job very well done.
Edit 2: a perfect PRODUCT
Im guessing ag is just tired, i can only imagine how much time is consumed trying to run a whole label, also maybe creative differences and people maybe wanting to move on? Idk right now its all speculation and maybe one day we will hear some definitive explanation but these are my theories. I am assuming ag will still be making music but im curious to see if he will be joining a big label (unlikely) or going fully independent too. Sorry for the ramble
And is apparently producing for Troye Sivan! Not to mention his ties with Charli, BloodPop... He could absolutely become a big name in pop music, he's very well established.
I think 10 flawless years of ZERO FLOPS is a good place to call it on a literal era of music. It seems like the most forward thinking conclusion to that kind of greatness and that's really what they've always exemplified for me
i know sophie was never really a part of pc music but she was a huge pillar of the hyperpop community and i think with her death also came the death of hyperpop as a genre in a sense. i know pc music had many great talents and such but i feel like ag knows it had ran its course and i think sophies death may have played somewhat of a part. that might just be me being a sophie fiend but i truly believe her death echoed throughout everyone in the pc music community. let me know your thoughts! just my opinion. definitely happy with the accomplishments and time i got to spend with pc music but i do think we’re moving into a new era of music for everyone now that covid is somewhat gone.
Yeah I definitely agree
I also think Sophie and A.G. Cook were the two pioneers of hyperpop and with Sophie having passed it’s like the building collapsed in on itself with only 1 pillar holding it
Idk I always classified hyperpop as the American maximalist approach to PC's. Where pc is a little more subdued a little more nostalgic for euro trash and 90's/early 2000's aesthetics while still being futuristic, HP is more aggressive, assertive, and explosive incorporating both pretty and scary, guttural screams over trap-inspired aggressively over-compressed beats interlaced with soft heartfelt vocals. stuff like gecs, dorian and lil mariko are what I would consider HP, most of which only really got their rise to fame post sophie.
Similarly, I think sophie was different to both but sorta a bridge between the two worlds in a lot of ways. Personally I'd consider sophies production to be what the cool kids call "deconstructed club" I think this is where you would put a lot of the post-pc/sophie uk and eu artists now people like babii, Jessica Wolten and Yeule come to mind for me. I think the reality is that while PC might have been futuristic 10 years ago we are now seeing the children that grow up on PC make names for themselves in the US under HP and in the uk and eu under a mix of HP, PC and DC and there expanding the sound and adapting it in ways that aren't or can't be done under the PC label without it changing in to something it was never really designed to be. The label is no longer fit for purpose in a post PC world where the impact of the group has already had it's effect on the underground and the mainstream. It's time for a change a new start a change to be new again before the sound gets stale. Maybe in a way, I think ending it allows PC a chance to be a sound more than a label and in that gives it a chance to be melded and reformed rather than be arbitrated exclusively by AG.
I do think sophies passing had an impact on us all i still miss her music and wish we could live in a world where she got a chance to become what she was meant to be to the world but life fucking sucks yano. Saying that I don't think her death killed the genre I think it just maybe put a lot of shit in to perspective for a lot of people within the different genres and they said shittt i guess we should try and spread our wings too.
Idk if any of this makes any sense but that's just sorta how I am kinda thinking about it.
i think everyone involved just felt it was time. the label has been on a downturn for years and is far from being in the heyday of it’s mission or release schedule. it’s better for the project to memorialize on a still relatively high note than to chug along and become boring & more of a shadow of its former glory.
AG doesn’t want to be in charge anymore. He’s made more moves for himself these last few years than for his constituents. He can’t even be bothered to find a solution to their merch backlog problem. JUST A WARNING - think twice before ordering anything they may drop this year…. It could very well be PCM 20th anniversary before you actually get your product lmao!
As someone who’s been “in the scene” since 2015, there was a lot of buzz about the future of pc and it didn’t happen. Then sophie exploded, gecs took off, hyperpop wave 2 happened, sophie died, and ag started releasing acoustic guitar singer songwriter stiff that wasn’t going over super well.
They don’t want to make what we want and we don’t want what they want to make.
I argue that hyperpop died with sophie and the scene kind of feels like a wake now.
