Charli XCX drops single “Rock Music” with Aidan Zamiri video featuring George Daniel

Charli XCX released a new single titled “Rock Music” today, paired with a music video directed by Aidan Zamiri. The clip includes appearances by her husband, George Daniel of the 1975, who plays drums alongside Finn Keane and A.G. Cook.

The release follows an active stretch for Charli after 2024’s Brat. She made a mockumentary called The Moment, took on a handful of acting roles, and contributed soundtracks to films she did not star in, including Wuthering Heights and Mother Mary.

In a recent interview she offered a blunt assessment of pop culture direction: “I think the dancefloor is dead, so now were making rock music.” She later tempered that line in a social teaser, posting social media teaser with the caption “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.”

Todays single leans on guitars and drums while Charlis vocal is processed and sometimes glitchy. The mix is intentionally muddy. At moments her delivery is deadpan and mechanical. She sings, “The nerve damage is real, but it’s the only way to feel something/ Hurt yourself,” and the track repeatedly names itself: “Rock Music.” It sits in a cross-section where rock and dance overlap; the production at times recalls Daft Punks “Digital Love.”

The video is directed by Aidan Zamiri, a close collaborator who also worked on The Moment. Visuals move between a room stacked with cigarettes, smoke that blurs into grimy city streets, ripped tights, broken guitars, and televisions tossed from windows. Theres a staged nod to Michelangelos Creation of Adam as Charlis finger reaches toward a fan in the crowd. At one point she sits on a kick drum and it explodes.

George Daniel appears on drums in the video alongside Finn Keane and A.G. Cook. The clip matches the singles framing: someone announcing rock while reshaping its edges. The single and video arrived today.