Internet Girl

Defying expectations from the outset with their very name, the South African trio Internet Girl fuses a confrontational, oversaturated blend of pop-punk, hyperpop, and grungy indie. Their initial forays into sound came via singles issued across 2019 and 2020, after which the 2021 EP the world I love leaned into pop-punk and indie electronica. By contrast, the parasocial interaction EP from 2023 incorporated noisier fuzz alongside industrial touches without abandoning pop frameworks, while the 2024 ROLE MODEL EP mixed those threads with garage punk in a deliberately blown-out manner and featured numerous guests.

Cape Town outfit Internet Girl originated when Ntsika "TK" Bungane and Matty "Neese" Burgess began the project in a bedroom as a trap duo, later recruiting producer James "Griggs" Smith. Their first release, the home-recorded mid-2019 single "The Other Guy," arrived as a slinky, bass-heavy pop track centered on infidelity and soon racked up thousands of streams. That response prompted a wave of 2020 material, among them the R&B-inflected "Leaving Again" with Kupko, the indie pop and post-punk merger "Fuzz Boy!," the more pop-punk-oriented "Next Summer," and additional tracks. By the June 2021 arrival of debut EP the world I love, the group had shifted toward guitar-driven pop-punk while retaining electronics, bouncy pop elements, and heavier distortion; the set featured appearances from Payday, maxime, and Hugo Pooe. Subsequent singles included a cover of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" titled "boyfriend" as well as further collaborations with Pooe. The early 2023 parasocial interaction EP reflected a heavier, more overprocessed approach that nonetheless preserved the underlying pop-punk ethos. Even louder and more distorted, the June 2024 ROLE MODEL EP prompted publicists to float descriptions such as "electronic hyperpunk." The six-track project contained five collaborations, among them Master Peace, another artist similarly hard to categorize, on the title cut.