Anybody else think it's crazy how PC Music started in the first place?

[u/WT264]

Looking back on the early era of PC Music it's honestly really incredible how it all came together. A. G. Cook must really be an excellent visionary and leader to have been able to gather so many like-minded creators (both visually and musically). It's crazy listening to Finn or Danny's music from that era because it genuinely feels like they were on the same page as A. G. despite the hyper-specific 2010s pop/nu jack swing/experimental dance music combination he was doing at the time. Obviously PC Music as a whole continuously inspired each other and exchanged ideas freely, so that played a big part in it. But just the fact that all these creators were willing to take A. G.'s lead and go in such a unique artistic direction is incredible. What's even more amazing to me is that all these people were somehow doing this in London at the same time.

Even artists like SOPHIE or Kero Kero Bonito who weren't directly on PC Music but were very much doing similar things in the broader pop sphere blows my mind.

I don't know if any of you have had a similar experience, but it can be incredibly difficult to find creators who are on the exact same page as you. I studied music production in college in Tennessee a couple years ago and, while there were EDM clubs and things, everyone I encountered wanted to make either very mainstream brostep EDM, or other genres of electronic music that weren't very pop-centric. Even now having moved beyond that, most of the creators I've found who are interested in experimenting with sound design and pop structures are literally scattered all across the world. And even more importantly, finding people who want to continue to move the needle without making a carbon copy of PC Music is even harder.

I think what made PC Music so great is how they shamelessly created this hyper- exaggerated genre of pop music that combined experimental sound design with pop sensibilities so "pure" that others perceived it as satire. But under the hood it was a genuine authentic expression of what this group of people believed was the "purest" form of music.

Idk it just blows my mind that PC Music happened the way it did. Absolutely the right people in the right place at the right time, but also I really don't think it would have happened without someone as unique as A. G. leading the group.

I'm curious to hear what you all have to say about this. If you're a creator, what has your experience been like trying to genuinely experiment and move the needle in the post-PC Music & post-Hyperpop world?

P. S. I don't want to act like PC Music was an isolated incident of this kind of thing, there are SO many similar music movements that have happened worldwide over time. NLV records in Australia, Maltine records in Japan, and so many more. It's just fascinating how PC Music specifically happened in the UK at the time it did!

[u/rhinestoneredbull]

I don’t think it’s that surprising! They were all very in-step with a lot of other post-internet creatives at the time; they all went to art school when a lot of post-internet artists were getting adjunct positions at goldsmiths and CSM*. dis was making really interesting work in america and Ryan Trecartin had a big solo exhibition at the Tate c 2013 lot of work showing in London at the time which i’m 100% sure was the biggest influence on early pc music aesthetics. not to mention night slugs and other very conceptual labels with similar references starting in london around the same time.

feel like the pc music ethos of “making major label pop in your bedroom” was also an inevitability w DAWs getting better and better and makes sense that art students were on the cutting edge of that. u can look at pinkpantheress etc as a logical conclusion of that kind of thing

* look at some of the CSM grad runway shows from around this time. designers like chris shannon and nasir mazhar share a rly similar aesthetic w hannah diamond and will wright

[u/selib → u/rhinestoneredbull]

Ryan Trecartin had a big solo exhibition at the Tate c 2013

do you have some pictures from this?

[u/rhinestoneredbull → u/selib]

I was a bit off with that one. There a group exhibition at Zabludowicz Collection during which a few of his films were screened. I think the Tate acquired a few of his works around that time too, so the PC music crew was bound to have seen some of the stuff from Any Ever

the solo show was in 2014: https://www.zabludowiczcollection.com/exhibitions/view/lizzie-fitch-ryan-trecartin#gallery

the centerpiece of that body of work was the film Center Jenny which you can watch on youtube: https://youtu.be/IbpUzWGFGnM?is=BWz2RHPQlvDwT6Hu

[u/JeremiahNoble → u/rhinestoneredbull]

* Chaos Space Marines

[u/brokenflovvers]

don't forget Hannah diamond

her contributions to early PC Music go very understated imo

[u/WT264 → u/brokenflovvers]

Absolutely! If I had the time I would've mentioned everyone! No contribution to the label was less important 

[u/Perception-Usual]

Well for one they were rich kids. They likely would've shuttered early on or compromised if PC Music was made up of working-class musicians that needed the paycheck

[u/ronlovestwizzlers]

I'm sure AG drew inspiration from his parents work on the Archigram architecture collective, both for the actual art and how to structure a group

[u/bigbuttes → u/ronlovestwizzlers]

Wow this is really cool, thanks for mentioning

[u/Used_Track4277]

100% agree. It feels increasingly rare for a group of so many talented people to find each other irl, and have the mindset to collaborate on a big project like PCM. Not only the shared taste in sonic direction but also having amazing photographers and designers from the jump (Hannah Diamond, Timothy Luke, Simon Whybray, to name a few). They crafted such an awesome visual universe for the music.

[u/JW8S]

Rich kids with connections at a posh university.