Charli xcx expects “anti marketing” to gain traction as a strategy. She’s describing a shift away from spectacle toward something more personal and “less about the projection of scale.”
It’s a sentiment that tracks with where a lot of culture has been drifting. Artists have increasingly leaned into rollouts built around limited access rather than mass reach: invite-only listening sessions, text-message-only show alerts, and a level of scarcity that feels intimate rather than exclusive. The instinct isn’t new, but it’s becoming a more explicit alternative to algorithm-driven promotion, where the goal is virality at any cost, often at the expense of the art itself.
On July 10, @charli_xcx played an intimate show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, bringing out @clairo, @underscoresplus, and @kimpetras to join her for their own songs — “Sofia,” “Music,” and “Jeep,” respectively. The set mixed early singles and new material from her forthcoming album ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ with a few Charli classics, including “party 4 u.”
It was a working example of the “anti-marketing” she’d described.
I really admire how well Charli xcx can read the times and the current status of society, like, brat 2.0 would’ve never ever worked at this point but so far, the Music, Fashion, Film singles are perfect for the way everyone is feeling.
truly believe anti marketing will become a thing soon… still marketing but it’s just a different approach, more intimate, personal, private, one on one. less about the projection of scale. i’m into it xx