History Music / CharliXCX

* SexyPackaging: She's naked on the cover of ''Music/{{Charli}}'' with her breasts only barely covered by some futuristic pink wires, is in just white panties and a crop top on ''how i'm feeling now'', and is in a bikini on the cover ''CRASH.'' (Though that last one, being a ShoutOut to ''Film/{{Crash}}'' by David Cronenberg, may include some FanDisservice, since she's covered in blood).

* SexyPackaging: Wears a bikini on the cover of ''CRASH,'' though there's a bit of FanDisservice, since she's just been hit by a car and is covered in blood.

* MsFanservice: She plays into this with her many appearances in music videos and televised performances. The Tokyo-set Video for "Boom Clap", where a stunningly gorgeous Charli jaunts around the streets of the city in tiny, mostly form-hugging attire (and at one point in what appears to be nothing more than a nightgown). She also posts sexually provocative images of herself on social media on a regular basis.

Her fifth album, ''CRASH'', was released in 2022, marking her final album with Creator/AtlanticRecords as part of her initial record deal. Unlike Charli's post-''Vroom Vroom'' repertoire, ''CRASH'' returns to a more conventional approach to dance music and synthpop, described by Charli as being "for the ''True Romance'' angels".

* AutoTune: Charli [[https://toofab.com/2018/10/23/why-charli-xcx-thinks-auto-tune-is-the-savior-of-her-live-performances/ freely admits]] to using it regularly as a crutch for her voice, even during live performances. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools That said, her application of it tends to be pretty creative]], able to extend her range to deliberately synthetic extents on tracks like "Lucky" or "Click".

** The "party 4 u" chorus repeats "I only threw this party for you".

* CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: Pretty much the basis behind "Break the Rules".

* FormerTeenRebel: Her high school years included performing at underground rave parties ([[OpenMindedParent which her parents even came to]]) and "rummaging through CD crates for punk [=CDs=] and wearing defiant outfits to school -- [[TooManyBelts 'five belts instead of one,']] she recalls -- in order to demonstrate her overall rebelliousness".

* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: She frequently indulges in this imagery, from "Fancy" to "Break the Rules" to "After the Afterparty".

** The chorus of "What I Like".

* MoneySong: "Gold Coins". She also did a cover of "Money (That's What I Want)".

* NonAppearingTitle: "Grins," "Cloud Aura," "Track 10" (despite being an alternate version of 'Blame It On Your Love'), "February 2017," "2099," and "c2.0."
* OutOfGenreExperience: "Need Ur Luv". It sounds like 50s doo-wop, which is completely unlike anything else she's done before.

** [[http://agcook.com/n1a/ As explained in the liner notes]], "Lipgloss" started as an unreleased Life Sim instrumental simply titled "Lightning," which then got edited and recycled by several producers including Cook and Music/{{Sophie}} before reaching [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3wSBK6xiXs the final version]] on ''Number 1 Angel'' (all three are credited as producers). A few months later, Life Sim released an updated version of his original instrumental, now titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMOOTCkB9Bw Lightning Lipgloss Life]]".
** "Track 10" from ''Pop 2'' is a twofer: it's stated to be a remix of a previously unreleased track called "Blame It On Your Love," and part of its instrumental (from 2 minutes onwards) is a rearrangement of another track by Life Sim, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SySgCOwaeLk IDL]]". [[{{Irony}} Hilariously enough]], a finished version of the original "Blame It On Your Love" demo, now featuring Music/{{Lizzo}}, was released as a single later on and included in the tracklist of ''Charli'', meaning there's now two completely different official arrangements of the song across two projects.
** "Next Level Charli" is effectively a Charli-tinged recreation of another A.G. Cook and Life Sim collaboration, "Big Bratt," from their 2015 release "[[https://soundcloud.com/pcmus/xtreme-mixology Xtreme Mixology]]".

** Music/DannyBrown shows up on the remix of "What I Like".
** Lil Yachty in "After The Afterparty".

* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Vroom Vroom'' has a title track of the same name, which is also the name of the record label Charli started around the time of the EP's release.

* The90s: "1999", a collaboration with Music/TroyeSivan, is a huge nostalgic love letter to the decade, [[ShoutOut with lyrics referencing]] Music/BritneySpears, ''Series/AllThat'', and Music/{{Eminem}}, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-v1b9waHWY the music video]] directly recreating some of its imagery.

