The summer of 2024 was brat summer. Other artists tried to claim the summer with Taylor Swift commenting “SUMMER OF SABRINA [CARPENTER]” on Instagram and Taylor Swift’s own highly anticipated The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) era. Yet, the oversaturated green and brat font was Gabbriette—everyone was inspired, including brands, advertisers, fashion and political parties. Anything that was a similar green was uploaded to TikTok with the caption “so brat.” Beyond internet culture, my eleven-year-old cousin in LA told me that Brat, a club “partygirl” record, was her favourite album. Taylor Swift was kind of “out.” Now, brat summer has become “brautumn.” How did Brat rise to this popularity? This article will explore how Charli XCX claimed a colour, a summer, and her space in pop culture.
Brat was released during a specific time of Charli XCX’s career and pop culture. Brat’s predecessor album, Crash, is what Charli XCX calls her “sellout album.” After having difficulties balancing independent artistry and commitments to Atlantic Records under a five-album contract that she signed at sixteen, Charli XCX gave into creating a commercial major label album which, disappointingly to her, was successful. Charli XCX commented, “[Crash] showed me that actually, like maybe that’s not where I thrive.” Brat emerges when Charli XCX is ready for the risk of chasing authenticity in her artistry instead of commercial success. On the other hand, in pop culture, Brat appears during the fatigue of Taylor-mania. There was a sense that some people were emotionally tired from TTPD, the oversaturation of Taylor Swift, and only listening to Taylor Swift’s style of music. Brat world builds a space that is directly opposite the perpetually sad personas of the likes of Taylor Swift’s TTPD, Oliva Rodrigo and the Taylor Swift approved Gracie Abrams. In creating something authentic, Charli XCX was able to anticipate an energy craved.
Brat’s marketing begins with a Boiler Room set with over twenty-five thousand RSVPs. The feeling of being left out made the moment instantly viral, translating into buzz for her album. Charli XCX planned out her Boiler Room set strategically to match the roll out of her album by playing unreleased songs from Brat. She tested out the public reaction to her music, but most importantly, she created excitement about songs that were played during the set but were not released on the initial version of Brat, like “Springbreakers”, an instant fan favourite that was eventually released on the deluxe version. This strategic teasing of content generated more excitement for the song, and the project, and left viewers wondering what was next.
The Boiler Room also starts to world build Brat as, in the words of Charli XCX, “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes” Nowadays, to maintain attention, a good album sometimes is not enough. Charli XCX has explained, “Music is not important…Artistry is important and some artists don’t have artistry… Music alone is just not giving me the world. I need an artist to create the world. A great artist to me is more than the songs. It’s the entire culture and space that they inhabit.” While great music can cut through the constant shuffling cycle of internet virality, to maintain attention and become an internet moment or “it” girl requires an image with a distinct attitude and aesthetic in a developed environment—it must feel tangible, desirable and sometimes unachievable. The Boiler Room through the club scene, title of “PARTYGIRL,” description of “a cultural reset,” and teased sound began to cement the space Brat encompassed.
To have people engage with the space an artist creates, there needs to be an indicia of this world that fans can engage with and instantly identify as distinct of that artist. That was the genius of the Brat album cover. It was unlike any other female pop artist’s cover, but it was also so simple that viewers had no choice but to immediately connect that distinct shade of green and low-res font with Brat and Charli XCX, and rely on the other marketing for the aesthetic of the album. Charli XCX explained how the cover contributed to the worldbuilding, “I mean, as a female pop artist, what’s more bratty than not being on your album cover?… The fact that people are like, ‘I could have made this in five minutes,’ and the fact that my response is, ‘Well, yeah, but you didn’t.’” These indicia can serve as valuable intellectual property assets for artists while the overall world they created is unprotectable. Then, there needs to be a way for people to engage with the space the artist creates. Charli XCX accomplished this through the Brat walls, Brat generator, and the apple dance.
Charli XCX live streamed on TikTok a wall being painted the Brat album cover without a location posted. This became a fun scavenger hunt for fans to find the wall and a means for fans to engage with the album in real life and post online. When announcing the deluxe version of the album, Charli XCX live streamed the wall again. The live stream showed the wall being painted back to white, and people were mourning the Brat wall. When letters started to appear, people became instantly excited online because it wasn’t the end of anything, instead there was something new being announced which prompted people to guess in real time online what was being written as each letter was being revealed. For the remix album, billboards appear with the names of artists who will be on the album in their hometowns, creating another scavenger hunt for fans. The genius of this is that it lets the people do the marketing for you through their own posts. Charli XCX never had to say that she was cool. Everyone acted as though she was. Further, by collaborating with other artists instead of blocking them from the charts through multiple releases from the same album—like Taylor Swift’s forty-four releases from TTPD—Charli XCX combines audiences, which expands her reach and creates pop culture moments through unexpected collaborations such as mending her relationship with Lorde. After the “Girl, so confusing” remix dropped, we all wanted to “work it out on the remix.”
Charli XCX also released a Brat generator that lets people engage with the Brat’s intellectual property to create their own images using the Brat green and Brat font, allowing her intellectual property to be seen even more online without diluting the connection the indicia have to the album. Then there was the fan-made apple dance, which was instantly viral. It further gave people a way to engage with the album online. The more popular Brat became, the more people posted about it to build their own brand or show that they knew what was trendy. But how did my eleven-year-old cousin without TikTok become a fan?
To get the attention of kids who aren’t old enough for TikTok, you must market where they spend their time. Charli XCX launched a collaboration on the Roblox game “Dress to Impress,” a game that my eleven-year-old cousin and her friends always play. In the game, users dress up avatars in a short amount of time based on a theme and then users vote for their favourite outfits during a runway show where avatars strike poses from a menu of options. Charli XCX’s collaboration featured outfits that Charli XCX wore, poses inspired by Brat, including the apple dance, Brat themes, and Brat music playing during the game.
Brat’s success was a product of Charli XCX listening to her artistry and proving that to be a star, you don’t have to be a Taylor Swift; you can do it your way. You don’t have to block other artists; you just have to engage your fans. To be an overnight success is often the result of many years of hard work. The reality is this space is for Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Tate McRae, and everyone else.
