Let’s see if I can get through this without referencing Julia Cameron’s 1992 book The Artist’s Way. “Rock Music” presents a simple, compelling argument: Art is daily bread. Charli XCX has always used arch presentation and extreme sounds to conceal a fundamentally earnest, romantic point of view, and beneath “Rock Music”’s shroud of heavily processed guitars, she advocates for creativity as a form of essential lifeblood. She suggests it’s something that can be as spontaneous and lighthearted as taking pictures with your friends at Jean’s, and something you should put your body on the line for: “The nerve damage is real/But it’s the only way to feel,” she sings, referencing the physical trauma she’s suffered as a result of years of battering herself around onstage.
You can also take “Rock Music” as an elite troll and slightly stupid provocation, and it’s successful on that level too: The lyric “I think the dancefloor is dead” had a borderline Chalamet-on-opera response online when it was teased in Charli’s recent Vogue profile. But I think the song’s trollish posture is a feint. The track’s overdriven power chords, the fodder of so many uninspired wannabe anthems, are both funny ha-ha and totally earned on a song that’s so self-consciously Inspirational; I’m struck by how poignant it is to hear Charli, who approaches creative risk-taking with a borderline spiritual fervor, to pass down this piece of advice to her listener: “Hurt yourself/Maybe jump off the stage/I hope they catch you today/But if they don’t, it’s OK.” Maybe I’m a rube for taking a 115-second song so seriously, or maybe all that matters is that I took the leap.