If you’ve spent any time on the internet this summer I am almost certain you’ve come across a bright green screen with just about anything written in the font arial narrow. What many thought was simply an album release, became a global trend, ‘lifestyle’, and political marketing technique. Charli XCX taking over the world on June 7th is so brat.
You may know her for Boys, Boom Clap, Vroom Vroom, or Speed Drive from the Barbie soundtrack, but you most definitely know her from I Love It, her hit song with Swedish duo Icona Pop released in 2012. Charli XCX, born Charlotte Emma, was raised in Essex and debuted her career by posting songs on the social media platform MySpace back in 2008. She’s shared that she started gaining an audience at the age of 16 once a promoter found warehouse raves for her to perform at. After a break in 2010, Charli came back into the industry by dropping I Love It and a year later (2013) her debut album True Romance which opened the doors for numerous features and collaborations. Since then, Charli has dropped 5 more albums.
What’s so significant about brat? Charli was raised on club music and it’s the music she truly loves, so in February 2024, she announced CXCX6 was coming out and that it would be the club album she’d always dreamed of making. Following this, she sent fans voice messages containing the track titles, released Von dutch, released its remix featuring Addison Rae, changed all of her album covers to the brat font, dropped the second single (360), and painted an immense lime-green wall in New York.
This wall in Greenpoint captured the world’s attention. On May 2nd, Charli XCX tweeted the address to the wall and held a surprise performance which consisted of her lip-syncing to 360 standing on top of an SUV with the same green background. Following this, the message ‘i’m your fav reference’ was painted and once again broadcast on Charli XCX’s TikTok live. The whole internet was talking (and still is) about brat, and especially about ‘brat summer’ which is everything but the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic the internet seems to love, and absolutely everything that is so ‘brat’. Let’s travel back to early June, the album isn’t out yet and its title is already an adjective used to describe just about anything. June 7th the wall is repainted and reads ‘brat’.
The album is out and the raw lyrics paired with an electric beat hold the world in a chokehold. From the lyrics ‘I used to never think about Billboard But now I’ve started thinkin’ again Wonderin’ ’bout whether I think I deserve commercial success’ in rewind to ‘Bad tattoos on leather tanned skin Jesus Christ on a plastic sign’ in Everything is romantic, brat is honest, superficial, and fun.
Three days later the wall is broadcasted again with the words “brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s no”’ centred. Three more tracks; Hello goodbye, Guess, and Spring breakers are released on the same day. Meanwhile, the world is overwhelmingly green, every other video on TikTok is the viral dance to ‘Apple’, a song about Charli’s relationship with her parents, and fans are speculating about who Charli is referring to in ‘girl, so confusing’. A couple of days later the wall is painted again, unveiling the word ‘lorde’. The New Zealander well known for her hit songs Royals, Ribs, and Supercut ‘worked it out on the remix’ and addressed how she was feeling about Charli, whom many people confused her for. July 1st the wall read ‘ok bye’ which many thought symbolised the end of the brat era, but that wasn’t the case of course August 1st Guess featuring Billie Eilish was released, taking over charts, clubs, and our hearts.
Nonetheless, brat’s presence was not limited to culture and music, the album has now become a marketing technique for Kamala Harris’ campaign. After Charli XCX showed her support towards the ‘Kamala is brat’ memes and retweeted a few, the presidential candidate’s social media got painted green. KamalaHQ’s Twitter banner is now in fact the brat font.
Why that particular shade of green? Why that font? Why the crude lyrics? Why is it never-ending and full of surprises? Charli explained she doesn’t like the idea of pop music simply being digested and never scrutinised. She enjoys the intrigue, she wants it to be questioned and looked at as art, she wants to make you uncomfortable and think.
I’ve always listened to her music at a mainstream level. Charli XCX’s music has always been playing in clothing shops, on the radio, at parties, and everywhere. It is uplifting music you don’t have to listen to the lyrics to feel its energy. With the release of brat, taking a deep dive into Charlotte Emma’s universe was inevitable. I appreciate the balance between brutal honesty and superficiality in the lyrics. I love the culture around it. I find it inspiring to see a woman in her 30s still rising to fame and using criticism from critics as a promo for her next releases. My favourite tracks are “Sympathy is a knife” because of its lyricism and “girl, so confusing feat. lorde” for its cultural significance. I hope you like this album just as much as I do because brat summer is not over, it’s all around you in every form of media.