* {{Animeland}}: The video for "[=SuperLove=]", in which she and some friends go to some kind of techno dance club in Tokyo with robots and yakuza bikers.

** A similar thing happens with "Shake It", whose hook is Charli speaking "I shake it I shake it I shake it ooh, I shake it I shake it all on you."

** [[MadnessMantra Used very effectively]] in "pink diamond", a song about going stir-crazy in isolation.

** She featured in Music/DannyBrown's song "Float On", but her only role was to provide backing vocals in the chorus.

*** Cook also appears in the video for "Every Rule", accompanying Charli on keyboard.

* CarSong: "Vroom Vroom" is about living the high life through fast cars, and "Porsche" is Charli's rumination on treating herself to the titular luxury car following a bitter breakup. To a lesser degree, she also frequently references cars as a metaphor for other subjects, such as in "Backseat", "White Mercedes", and "Crash".

* ClusterFBomb: Charli XCX curses fairly often in her songs, but "Sucker" takes it to a whole new level. However, her most famous song "Boom Clap", and the entire How I'm Feeling Now album are notably devoid of swearing.

* GirlsNightOutEpisode: "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Girls Night Out]]", to nobody's surprise, complete with the repeating chorus of "No boys, no boys!"

** Also in "Champagne Coast", she says "come into my bedroom" ''thirty-two times''. Not exactly subtle.

** The ending to "visions", the final track of ''how i'm feeling now'', is an emotional yet energetic ballad wrapped in a [[HardcoreTechno hardstyle beat]] for the most part, but in the final minute once Charli's vocals fade out, the instrumental begins to break down, becoming increasingly stressful and cacophanic mess of distorted synths before suddenly fading out. It's arguably framed like a SuddenDownerEnding, as the song itself is a celebration of a future with her lover that had yet to occur, making the ending sound like as if even the song [[AndThenWhat has no idea of what comes next.]]

* MoodWhiplash: ''Charli'' opens with "Next Level Charli", a loud, epic anthem celebrating the start of a giant party with fans, but is immediately followed up with "Gone", a noticeably more melancholy (if still booming) ballad about feeling overwhelmed in a crowd and wanting to leave.

* NonAppearingTitle: "Grins" , "Cloud Aura", "Track 10" (despite being an alternate version of 'Blame It On Your Love'), "February 2017", "2099", and "c2.0".

** [[http://agcook.com/n1a/ As explained in the liner notes]], "Lipgloss" started as an unreleased Life Sim instrumental simply titled "Lightning", which then got edited and recycled by several producers including Cook and Music/{{Sophie}} before reaching [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3wSBK6xiXs the final version]] on ''Number 1 Angel'' (all three are credited as producers). A few months later, Life Sim released an updated version of his original instrumental, now titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMOOTCkB9Bw Lightning Lipgloss Life]]".
** "Track 10" from ''Pop 2'' is a twofer: it's stated to be a remix of a previously unreleased track called "Blame It On Your Love", and part of its instrumental (from 2 minutes onwards) is a rearrangement of another track by Life Sim, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SySgCOwaeLk IDL]]". [[{{Irony}} Hilariously enough]], a finished version of the original "Blame It On Your Love" demo, now featuring Music/{{Lizzo}}, was released as a single later on and included in the tracklist of ''Charli'', meaning there's now two completely different official arrangements of the song across two projects.
** "Next Level Charli" is effectively a Charli-tinged recreation of another A.G. Cook and Life Sim collaboration, "Big Bratt", from their 2015 release "[[https://soundcloud.com/pcmus/xtreme-mixology Xtreme Mixology]]".
* RepetitiveAudioGlitch: Used to brief but creatively heartbreaking effect in "[[BreakUpSong Lucky]]", where the vocals briefly skip at the line "You got no reception, you're brea-ea-king up..."
* RevengeBallad: "Just Desserts", a collaboration with Music/MarinaDiamandis, about getting revenge on a lover for an unspecified offence.

** "Unlock It" from ''Pop 2'' borrows a few snippets from A.G. Cook's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG0ggHM1PLM Beautiful]]", including its TitleDrop hook.

** "2099" to "1999", each on relative ends of the tracklist of ''Charli'' and both featuring Music/TroyeSivan. While "1999" is a straightforward throwback to nostalgic pop culture, "2099" is a chaotic, avant-garde depiction of what we can assume Charli believes is in store for the distant future of music.

