SOPHIE
SOPHIE built a sound out of latex, balloons, and metal — hyperreal, candy-bright electronic textures that turned pop production into an act of sculpture. Working from PC Music's orbit before striking out with Product and Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides, she produced and co-wrote for Madonna, Charli XCX, and Vince Staples while redefining what maximalist pop could sound like. Her death in 2021 left hyperpop with its clearest, most mourned architect.
Kraftwerk's vision of pop as machine music — synthetic, deadpan, self-consciously artificial — underlies SOPHIE's sonic philosophy, and critics have long drawn the line between them.
listen forHear the stripped robotic pulse of Kraftwerk's 'The Robots' inside the minimal, synthetic thump of SOPHIE's early single 'Bipp.'
The Prodigy were named among SOPHIE's favourite acts; their maximalist, distorted rave aggression is one strand of the hardcore energy SOPHIE folded into hyperpop production.
listen forSet the pummeling breakbeats of The Prodigy's 'Firestarter' against the industrial-strength drops of SOPHIE's 'Ponyboy.'
Pet Shop Boys were named among SOPHIE's favourite acts, their arch, melancholy synth-pop songcraft surfacing in SOPHIE's rare turns toward straightforward pop songwriting.
listen forCompare the wistful, layered synth balladry of Pet Shop Boys' 'West End Girls' to SOPHIE's 'It's Okay to Cry,' her first single sung and shown as herself.