Charli xcx is living the year of going all-out. With the release today of “Rock Music,” the British singer, songwriter and producer switches gears, cranks up the amps and rocks it with electric guitars.
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One of those amps goes out the window at the top of the official music video. Shot in black and white, and directed by Aidan Zamiri, the clip follows Charli as she gets up to rock ‘n’ roll stuff, strutting around central Manhattan wearing fewer clothes than anyone else, smoking up a storm, and unleashing a moshpit.
At its musical core, “Rock Music” has a throwback edge, its guitar riff slotting into what is essentially a mid-paced electronic track in which Charli splices and dices her vocals in the chorus. No, it’s not heavy. “Rock Music” has more in common to Daft Punk than it does to Deep Purple.
Charli first teased her new era, new sound in an April interview with British Vogue, which premiered one of the new song’s lyrics: “I think the dance floor is dead, so now we’re making rock music.”
She told the publication, “if I’d made another album that felt more dance-leaning, it would have felt really hard, really sad. That’s interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be.”
Charli has since clarified that she isn’t necessarily performing an about-face. On Instagram, she recently shared a clip of herself in the studio and wrote, “a video of me making a song called ‘rock music’ that is not actually rock music which is funny because i never said i was making a rock album.”
“Rock Music” is Charli’s first release since the Wuthering Heights companion album arrived in February, and dropped in at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart. Before that, her 2024 Brat album peaked at No. 3 on the all-genres chart, peaked at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart and ARIA Chart, and caught the zeitgeist.
Charli’s busy year includes a starring role in A24’s The Moment, based on her original idea and the first co-production from her new studio365 venture. Also, she appears in Daniel Goldhaber’s remake of the 1978 cult horror Faces of Death, Greg Araki’s erotic thriller I Want Your Sex, Cathy Yan’s independent film The Gallerist, Julia Jackman’s period fantasy 100 Nights Of Hero, Romain Gavras’ satirical action Sacrifice and Pete Ohs’ intimate drama Erupcja.
Stream “Rock Music” below and watch the official music video.
