The “Gec-Effect:” How 100 Gecs Renders Genre and Gender Absurd

When analyzed as absurd, 100 gecs produces a political-philosophical project aimed at decimating, or confusing at the least, the concept of the mainstream itself. My argument does not analyze intention, but tracks the effects of 100 gecs’ music. The “gec-effect,” as I call it, consists of stitching together different genres and sounds to produce a new outcome that pushes the boundaries of what the mainstream considers “to be popular music.” To go even farther, its decimation of lines between genre renders the boundaries separating them useless altogether. After the dust clears, we are only left with “gec:” the basis of a radical musical monism that refuses the genre categorization altogether. Sonically, the duo primarily “queers” popular music by experimenting with voice modulation. 100 gecs’ voice modulation often makes the “gender” of the singer unrecognizable. The voices on 100 gecs’ discography range from masculine, feminine, to robotic, and somewhere in-between. The sheer variability of voices renders categorizing them impossible, reductive, and possibility politically problematic. By virtue of its fanbase, 100 gecs establishes a fun feminism rooted in pop culture, where its “generation z” adherents sing along to condemning cishet “piss babies” as they deconstruct gender norms.