Charli XCX: The Queen of Pop
Charli XCX is the face of pop music. Many think of Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, or Ariana Grande as the pinnacle of pop, but in reality, it’s Charli. She has revolutionized the sound of pop music and is trying to change the way people view a “hit” song. You may know Charli from her features on some of the biggest songs of the 2010s, Icona Pop’s “I Love It” and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”. The latter of the two songs topping the Billboard’s Hot 100 charts, staying there for seven weeks, then later earning two Grammy nominations. Charli also achieved a hit single of her own, “Boom Clap” — this was originally written for Hilary Duff, who upon hearing the track said it wasn’t “cool enough”. Charli has released many mix-tapes and albums in her career, many of them being very well-received, but I want to focus on her latest work. Her two most recent projects, the self-titled “Charli”, and her brand new album “how i’m feeling now”, which she made while quarantined at her home in LA. Let’s dive into how this girl from the UK became a household name across the globe.
Charli has long been one of the best writers in pop music. Along with writing all of her own songs, she has written for other huge names in pop music — Selena Gomez, Iggy Azalea, Bella Thorne, and Camilla Cabello to name a few. She wrote “Senorita”, the collaboration between Camilla Cabello and Shawn Mendes, which became the third best selling song of 2019. Icona Pop praised Charli for her work as a writer, and for helping them get “I Love It” to number one status, stating, “She’s so good at writing pop music.” Charli’s early success at writing songs for other people along with the success of “Boom Clap” quickly skyrocketed her to fame, which wasn’t something she necessarily wanted. In a 2019 interview with Spin she discussed how her early success changed the way people saw her, “After ‘Fancy’ and ‘Boom Clap,’ I think there was this expectation of me to be this new, big artist,’ she says, adding that the weight to produce hits led her to include the electro-rock song “Break the Rules” — a track she now regrets recording — on Sucker. ‘I remember when I wrote it, I was in the studio and I was like, ‘Whoever sings this song is going to be so stupid. It’s so bad.’ I ended up singing it because a lot of people around me were like, ‘This song will be really big. You should put it out.’ I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it. I want a big song.’ And I put it out and hated it, and it’s like, ‘OK, you have to go with your gut. You have to do things you love. Otherwise, what are you doing?” She was put in a corner musically where she was expected to write and release more hits — a hard place for an artist. To put it into perspective, if a baseball coach expected a home run every time their players went up to hit, the entire team is going to be disappointed when it doesn’t happen every time. Charli’s early music is an example of someone trying to appeal to the mainstream instead of their own artistry. This is not a shot at Charli, it’s a shot at the labels who make more money if an album has hits on it, opposed to a great album that doesn’t have any hit songs. Charli’s longtime friend and manager, Brandon Creed, discussed this issue with Spin, “It’s Charli’s dedication to her artistry and authenticity that sometimes creates the internal conflict of sacrificing her true vision for what could potentially be bigger for the mainstream.” Charli was going to change her sound though, whether her label or her fans liked it or not, she was going to make the music she wanted to.
2017 was a big year for Charli, by year’s end she had released two mixtapes that were very well received. The first, Number 1 Angel was layered with great instrumentals, hints of electronic music all over the beats, and Charli’s writing abilities, which all combined to make the mixtape very enjoyable. The second mixtape Charli released in 2017, Pop 2, was a glimpse into the future of her sound. She enlisted her creative director and longtime collaborator, A.G Cook, to handle the production on the album. Charli also nabbed some of the best names in pop music to feature on the project. Artists featured include Carly Rae Jepsen, Dorian Electra, Tove Lo, Caroline Polachek, and many more. The project included intense electronic production with hints of trap drums scattered around the project — the fourth track, Tears (with Caroline Polacheck) sounds like a song that could be played at an 80s rave party. Charli crafted the sound she was looking for on her past projects, and the execution was near flawless. The project was also well-reviewed. Pitchfork gave the album an 8.4/10 and the subheading for the review describes the project perfectly, “Charli XCX’s latest mixtape is a vision of what pop music could be, the sound of an eclectic, hyper-real future where romantic love is fun but fucked and partying is an emotional refuge.” This mixtape was Charli beginning beginning to change not only the way she’d make music but the way conventional pop music will be made for years to come.