** In the video for "Break the Rules", she gets a pail of some kind of [[CoveredInGunge pink goop dumped on her]] by a SadistTeacher, not unlike the prom scene in ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' (where it was pig's blood). Unlike that film, [[AttackBackfire she and everyone else finds it to be lots of fun.]]
** In "Cloud Aura", Brooke Candy says [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay "Time to terminate shit, hasta la vista".]]

** With the song being a throwback to The90s, the video to "1999" features Charli and Music/TroyeSivan recreating several iconic pop culture images and icons from that era, including ''Film/TheMatrix'', ''Film/Titanic1997'', ''Film/AmericanBeauty'', "[[Music/{{Eminem}} The Real Slim Shady]]", Music/SpiceGirls, "[[Music/BackstreetBoys I Want It That Way]]", Music/NSync-era Music/JustinTimberlake, Music/MarilynManson, ''VideoGame/TheSims1'', and even UsefulNotes/SteveJobs and ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject''.

* SillyLoveSongs: "Boom Clap", "You're the One", "What I Like", "[=SuperLove=]", "Unlock It"

** Her Music/PCMusic-era singles and mixtapes [[OncePerEpisode use this liberally]] in the form of either "It's Charli, Baby", or a stuttered "XCX" tag resembling a radio call out.

* VisualPun: The cover for her single with Marina and the Diamonds, "Just Desserts", is ... a hand holding an ice cream cone. Bonus points for the intentional misspelling.
* XMakesAnythingCool: The name "XCX" doesn't really mean anything; it just sounds a lot cooler than "Aitchison", a clunky, difficult name for a pop star.

** Brooke Candy appears in "Cloud Aura", a lone R&B song on a synthpop album.

* RevisitingTheRoots: [[https://music.apple.com/us/album/crash/1592545087 Charli describes]] ''CRASH'' -- on top of being a traditional GenreThrowback after a long string {{hyperpop}} projects -- as being a case of this for herself. As it was her final record as part of her deal with Creator/AtlanticRecords, Charli admits to approaching it as one last opportunity to utilize the label's maximist resources and create a more commercial-friendly pop album akin to when she first started out; an experiment to see if it can achieve mainstream attention that eluded her as someone who usually works on the experimental fringe of pop (this venture would be a successful one, as it became her most commercially successful album to date, and ironically kept her and Atlantic on good-enough terms for her to renew her contract for ''BRAT'').

** ''BRAT'' plays this completely straight, being just a lime green background with "brat" written over it in Arial font. According to an interview with Vogue, Charli got very annoyed with female artists like her having to plastering their photographs over everything, [[FaceOnTheCover including album covers]], and went with something deliberately odd and confrontational "to trigger the idea of something being wrong."

** ''CRASH'', meanwhile is much more of a "poptastic" throwback record, eschewing the avant-garde, {{hyperpop}} sounds of the future for the vintage, 80's SynthPop-inspired [[GenreThrowback sounds of the past]].

* RevisitingTheRoots: [[https://music.apple.com/us/album/crash/1592545087 Charli describes]] ''CRASH'' -- on top of being a traditional GenreThrowback after a long string {{hyperpop}} projects -- as being a case of this for herself. As it was her final record as part of her deal with Creator/AtlanticRecords, Charli admits to approaching it as one last opportunity to utilize the label's maximist resources and create a more commercial-friendly pop album akin to when she first started out; an experiment to see if it can achieve mainstream attention that eluded her as someone who usually works on the experimental fringe of pop (this venture would be a successful one, as it became her most commercially successful album to date, and ironically kept her and Atlantic on good-enough terms for her to sign another record deal for ''BRAT'').

** ''BRAT'' plays this completely straight, being just a lime green background with "brat" written over it in Arial font.

* RevisitingTheRoots: [[https://music.apple.com/us/album/crash/1592545087 Charli describes]] ''CRASH'' -- on top of being a traditional GenreThrowback after a long string {{hyperpop}} projects -- as being a case of this for herself. As it was her final record as part of her deal with Creator/AtlanticRecords, Charli admits to approaching it as one last opportunity to utilize the label's maximist resources and create a more commercial-friendly pop album akin to when she first started out; an experiment to see if it can achieve mainstream attention that eluded her as someone who usually works on the experimental fringe of pop (this venture would be a successful one, as it became her most commercially successful album to date).

