Charli XCX

Charli XCX launched her career on Myspace in 2008, using her childhood online name and uploading raw, glitchy electro-pop demos recorded in her bedroom. Funded by a loan from her parents, she bypassed the traditional industry route with a sound that felt like commercial pop put through a blender, a blueprint that foreshadowed modern hyperpop.

Those uploads caught the eye of an underground promoter, pulling the 15-year-old out of the suburbs and into London’s illegal warehouse rave scene. After co-writing global hits like “I Love It” and “Fancy”, she shifted from hit songwriter to avant-garde trailblazer. She cemented that status through a run of boundary-pushing mixtapes and the cultural phenomenon of her 2024 album Brat.