Charli xcx has surprise-released “Rock Music”, a new single and music video that appears to open the next chapter after Brat. Released on Friday 8 May, the track arrives with a black-and-white video directed by Aidan Zamiri, and is already being framed as a guitar-driven shift without losing Charli’s pop instincts.
Calling a song “Rock Music” after a month of internet discussion about whether or not she was making a rock album is exactly the kind of knowingly chaotic move that keeps her pop world interesting. The title sounds blunt enough to be a joke, but the song itself seems to understand that the joke only works if there is a real idea behind it.
The release follows comments in British Vogue, where Charli spoke about moving away from another dance-leaning record after the cultural takeover of Brat. On “Rock Music”, Charli says “the dancefloor is dead”, a line that feels like both a wink at the speculation and a warning not to expect Brat Part Two. She later clarified on Instagram: “I never said I was making a rock album.” That distinction matters. “Rock Music” is not Charli abandoning the club and running off to become a leather-jacket rock star. It is more interesting than that. It is Charli taking another genre, smudging eyeliner on it, and making it dance to her rules.
Shot predominantly in black and white, the video opens with Charli throwing a speaker out of a window before leaning into a grungier visual world of cigarettes, noise and guitar-heavy performance. Zamiri, one of Charli’s regular visual collaborators, keeps the video feeling immediate and full of energy. It looks rougher around the edges than the neon-green precision of Brat, but it still feels very much like Charli, with every detail clearly there for a reason.
There is also a smartness to releasing this so soon after Brat became more than an album. That era became a full cultural takeover, from the neon green artwork to the “Brat summer” trend that took over social feeds. Trying to repeat that would have been the obvious move, and probably the least interesting one. “Rock Music” suggests Charli knows that the best way to follow a phenomenon is not to recreate it, but to move sideways before anyone can get too comfortable.
The upcoming album is expected to explore art, purpose and what happens when the thing that gives your life meaning starts to feel unstable. That already sounds like a fitting post-Brat question. After an era built around visibility, appetite and the thrill of being everywhere at once, Charli now seems interested in what happens when the party lights come up and the noise changes shape.
“Rock Music” works because it commits to the bit without losing what makes Charli distinctive. The guitars are there, the mood is grittier, but the pop instincts remain intact. Whatever this next era becomes, it suggests she is refusing to let Brat become a creative trap. Repeating herself was never really the Charli way. Consider us gagged. Very brat of her, actually.
“Rock Music” is available now on streaming platforms.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.