I wanna dance to [[Music/HudsonMowhawke HudMo]]

* MinimalisticCoverArt: The cover of ''True Romance'' is a picture of her with a white background. ''Sucker'' is also a picture of her, except with a pink background. Her singles, on the other hand, are a mix of this and DesignStudentsOrgasm.

* HiddenDepths: You probably wouldn't pick up on it on first listen, but her musical influences are quite eclectic----including mainstream pop acts like Music/BritneySpears, Music/TheBlackEyedPeas, and Music/JanetJackson, but also more alternative/avant-garde acts such as Music/KateBush, Music/CrystalCastles, Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees, and Music/LouReed.

* IdenticalStranger: Some believe she looks like Creator/LilyCollins, or Sasha Grey. Also bares some resemblance to Music/{{Lorde}}.

+ Music/IconaPop, Music/IggyAzalea, Music/{{MO}}, Music/{{CupcakKe}}, Music/{{Uffie}}, Music/CarlyRaeJepsen, Music/ToveLo, Music/GiorgioMoroder, Music/{{Blondie}}, Music/SelenaGomez, Music/{{Sophie}}, Music/ChristineAndTheQueens, Music/CarolinePolachek

Following the success of "Fancy," her sophomore effort ''Sucker'' was released in 2014, featuring a departure from the electronic pop she became known for to [[UsefulNotes/TheNineties '90s]]-inspired {{riot grrrl}}. Reception of the album was mixed. Perhaps in response to this lukewarm reaction, she eventually returned to her roots with the ''Vroom Vroom'' EP in 2016.

In addition to releasing her own music, she's also a successful songwriter for other artists, having written the hit singles "Same Old Love" for Music/SelenaGomez, "Beg for It" for Music/IggyAzalea, and "Senorita" for Music/ShawnMendes and Music/CamilaCabello, while having also written tracks for the likes of Music/JamesBlunt, Music/WillIAm, Music/RitaOra, Music/{{TXT}}, Music/{{Twice}} and Music/{{Blondie}}.

* TheNineties: "1999", a collaboration with Music/TroyeSivan, is a huge nostalgic love letter to the decade, [[ShoutOut with lyrics referencing]] Music/BritneySpears, ''Series/AllThat'', and Music/{{Eminem}}, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-v1b9waHWY the music video]] directly recreating some of its imagery.

** With the song being a throwback to TheNineties, the video to "1999" features Charli and Music/TroyeSivan recreating several iconic pop culture images and icons from that era, including ''Film/TheMatrix'', ''Film/Titanic1997'', ''Film/AmericanBeauty'', "[[Music/{{Eminem}} The Real Slim Shady]]", Music/SpiceGirls, "[[Music/BackstreetBoys I Want It That Way]]", Music/NSync-era Music/JustinTimberlake, Music/MarilynManson, ''VideoGame/TheSims1'', and even UsefulNotes/SteveJobs and ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject''.

* MemeticHandGesture: Her very British VSign, which she does ''a lot'' in photos and when playing live. (Other ones include making a HeartSymbol with her fingers and FlippingTheBird.)

** The video for "Break The Rules" features a brief appearance by Creator/RoseMcGowan as a SadistTeacher who [[CoveredInGunge pours pink goo over Charli and her friends]] at prom a-la ''Film/{{Carrie}}''.

Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born August 2, 1992), better known by her stage name Charli XCX, is a British singer-songwriter.

* GenreThrowback: In stark contrast to her now-signature {{hyperpop}} sound of the future, ''CRASH'' consists of tracks greatly inspired by more traditional genre sounds from the 80's and 90's, with Charli citing Music/JanetJackson as one particular major influence. The TitleTrack is effectively Charli's take on NewJackSwing, "New Shapes" a mixture of 80's SynthPop and IndiePop, "Yuck" an invocation of classic funk and disco, etc.
* GirlsNightOutEpisode: "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Girls Night Out]]" to nobody's surprise, complete with the repeating chorus of "No boys, no boys!"

* ADateWithRosiePalms: "Body of My Own", also alluded to in "Grins".

* BareYourMidriff: All the time.

She first reached mainstream prominence with her single "Boom Clap" (from the ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' soundtrack), as well as some collaborations with Music/IconaPop ("I Love It") and Music/IggyAzalea ("Fancy"), the latter of which went to #1 in the United States for a span of weeks in Summer 2014. Prior to her breakthrough, she recorded two albums: 2008's ''14'', which was never officially released, and 2013's ''True Romance'', her official debut record.

* ShesGotLegs: Charli XCX is famous for her thighs.