Charli XCX’s neon green, romantically trashy, delightfully glitchy album “brat” has certainly taken the world by storm, bringing Charli to a completely new level of fame.
Released Jun. 7, the album displays a simple lime green cover with minimalistic black font. Certainly an unorthodox album cover, but one that perfectly encases the vibe of the album.
Hype surrounding “brat” before its release sharply rose when Charli debuted a wickedly smart marketing tactic, known as the “brat wall.” The “brat wall,” a neon green painted wall in New York City was repainted consistently, announcing the deluxe album, teasing at remixes, and more. The repainting of the wall was live streamed on social media as fans anxiously awaited for the new message it would soon reveal.
Charli XCX’s marketing for “brat” is some of the best I’ve ever seen from any artist. She is so skillfully able to build suspense for new developments in the “brat” universe through things like the “brat wall” and remix announcements, including collaborations with Lorde on “Girl, so confusing” and Billie Eilish on “Guess.”
She was able to bring us an album so intensely different from what we’ve become accustomed to in this era of music. I often feel like I’m listening to the exact same album over and over again. But Charli brought electronic club music mainstream, bringing some much needed diversity to the music industry.
In “brat,” Charli revels in the trashy club scene, writing and producing an album of sticky floors, skimpy clothes, and dancing the night away. She also brought a completely new meaning to the word “brat,” a word that previously carried a deeply negative connotation.
In 2024, “brat” refers to someone who is unapologetically themselves, bold, defiant, and extremely confident in their own skin. Another new pop culture term that emerged in the wake of the album is “brat summer.” Largely popularized by TikTok as a result of the “Apple” dance trend, “Brat summer” was an era to live life to the fullest, show off your truest self, dress bold, and revel in the trashy club lifestyle.
These new pop culture terms even managed to wiggle their way into politics, becoming a large point of Kamala Harris’ campaign, specifically the portion aimed at Gen Z voters. After Charli tweeted “kamala IS brat,” Harris’s “Kamala HQ” Twitter account changed its profile picture to showcase the account name on a neon green background, mimicking the “brat” album cover.
Harris’ “brat” rebrand was an intelligent way to appeal to young voters, particularly ones immersed in social media like TikTok and Instagram. The rebrand was a jumping off point for the Harris campaign’s stellar use of social media throughout the presidential campaign.
Although “brat summer” recently came to an end, Charli wasn’t done. Last Friday she released a remix album, titled “brat but it’s completely different but also still brat,” with a feature on every single track on the album.
When I listened to the remix album, I expected to hear what you always hear from remixes – no new vocals from the original artist, nothing too interesting done to the instrumental, and simply just a new verse from the featured artist. This is not true for Charli. Every remix is a completely different song, with new verses not only from the featured artist, but Charli herself. The instrumentals were also jazzed up, leaving essentially an entirely new album of new tracks.
This was clearly not simply a project that Charli asked someone to sing on. She basically rewrote all the songs to make a double album. Some of my highlights are “I might say something stupid” featuring the 1975 and Jon Hopkins and “Everything is romantic” featuring Caroline Polachek.
While the new remix album will never beat the historical bops of “brat,” it is certainly an amazing addition.
“Brat summer” may be over but I’m fully in “brat fall.”