Charli was now prepping for her third studio album, which she announced would be self-titled. In an interview with Pitchfork prior to the albums release, she talks about feeling like she’s still making music for other people sometimes, and that she’s is done doing that, “I need to just own my own fucking shit finally.” Charli released the album in September of 2019 and from the first listen I could tell that Charli had found her sound on Pop 2 and she was trying to perfect and add onto it. The second single and also the second song on the album, “Gone”, featuring Christian and the Queens, is a beautiful song about being insecure in a relationship and feeling like you have to leave in order to feel better. The song’s production is pop mixed with electronic, with very bouncy drums, that makes for a great song to dance to. Similar to Pop 2, the album also had a star-studded list of features including Lizzo, HAIM, Troye Sivan, Kim Petras, and Clairo. The album was seen by many as one of the year’s best projects. With YouTube music reviewer, Anthony Fantano, and the magazine Variety putting the project as their number one album of the entire year. My favourite thing about this project is that Charli put some of the best artists in the world on the album with her, but her voice and writing ability still shines and stays as the focal point. Charli had planned a tour starting at about the same time as her album came out that would stretch to October of this year (with many breaks in between). Then COVID-19 struck the world and Charli came up with a completely different idea.
When quarantine was imposed and we all had to start spending a majority of our days sitting inside, Charli decided that she wanted to make another album. The popular video chat service Zoom became a platform that Charli used to speak face to face with her fans. Every few days Charli would tweet a link to her Zoom call and have thousands of fans in there listening to her talk about how she was feeling during quarantine. On April 6th while on a Zoom call with her fans she announced that she would be releasing an album and she took time to explain the vision behind the project, “The nature of this album is going to be very indicative of the times just because I’m only going to be able to use the tools I have at my fingertips to create all music, artwork, videos everything.”She also stated that the project would be titled “how i’m feeling now”, a perfect title given the times we’re in. Charli set a deadline for the album’s release at May 15th, meaning she had just over a month to deliver. A.G Cook handles most of the production on the project as he has for the last few Charli projects, but she had more help from a new collaborator. 100 Gecs is a experimental pop/ hip hop group consisting of Dylan Brady and Laura Les that blew up in 2019 with their album “1000 Gecs”. Their sound is carried by electric drums and manic sounds and samples. In February they released a remix of their song “Ringtone” and they enlisted Charli to sing the hook along with features from rapper Rico Nasty and Sarah Bonito of the British pop band, Kero Kero Bonito. Charli takes over the song with her catchy hook,
My boy’s got his own ringtone
It’s the only one I know, it’s the only one I know
My boy’s got his own ringtone
It’s the only one I know, it’s the only one I answer
Charli got Brady to help her write and produce a lot of the album. Charli was continuing to do what she was great at, making experimental pop music, slightly adding tweaks to her sound, and bringing in other artists to help her with that. In an interview with Billboard prior to the album’s release Charli described being very exhausted as she was staying up until 4 a.m. most days trying to finish writing, recording, and mixing the album. Charli came through on her deadline and the album was released on May 15th. The opening track “pink diamond” gives the listener a glimpse into her life in quarantine,
I just wanna go real hard for days
I just wanna feel in different ways
Every single night kinda feels the same
I’m a pink diamond, I need space
I’m online and I’m feeling so glamorous
Watch me shine for the boys and the cameras
Charli talks on many tracks about feeling like the days all kind of mesh together, an issue many resonate with. The album as a whole is what we’ve come to expect from Charli because she has just set the bar so high. The album truly encapsulates the title. The project gives listeners a very personal, and authentic glimpse into just how she’s feeling at the moment. While Charli could’ve just released an album full of songs that didn’t make her last album, Charli, or just not released anything at all until quarantine was over, but she didn’t. She brought forth an album that fits perfect in her discography, an album that fans will enjoy just the same as her past work.
Charli XCX is the brightest name in pop music — she has found the sound that she excels in, and she sticks to it while adding different styles, and new collaborators. Her sound doesn’t sound drawn out, which happens to many artists once they find their specific sound. Instead of sticking to a simple formula of hit songs, Charli makes and releases the music that she wants to make, and her fans love her for it. Charli will be the Queen of pop music for many years to come, as she doesn’t seem to have any plans of stopping. To conclude I’m going to end with my Charli’s answer to the question, What is your life motto? “Don’t be afraid of being who you are, because we’re all going to die anyway.”