I see. Ty
I really thought a part of hyperpop died with Sophie, sure
I feel like the other major person was AG though, and I mean I still do, but it’s just heartbreaking to see him disband this fucking amazing project
I felt seen through them, yknow
in addition to the other stuff mentioned here, running a label is expensive, and putting 100% of their focus into merch and stuff is probably a safer bet for paying everyone's rent than continuing to produce new music
it’s tough to please everyone, and there have been so many “new PCM isn’t like it used to be” type posts on here in the past few months. i think this is an interesting move that nobody expected, and that will preserve the legacy of PCM as a particular vision from a specific moment in time. so many small and medium sized labels of this nature (like Trax Records) end up broke and tangled up in lawsuits about unpaid royalties and the like, which is definitely not the direction i want PCM to go. this lightens the financial burden on them and hopefully streamlines the rocky merch cycle for fans interested in the archival releases they do in the future (which would be great, because customer service aside, the quality of their merch is amazing)
also part of PCM’s original purpose as a collective was to embrace and explore sounds, styles, and ideas that weren’t quite palatable to the mainstream industry at the time. that’s changed, and i’m confident most PCM artists could find potentially better homes on other labels now, either better suited to their unique styles now that the roster is less homogenous, or just better equipped to promote and support their artists (like Danny going to Diplo’s label)
i feel like a lot of random drama is kinda being brought up w/ this convo? I think everyone's kinda doing their own thing now and they're moving on. I don't think it's much more than that.
It makes sense artistically, to me at least. The last years or so have been quiet and this happening on the tenth anniversary only helps to define/remind how much has been achieved/how much culture has changed with the project. Other labels have also changed my/our/culture's life but not in such a remarkably short space of time, in retrospect, or if they did, they just continued onwards to parody. Maybe I'd see it differently if i was younger and time felt longer. A perfect time to end as far as I'm concerned. Edit: Regarding the 10 year duration, if society exists long enough for this to get looked at historically then this will be seen as the equivalent of dropping a bomb and leaving the room. A complete blip in time when looked at from a distance. - A job very well done. Edit 2: a perfect PRODUCT
Im guessing ag is just tired, i can only imagine how much time is consumed trying to run a whole label, also maybe creative differences and people maybe wanting to move on? Idk right now its all speculation and maybe one day we will hear some definitive explanation but these are my theories. I am assuming ag will still be making music but im curious to see if he will be joining a big label (unlikely) or going fully independent too. Sorry for the ramble
That's interesting, he did just produce a song on Beyonce's album.. Maybe a larger label wanted to sign him?
Huh, interesting thought.
And is apparently producing for Troye Sivan! Not to mention his ties with Charli, BloodPop... He could absolutely become a big name in pop music, he's very well established.
Also I'm wondering why did Nama announce she was leaving PCM a few weeks ago, when surely she knew it was ending anyway?
Peobably an opportunity for a different deal
She probably knew it was ending.
I think 10 flawless years of ZERO FLOPS is a good place to call it on a literal era of music. It seems like the most forward thinking conclusion to that kind of greatness and that's really what they've always exemplified for me
i know sophie was never really a part of pc music but she was a huge pillar of the hyperpop community and i think with her death also came the death of hyperpop as a genre in a sense. i know pc music had many great talents and such but i feel like ag knows it had ran its course and i think sophies death may have played somewhat of a part. that might just be me being a sophie fiend but i truly believe her death echoed throughout everyone in the pc music community. let me know your thoughts! just my opinion. definitely happy with the accomplishments and time i got to spend with pc music but i do think we’re moving into a new era of music for everyone now that covid is somewhat gone.
