Is brat Summer Over?
“Brat, as an identity, has seeped into the US presidential election, with Charli XCX tweeting ‘kamala IS brat’
By Amy Kan, Senior Designer, BA International Relations and Japanese 28/10/2024
The summer of 2024 has been taken over by a single pixelated word on a neon green background: Brat. With the album being released in June, the newest unpredictable summer trend was ignited. As a long time fan, witnessing the movement of Brat into the mainstream cycle was, to say the least, intense. None of her other full-length albums have been this widely appraised by the general public.
Over the years of adoration and hatred from the public, Charli xcx’s music has ranged from radio pop to electropop, with her latest album branching into a dance-pop style. Brat explores themes of individuality, girlhood, and the traumas and chaos of life. Charli xcx describes a brat-girl as being, ‘honest, blunt, and a little bit volatile.’ The beats and musical complexity add an attractive lens to the songs, making them suitable for the club environment.
The power of Brat summer came from TikTok’s ability to turn a snippet of a song into the microtrend of the week. The song Apple was recognised as a single after a TikTok dance went viral, giving the era another push of support. Charli xcx has been able to circulate herself all summer long despite constant competition from other artists. With fears of Brat summer being over, Charli xcx has now eagerly released a remix album featuring Lorde, The 1975, Bon Iver and more.
So, what does it actually all mean? Brat is a mindset, with its physical characteristics being ‘a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra.’ Its simplicity makes it attainable for anyone. However, Charli xcx does not shy away from making club and rave culture a central theme within the album, along with its not-so subtle references to drug use. As a result, we see Charli xcx associating a fun, lively, brat lifestyle… with drug use. In an era of combating the heroin-chic look, Brat’s demographic chase a more chaotic lifestyle, hinting to the world that the Brat lifestyle is truthfully more than cigs, a lighter, and a white top.
However, Brat’s marketability has arguably been the biggest factor of all. The plain green with default arial text screams rushed and careless, to a perfectionist graphic designer. In a world of high maintenance album cover photoshoots, Charli xcx executed the opposite in the most effective way possible. With its simple colour, ‘Brat green’ was popularised and could be used everywhere by everyone. Brat was marketed on generic green bottles, allowing Charli xcx to sell them out for a high price of £24 to devout fans. Other fans have taken alternative pathways to produce their own merchandise to wear; the simplicity of the design is that easy to replicate.
As they often do when joining trends, big brands have also gained traction on social media by using the Brat template, garnering more views than their usual posts. Brat, as an identity, has seeped into the US presidential election, with Charli xcx tweeting ‘kamala IS brat’, one day after Kamala Harris announced her campaign. Who could predict that the 2024 election would lie in the hands of TikTok editors, aiming to present the vice president as a relatable Gen Z politician? Evidently, Brat has become a buzzword for corporations to attain revenue from interaction; any product in a similar shade will be bought and promoted, turning some colour that never was, into the colour of the year.
Despite summer being over, Brat summer will be continuing into autumn. The new album will provide more opportunities to join the cult, with the remixes becoming the new obsession of the season. Charli xcx has surpassed many marketing ideas, reducing it back to minimalism which has succeeded in amassing a new cult following.
