Five Electropop Artists to Check Out at Firefly Music Festival 2022

Electropop is a burgeoning music genre blending elements of electronic dance music with features distinctive to pop music. Electropop boasts several subgenres that call back to nostalgia and the strange internet culture we experience today.

Firefly Music Festival is an annual celebration in the heart of Dover, Delaware, held from September 22–25. The infamous festival welcomes several electropop artists each year. To extend our appreciation for the artistic subgenre, here are our top five electropop artists to check out at Firefly this year.

Charli XCX

Originally from London, Charlotte Aitchison invented her moniker of Charli XCX at age 14 when she played illegal raves under her MSN username. Over the past 16 years, she has danced with different genres, testing out experimental hyperpop ballads and upbeat electric influences, and even flirted with elemental rap in her discography.

Fresh off the release of her fifth studio album, Crash, and garnering praise and acclaim for her credit song to the new A24 movie, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Charli XCX is sure to entrance audiences with her electropop ballads and high-speed techniques.

Dorian Electra

Dorian Electra is a gender-fluid electropop rockstar with two studio albums, Flamboyant and My Agenda. Electra has collaborated with several electropop artists on this year’s lineup, including Charli XCX and 100 Gecs.

Electra incorporates avant-garde and hyperpop synth into their candid lyrics. Their titular song from their second studio album, My Agenda, comments on the conspiracy theory of the gay agenda. Electra sings, “My agenda, might offend ya, Out here flexing in my rainbow suspenders,” to disband (and in a way) ignore nonsensical chatter.

Dorian’s stage presence is an unrivaled experience, complete with epic visuals.

Mallrat

Mallrat has three EPs under her name, and just a few months ago, she released her debut album, Butterfly Blue, in May. The Australian singer uses deeper indie/pop sounds in her tracks to convey the longing and wanting she speaks about in her music.

Her music masters swirling synth to convey a feeling of profound longing the songs suggest. For example, her collab “UFO” with Allday utilizes compelling percussive syncopated rhythms behind the lyrics, “I’ve heard lots of things, you’re all that I believe.”

Nothing entrances you more than a Mallrat set.

100 Gecs

100 Gecs is a duo specializing in the exaggerated extension of the electropop realm, hyperpop. Their sound is not for everyone with accentuated beats and high-pitched vocals because not everyone understands the power of electropop. Those who understand the blended genre know that Laura Les and Dylan Brady are experts at creating earworm anthems and employing pop-culture referential lyrics in their highly-produced songs.

The best part about 100 Gecs, besides their music, of course, is their passion. Each music video resembles a home movie with gimmicks and household appliances used as props. Their most recent video for Doritos and Fritos, introduces Les and Brady, adorned in purple and yellow robes flying through the sky. The song itself is a love letter to the late rapper MF DOOM.

Dua Lipa

The Thursday headliner is none other than electropop superstar Dua Lipa. The London-born singer favors meshing electropop beats within her pop ballads and tracks. The English singer-songwriter has two studio albums to her name, her most recent Future Nostalgia, whose title embodies the whole nature of electropop— experiencing nostalgia through a futuristic lens.

Her 2017 single, New Rules, introduces Lipa’s hypnotic mezzo-soprano voice meshed with a hypnotic production line and relatable lyrics. A Dua show is not one to miss.

Don’t miss this year’s Firefly Music Festival!