When Charli XCX released “Rock Music,” the first song from her upcoming album. Music, Fashion, Film, many fans interpreted the lyric “I think the dance floor is dead” as a blanket statement about the entire genre. Even Madonna responded, writing, “If your dance floor feels dead/Maybe you’re playing the wrong music.” But in her new Rolling Stone cover story, she insists that’s not what she meant.
“That lyric is very much about my relationship with Brat, and my personal experience with that album,” she says. “My husband runs a dance-music label. There’s been such a wealth of incredible dance/electronic-adjacent records that have been coming out recently. … Dance music is in an incredible place.”
While Charli insists her new project is not a rock album, as has been rumored, she says it’s also not like Brat.
“I knew when I was making it that I was never going to make that record again,” she says. “It’s not creatively rewarding for me to make the same thing twice.”
But she rejects the notion of genre as “a very old school notion, adding, “It’s just me [and my collaborators], doing our thing.”
Also in the interview, Charli praises some fellow artists who, like her, took several years to find their audience.
“There’s been a lot of artists who have been doing things for a long time, who are having their moment now,” she tells the magazine. “Like Zara [Larsson]. I’m so f****** happy for her. And someone who I totally ride for is RAYE.”
Charli and RAYE have been friends for 10 years and have collaborated several times.
“There was a time in our lives when we were together a lot,” Charli says. “And her journey, becoming an independent artist and doing her thing, is really cool.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
