Charli XCX Debunks Rock Album Rumors: 'I Never Said I Was Making a Rock Album'
Charli XCX clarifies that her upcoming project isn't a full-blown rock album, despite earlier reports suggesting otherwise. A new Instagram reel teases a hyper-pop track titled 'Rock Music.'
Charli XCX fans, hold onto your hats! Despite swirling rumors fueled by a British Vogue article, the pop innovator is setting the record straight: she's not making a rock album.
On Friday, May 1st, Charli took to Instagram with a behind-the-scenes studio reel, offering a glimpse into the making of a track playfully titled "Rock Music." The footage, captured in October 2025 at Rue Boyer Studios in Paris, reveals a brainstorming session where Charli muses about the song's concept.
"It would be cool if we had a song that was called ‘Rock Music,'” she’s seen saying in a brainstorming session, which cuts to scenes of her recording vocals.
She cheekily captioned the post: “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.”
While the track does incorporate guitar elements, its production leans heavily into Charli's signature hyper-pop sound. Snippets of lyrics flash across the screen, hinting at themes of heritage, friendship, and artistic exploration: “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.”
The British Vogue piece quoted Charli as saying, “What’s interesting for me is to bend the possibilities of what my perspective on that could be,” in reference to rock music.
She also expressed that revisiting the dance-centric world of Brat “would have felt really hard, really sad.”
The article's writer attended a listening session in a West London studio in February, where she heard “Rock Music.” The only lyric of the song to make it to print: “I think the dance floor is dead, now we’re making rock music.”
At the time, Charli commented on the inclusion of guitar in the album. “For me, it’s fun to flip the form,” she said. “We know there’s gonna be people who are bothered by it, but that’s fine.”
Charli also revealed that her upcoming album “is commenting on how I interact with the joint main love of my life outside of George [Daniel, her husband]” — her other love being creating art — “and what would happen if that was taken from me. How I would have no purpose, and how for good or bad, art does provide me with purpose in my life.”
Brat reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in 2024, marking Charli’s highest position on the all-genre album chart to date.
Since then, she’s worked on an album alongside Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation, which arrived in February. The soundtrack reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and debuted at No. 1 on the Soundtracks chart.
Check out Charli's Instagram reel below for a taste of "Rock Music":
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