[Column] Experimental Electronic Pop / Art Pop

Column en Art Electronic Experimental Pops

17 Dec 2025

[Column] Experimental Electronic Pop / Art Pop

1. Reorganization of genre concepts

Text: mmr｜Theme: About the formation and development of experimental electronic pop/art pop

Experimental Electronic Pop/Art Pop is a musical field that has been established by introducing electronic acoustic technology, experimental composition methods, and contemporary artistic thinking while maintaining the format of popular music. The genre tends to be defined more by production attitudes and structural orientation than by sharing a clear musical style.

The term Art Pop has been used as an umbrella concept to refer to the intersection of pop music with art and thought. On the other hand, Experimental Electronic Pop often refers to the practice of structural experimentation within the framework of pop, with a focus on electronic acoustics. The two have developed while overlapping, and since the 2010s they have increasingly been recognized as almost the same field of expression.

2. Historical relationship between pop music and experimentation

Although pop music has been established on the premise of mass distribution and immediate understanding, experimental elements have always been introduced within it. Since the 1960s, with the advancement of studio technology, recording itself has come to be recognized as a creative act. Tape manipulation, reverse playback, and artificial reverberation were used as means of extending the song structure.

In the 1970s, synthesizers became popular, and electronic sounds became established in the pop vocabulary. During this period, electronic sounds functioned as futuristic images and symbols of artificiality, and music and visual representation were strongly linked.

3. Development of electroacoustic technology and changes in composition structure

Advances in electroacoustic technology have changed the hierarchical structure of music production. The traditional step-by-step process of composing, performing, and recording is integrated in a DAW environment, allowing composers to directly manipulate the entire sound experience.

This change resulted in the following structural features.

Unfixed pitch and rhythm
Structure based on acoustic units rather than phrase units
Incorporating contingencies and errors

Experimental Electronic Pop/Art Pop actively utilizes these characteristics.

4. Inseparable relationship with visual media

Since the 2010s, musical works have almost inevitably been linked to images. Music videos, live videos, and short videos for social media have changed the very structure of music reception.

In the context of Art Pop, the video is not designed as a complement to the song, but as an equivalent component. Sound and video are conceived at the same time, and the work has a structure in which either one alone cannot complete the work.

5. Physical expression and pop music

The body has long been treated as a visual element in pop music, but in Art Pop, the body itself is placed at the center of the concept. Posture, movement, breathing, and gaze are structured in the same way as sound.

Dance and performance are not just performances, but function as devices to visualize musical time.

6. FKA twigs activity background

FKA twigs is an artist from the UK who engages in music production, dance, and visual expression. Her works have an integrated structure in which songs, videos, and live performances complement each other.

Since his early works, he has consistently placed his own body at the center of his expression, and is distinctive in that he treats voice and movement on the same plane.

7. FKA twigs sound design

In FKA twigs’ music, the voice is treated as a major component. It is processed not only for its melodic role, but also as a material that expresses texture, atmosphere, and distance.

Clear placement of breath sounds
Extremely close miking
Visualization of machining including pitch correction

These are methods for presenting the voice as a physical presence.

8. Rhythm and space in FKA twigs

Rhythm is often composed of intermittent arrangements rather than following a fixed meter. Beats are omitted and silence plays an important role.

Due to this structure, music is perceived as a spatial arrangement rather than a linear time.

9. FKA twigs visual expression

The video works feature close-ups of the body, controlled lighting, and limited color. The camera often takes a close-up view of the body rather than an objective point of view.

The movements are structured with strong slowness and speed, and correspond strictly to changes in the sound.

10. Background of Arca’s activities

Arca is a Venezuelan artist who works as a producer, composer, and performer. Her works have a structure that integrates extreme manipulation of electro-acoustics and physical expression.

While initially providing music for other artists, he developed more radical sonic structures in his own works.

11. Arca acoustic structure

In Arca’s songs, the timbre does not remain stable. Strains, tears, and sudden deformations occur all the time.

Extreme bass modulation
Insertion of high frequency noise
Rapid switching of volume changes

These are used to intentionally disrupt musical continuity.

12. Arca rhythm processing

Rhythm is presented as a physical shock rather than functioning as a beat. The beats are placed in unpredictable positions, eliminating the stability of the groove.

This puts the listener in a state of physical tension.

13. Arca’s image and body

In Arca’s visual expressions, the body is treated as a transformable material. The human body, artificial objects, and digitally processed images are superimposed and have a corresponding relationship with acoustic distortion.

Body representations do not indicate fixed identities, but are presented as ever-changing structures.

14. Structural features common to both

FKA twigs and Arca have in common that they are designed in such a way that sound and video cannot be separated. Both are produced based on the premise of a comprehensive presentation format, rather than a single piece of music.

They also share an attitude of transforming pop music’s internal structure while remaining within its framework.

15. Organizing differences

FKA twigs emphasizes spatiality and delicate acoustic placement, expressing bodily control and tension. Arca, on the other hand, brings to the fore the excessive deformation of sound and the fluidity of body image.

This difference shows the range of expression within the same genre.

16. Genre structure diagram

flowchart TD A["Electronic Pop"] --> B["Experimental Electronic Pop"] B --> C["Art Pop"] C --> D["FKA twigs"] C --> E["Arca"]

17. Chronology

timeline 1970 : 電子楽器の普及 1990 : デジタル制作環境の一般化 2010 : 映像と音楽の統合的消費 2014 : FKA twigs 主要作品発表 2015 : Arca 名義作品の拡張

18. Significance in modern times

Experimental Electronic Pop/Art Pop is positioned as an attempt to reconstruct the form of expression itself while maintaining the audibility of pop music. In this field, music is not limited to an auditory art, but is developed as a complex practice that includes the visual, physical, and technological.

19. Summary

This genre is not a fixed style, but a structure that continues to change depending on the production environment and media situation. FKA twigs and Arca are clear examples of this mutability, redefining the relationship between music, images, and the body.

Experimental Electronic Pop/Art Pop is an area that will continue to generate new forms of expression from within pop music.