BRAT's HOLD ON THE GIRLS, GAYS, AND THEYS

THE GREEN ALBUM: BRAT by Charlie XCX and its hold on the girls, gays, and they's

The sickly green hue of this summer’s constant replay-worthy album slapped us across the face in February upon its announcement. Almost immediately, “brat summer” was declared.

Considering the only relative success of 2022’s CRASH, Charli’s takeover as one of the leading ladies of a summer of pop is fascinating, not only due to BRAT’s aggressively hyperpop style that would have typically isolated it to a more niche listening base, but also because of her stark contrast to her contemporaries.

Chappell Roan soared to new heights on the charts, only competing with sweet Sabrina, both embracing a femme-forward aesthetic that worked in their favor. Charli, however, embraces a gritty, sweaty, indie-sleaze hipster revival, Boiler Room home-base. So why is it resonating with everyone?

The indie apocalypse of the early 2010s brought 90s bands like Radiohead, Mazzy Star, and Nirvana back into the mainstream because of groups like Arctic Monkeys and The Neighbourhood sounding reminiscent of them. Since then, pop music has been ridiculed as surface-level in opposition to its deeply profound grunge and shoegaze counterparts. The largest demographic listening to BRAT is early-twenties, trend-aware indie kids. It makes sense that this would have been the same group that hid their love for One Direction under their shnet-wearing Tumblr blogs. To now have pop music as the “cool” genre again is a release that is incredibly attractive to those who posed as haters of the pop girls of our childhoods. Even Kesha is back.

Pop is COOL again.

THE MARKETING OF BRAT

Besides the album release’s accordance with the indie-sleaze revival, the marketing and branding for the album was equally as cool. It was plain, effortless, yet completely shocking, all at once. It turned a derogatory word for a sassy, spoiled child into an adjective. Brands and institutions got in on the fun, including my feature on Cleveland’s own Rock Hall’s TikTok page, in which I joined a group to perform the “apple dance” in the gift shop’s brattiest merchandise oering. It was a summer of anything green receiving a point and a giggle. These BRAT basics of album art completely flipped what the music industry expects and requires of women in pop. Thee competition and suffocation that the business requires of female artists (or candidly, any non-male musician) requires ashy, out there covers to even begin to even the playing eld of clicks, streams, and sales. In March of 2024, two months before the BRAT summer solstice, Charli tweeted:

"I think the constant demand for access to women’s bodies and faces in our album artwork is MYSOGINISTIC and BORING."

—CHARLI XCX

The album cover for CRASH was originally released with an image of Charli straddling the hood of a car. Upon the announcement of BRAT, though, each album’s art was replaced with simplied, text-on-solid designs emulating the BRAT cover. This reclamation marked a turning point in both music publicity campaigns and the commodication of the pop body.

HATING POP MUSIC DOESN'T MAKE YOU DEEP!

Addison Rae, who found inuencer stardom on TikTok, features on “e von dutch remix with addison rae and a.g. cook.” Rae’s campy 2023 EP release, AR, includes a feature from Charli on “2 die 4.” The song, ridiculed by some but loved by many more, is fun, danceable, and confident, and an obvious predecessor to her inclusion on BRAT. Earlier this year, Rae posted a photo wearing a t-shirt reading “HATING POP MUSIC DOESN’T MAKE YOU DEEP.” The message perfectly explains the spirit of BRAT. Pop music isn’t trying to be profound, or revolutionary, but in doing that, it ends up being a point of connection. It is never that serious, and in a rapidly polarizing world, that is exactly what we need.