The early innovator: how Paul McCartney accidentally invented hyperpop
Of all the former Beatles, Paul McCartney has always made the safe choices in fans’ eyes. Sure, he may have had a few times where he seemed like a bad boy or made some off-the-wall decisions, but history has painted him as the straight man to John Lennon half the time, always trying to keep the rest of the lads in check by making music for the masses. McCartney could be just as avant-garde as his fellow bandmates, though, and one of his most off-the-wall albums may have created hyperpop without even knowing it.
Then again, McCartney accidentally created genres every time he went into the studio. For every album meant to be a pop romp from start to finish, there are projects like McCartney and RAM, each of which had a hand in popularising the kind of production that would come to define indie music in the years that followed.
So… how does the same guy who made songs like ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ end up paving the way for a band like 100 gecs? Well, the beginning of McCartney’s hyperpop phase came from the death of one of his earlier outfits: Wings. After coming back from the road after getting busted in Japan, McCartney decided that he didn’t want to make formal records anymore.
It was all about going back to basics, and if he didn’t want to go into a studio, then a handful of microphones and recording equipment in his house would have to do. Since hyperpop is already about kids trying to make the most of a homemade approach to recording, McCartney was already on the right track.
However, hyperpop is a genre more than an aesthetic, and the greatest artists in the genre know how to take everything to the extreme. Whether it’s Charli XCX or 100 gecs, the entire premise is about making a heightened version of popular music as if you told kids to record a pop song after making them snort a pack of Pixie Stix.
McCartney was more than capable of making something like that, and from the minute McCartney II started, he’s practically running the hyperpop playbook step by step. The song ‘Coming Up’ might have its roots more in bands like Talking Heads, but the amount of effects that McCartney puts on his voice has the same sensation of hearing those chipmunk-style vocals today.
Though Wings had played the piece live a handful of times on their last tour, McCartney’s version is as if that germ of a song turned into a hyperpop monster in the studio. Macca barely gives the listener time to recover, either, going straight into ‘Temporary Secretary’ and using one of the most off-the-wall sequencer sounds anyone has ever heard.
If anything, what McCartney did hear was the garage band version of what hyperpop would turn into. The trails hadn’t yet been blessed, so it was up to him to make the kind of music that he thought sounded right, leading to him going into even stranger directions for the instrumentals. Hell, if you speed up a song like ‘Front Parlour’ just a little bit, there’s a good chance that it could be used as a sample, and no one would bat an eye.
Even though the rest of the world was somewhat confused with what McCartney had served up, McCartney II wouldn’t get its just due until years later, being propped up by indie artists as one of the cornerstones of their sound. McCartney’s bandmate couldn’t resist, either, with John Lennon mentioning that it forced him out of the house to make music again on Double Fantasy.
Every hyperpop record that has come afterwards has followed the lead of this album as well. Artists like Charli XCX definitely have their roots in more electronic music. However, the idea of meshing together different soundscapes and making the musical equivalent of a sugar high is the result of songs like ‘Temporary Secretary’.
McCartney didn’t give up on sounding weird, either, eventually putting together his own version of an electronic outfit years later when teaming up with Youth for The Fireman. McCartney II may have just stood out as strange to anyone looking for a typical Paul McCartney album. Still, if you stick around for long enough, you go from being hated or ridiculed to being loveable.
