When art tries to be for everyone, that’s when coolness quietly dies.
In a new Substack essay titled ‘The Death of Cool’, Charli XCX reflects on the danger of art built for maximum appeal over authentic pulse.
She argues that when creators chase universal acceptance, what made their work alive in the first place withers away.
Charli paints a vivid memory of a London concert she recently attended: smooth execution, efficient production, but no heart.
She describes it as “functional” but flat, every move in place, every note technically correct, yet the room felt empty.
That emptiness, she argues, is the death of cool.
When a performance becomes a polished product instead of an expression, it stops belonging to anyone; it’s just available.
Her essay stitches together memories, reflections, and hard truths: growing up in an art school where flashy, rebelliousness was mocked, trying to honour personal style while navigating demands to please.
She points to the tension between highbrow and lowbrow, between art that speaks to a few and art that reaches many.
To chase popularity wholesale is to invite a slow fade, nuance loses its edges, risk becomes liability, and honesty sells for likes.
Yet Charli refuses the romantic notion that popularity and integrity are enemies.
She rejects tired hierarchies that treat commercial success as a sell-out.
Instead, she offers a manifesto for a new kind of cool, one that blends sincerity with style, depth with accessibility.
She argues that art doesn’t lose its soul simply because more people listen.
But that soul must be kept alive by refusing to over-correct, over-tailor or over-cauterise its edges to please.
In a world littered with content engineered for mass approval, she urges creators and fans alike to keep listening for the spark.
Don’t settle for smooth; demand trembling vocals, sharp angles, and moments that make you catch your breath.
Read Charli’s Substack post here.
