Trapped in quarantine in early 2020, glaive created a new normal for pop music by reimagining the genre through an online lens. Born Ash Gutierrez in 2005, glaive grew up in Florida before moving to Hendersonville, NC, at the age of nine. Drawn first to pop radio, then to the SoundCloud rap underground, he began collaborating with like-minded individuals on Discord and toying with his own music in 2020. By blending emo rap, early-aughts emo, and hyperpop, he created a frantic concoction that manifested in brash singles like “astrid” and “sick.” But he cut through the noise with his pen, which was far ahead of the curve for his age. Glaive’s 2020 EP cypress grove and 2021 follow-up all dogs go to heaven expand his world from his bedroom, eagerly bashing eras of pop music together. There’s a video game-like joy to these songs, which transform and level up and buckle against their own weight with each passage.