Charli xcx Addresses Backlash to Her Saying Dance Is ‘Dead,’ Admits She’s in ‘Worst Place Mentally’ She’s Ever Been

A lot of people online haven’t been riding with Charli xcx‘s pivot away from breakout album Brat — with the backlash pertaining in particular to her recent lyrical declaration that dance music is “dead” — and in a new interview, the pop star was candid about how it’s been affecting her mentally.

In her Rolling Stone cover story published Thursday (June 18), Charli started by addressing the negative response to parts of her May single, “Rock Music.” On the experimental track, she sings, “I think the dance floor is dead/ So now we’re making rock music.”

“That lyric is very much about my relationship with Brat,” she explained. “My husband [George Daniel] runs a dance-music label. There’s been such a wealth of incredible dance/electronic-adjacent records that have been coming out recently, whether it’s Slayyyter or Underscores or PinkPantheress. Dance music is in an incredible place.”

Her response comes after a chunk of the internet took her lyric seriously and pushed back on her assessment of the state of the genre. In its modern, hyperpop evolution, Charli has been a dance-music pioneer — but fans of artists such as Harry Styles or Demi Lovato, who’ve pivoted to dance music in the past year, have questioned the Moment star’s authority to make such a declaration. Even Madonna appeared to subtly shade Charli, writing on Instagram in May, “If your Dance floor feels dead, maybe you’re playing the wrong music.”

But as Charli has explained, the line on “Rock Music” was only ever about her “personal experience” with the Brat era and how it recently came to an end. “The discourse is loud, and sometimes that can be very overwhelming,” she told Rolling Stone of the chatter about her, which she says has contributed to a difficult time for her mentally.

“I am finding it tough to … I don’t know,” she continued. “I’m finding my emotions are very, very volatile at the minute, I’ll be honest.”

It’s gotten to a point that the musician says she’s taken a step back from the internet, noting that she’s not interested in explaining her songs or lyrics any further “because it got to a place where my anxiety was physically affecting me, and I can’t actually proceed in life like that.”

“I don’t really look [online] as much anymore,” added Charli, who’s now gearing up to release new album Music, Fashion, Film on July 24. “It’s just better for my brain. I know people probably won’t believe me, because I am inherently, at least in the past, a very online artist. But I recently have been really struggling with my mental health to the point where, if I’m being real, I’m in the worst place mentally that I’ve been in my life.”

See Charli on the cover of Rolling Stone below.