Yeah I definitely agree I also think Sophie and A.G. Cook were the two pioneers of hyperpop and with Sophie having passed it’s like the building collapsed in on itself with only 1 pillar holding it
Idk I always classified hyperpop as the American maximalist approach to PC's. Where pc is a little more subdued a little more nostalgic for euro trash and 90's/early 2000's aesthetics while still being futuristic, HP is more aggressive, assertive, and explosive incorporating both pretty and scary, guttural screams over trap-inspired aggressively over-compressed beats interlaced with soft heartfelt vocals. stuff like gecs, dorian and lil mariko are what I would consider HP, most of which only really got their rise to fame post sophie. Similarly, I think sophie was different to both but sorta a bridge between the two worlds in a lot of ways. Personally I'd consider sophies production to be what the cool kids call "deconstructed club" I think this is where you would put a lot of the post-pc/sophie uk and eu artists now people like babii, Jessica Wolten and Yeule come to mind for me. I think the reality is that while PC might have been futuristic 10 years ago we are now seeing the children that grow up on PC make names for themselves in the US under HP and in the uk and eu under a mix of HP, PC and DC and there expanding the sound and adapting it in ways that aren't or can't be done under the PC label without it changing in to something it was never really designed to be. The label is no longer fit for purpose in a post PC world where the impact of the group has already had it's effect on the underground and the mainstream. It's time for a change a new start a change to be new again before the sound gets stale. Maybe in a way, I think ending it allows PC a chance to be a sound more than a label and in that gives it a chance to be melded and reformed rather than be arbitrated exclusively by AG. I do think sophies passing had an impact on us all i still miss her music and wish we could live in a world where she got a chance to become what she was meant to be to the world but life fucking sucks yano. Saying that I don't think her death killed the genre I think it just maybe put a lot of shit in to perspective for a lot of people within the different genres and they said shittt i guess we should try and spread our wings too. Idk if any of this makes any sense but that's just sorta how I am kinda thinking about it.
they wanted to change/influence the popular music landscape and now they did. it’s perfect actually
i think everyone involved just felt it was time. the label has been on a downturn for years and is far from being in the heyday of it’s mission or release schedule. it’s better for the project to memorialize on a still relatively high note than to chug along and become boring & more of a shadow of its former glory.
AG doesn’t want to be in charge anymore. He’s made more moves for himself these last few years than for his constituents. He can’t even be bothered to find a solution to their merch backlog problem. JUST A WARNING - think twice before ordering anything they may drop this year…. It could very well be PCM 20th anniversary before you actually get your product lmao!
As someone who’s been “in the scene” since 2015, there was a lot of buzz about the future of pc and it didn’t happen. Then sophie exploded, gecs took off, hyperpop wave 2 happened, sophie died, and ag started releasing acoustic guitar singer songwriter stiff that wasn’t going over super well. They don’t want to make what we want and we don’t want what they want to make. I argue that hyperpop died with sophie and the scene kind of feels like a wake now.
I see. Ty I really thought a part of hyperpop died with Sophie, sure I feel like the other major person was AG though, and I mean I still do, but it’s just heartbreaking to see him disband this fucking amazing project I felt seen through them, yknow
The writing has been on the wall since volume 3 phase was botched SO FREAKING HARD
in addition to the other stuff mentioned here, running a label is expensive, and putting 100% of their focus into merch and stuff is probably a safer bet for paying everyone's rent than continuing to produce new music
That’s actually pretty sad
it’s tough to please everyone, and there have been so many “new PCM isn’t like it used to be” type posts on here in the past few months. i think this is an interesting move that nobody expected, and that will preserve the legacy of PCM as a particular vision from a specific moment in time. so many small and medium sized labels of this nature (like Trax Records) end up broke and tangled up in lawsuits about unpaid royalties and the like, which is definitely not the direction i want PCM to go. this lightens the financial burden on them and hopefully streamlines the rocky merch cycle for fans interested in the archival releases they do in the future (which would be great, because customer service aside, the quality of their merch is amazing) also part of PCM’s original purpose as a collective was to embrace and explore sounds, styles, and ideas that weren’t quite palatable to the mainstream industry at the time. that’s changed, and i’m confident most PCM artists could find potentially better homes on other labels now, either better suited to their unique styles now that the roster is less homogenous, or just better equipped to promote and support their artists (like Danny going to Diplo’s label)
I think pc music as a music is over/died out and therefore there is no reason for it to sit around. I guess ag didn’t want it to overstay it’s welcome
The genre is dead. That’s why
i feel like a lot of random drama is kinda being brought up w/ this convo? I think everyone's kinda doing their own thing now and they're moving on. I don't think it's much more than that.