For my critique, I listened to the Pitchfork Music Review Podcast hosted by Editor in Chief Puja Patel. In this episode, the host interviewed a duo named 100 gecs made up of Dylan Brady and Laura Les. 100 gecs is a duo whose music may fall under the category hyper-pop, depending on who you ask. In the past few years, there has been a new wave of hyper pop artists and many people put 100 gecs at the forefront of this wave. In the episode, Patel talks to the duo about the term hyper pop and their involvement within the space, and also what artists they think also fit under that umbrella.
One of the reasons that this article works is that the term hyper-pop has been circling a few publications these past few months (New York Times and Rolling Stone) as 100 gecs and their style of music gain popularity. It’s a term we are seeing more and more in music articles because of the intrigue people are having. One of the reasons for their spike in popularity can be attributed to TikTok. One of their songs “money machine” has been popular audio on the app for a while now. These two hot topics together(hyper-pop & TikTok) make for an interview that is bound to gain some traction.
One of the reasons that this Q&A was so interesting was because of the style Patel choose to do it in. Patel let them lead the episode where they wanted it to go. Though it was a Q&A it felt more like an open conversation. 100 gecs never really talked about their music in relation to satire and Patel brought this up in the interview. When most people talk about 100 gecs the idea of their music is done as a form of satire is always brought up, but the dua has never really talked about this. When this question is asked they bring up the fact that they are asked this question a lot, but don’t understand why. Hearing them talk about this is an interesting inside of how the duo would classify themselves.
What I learned from this interview is that it matters how you carry the conversation and present the questions you are going to ask. It can change the overall tone of the interview and how the artist answers the question. I loved how Patel used her questions more as an outline and the conversation was able to spread from there. I feel that when using this form of interviewing the outcome of the conversation has a chance to be better because while you’re still asking the questions you want to know the answer to, the artist is able to go into more detail.
