Charli XCX Teases New Song ‘Rock Music’ and Clarifies She Won’t Be Releasing a Rock Album
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Charli XCX has clarified that she is not working on a rock album, despite earlier reports suggesting otherwise. This assumption arose following an article in last month’s British Vogue, where the artist hinted at rock influences.
On Friday, May 1, Charli shared previously unreleased studio footage on Instagram, providing a glimpse into a new song recorded in October 2025 at Rue Boyer Studios in Paris. The brief clip features her engaging in a brainstorming session, humorously proposing, “It would be cool if we had a song that was called ‘Rock Music,’” accompanied by scenes of her laying down vocals.
In her Instagram caption, she 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. love you xx.” Although the song does include guitar elements, its production leans more towards hyper-pop. Lyrics flashing on Charli’s notes app during the video read: “Heritage / Me, me and my friends / We go out / We take pictures / We make stuff together / We sometimes cry / We kiss each other, incestuous vibes / I knew you’d like that / Yeah we’re so inspired / Basically all of the time / Never stop / ‘Coz we’re on to the next / I think the dancefloor is dead / So now we’re making rock music.”
In her British Vogue interview, Charli reflected on rock music, stating, “What’s interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be.” She noted that revisiting the dance sound established in her previous work would have felt “really hard, really sad.”
Accompanied by the article’s writer, she visited a West London studio in February, where she previewed the track now known as “Rock Music.” The only lyric published from the song was: “I think the dance floor is dead, now we’re making rock music.”
During the interview, Charli expressed her excitement about incorporating guitar into her upcoming album, acknowledging, “For me, it’s fun to flip the form. We know there’s gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that’s fine.”
She also shared insights into the thematic content of her forthcoming album, describing it as a reflection on her relationship with art and how it provides her with purpose. “It’s commenting on how I interact with the joint main love of my life outside of George [Daniel, her husband],” she explained.
Charli’s previous album, Brat, reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in 2024, marking her highest peak on the all-genre album chart to date. Since then, she has collaborated on the soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which debuted at No. 1 on the Soundtracks chart and reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
For a preview of Charli’s upcoming track “Rock Music,” viewers can check out her Instagram reel below.
