A bright, almost neon lime green color completely took over the summer of 2024. Everything was Brat. Sleeping in your makeup, going out too often, doing whatever you want, and having a trashy but somehow cool “aesthetic” are all things that have been described by TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter) users as Brat.
You may be wondering, “What is Brat?” While the idea of Brat can be hard to describe, it all started with an album.
Brat is an iconic experimental hyperpop/house music-inspired album by the innovative and successful pop princess of the UK, Charli XCX. Brat was released on June 7, 2024, but didn’t take off with the general public until early July. Businesses, stores, brands, and even politicians started to get an idea of what “Brat Summer” was, and included it in their branding. One example of this came when Charli XCX decided to post “kamala IS brat” on her X page directly after President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election. In response, Vice President and 2024 candidate Kamala Harris rebranded her X page into a Brat theme. Her profile banner was changed to the words “kamala hq” in the Brat font and iconic shade of green.
Brat connected with so many teenagers and young adults in a plethora of ways — the rebellious aspect of being messy instead of clean; the affiliation Charli XCX has with the LGBTQ+ community, often referencing pop culture that was influenced by said community in her music; and more. She has been an unstoppable creative force since her debut, displaying her personality by wearing bold outfits, frequently appearing in dance clubs everywhere, and taking inspiration from vibrant hyper-pop artists that have already established themselves in popular culture — e.g., SOPHIE, Arca, A.G. Cook, etc.
Opinions of Brat have ranged anywhere from extremely positive to very negative. Some argue that Brat is promoting immaturity, substance use, and being a party animal. In contrast, others claim that Brat has changed the narrative about club culture and brought a fun and positive vibe to hyperpop and the DJ/rave scene.
Wyatt Stark, a junior at B-CC and a Brat fan since the album’s release in June, says, “While Brat was very impactful musically — as it uplifted voices and names in the community of music production — culturally, it promoted unhealthy habits such as illegal substance use, alcoholism, and going out multiple nights in a row.”
But why is Brat so significant culturally? Why did it impact everyone so deeply?
Almost immediately after Brat was released, XCX surprised her fans on June 10 with “brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not,” which was a deluxe edition of the original album.
This release caused Brat’s popularity to escalate even further — but it was not the three extra tracks on the deluxe edition that caused Brat to go mainstream. On June 14, an NYC-based actress created a TikTok dance to the chorus of the track “Apple,” and it went extremely viral. The dance put Brat on the map for many who were not already familiar with the album or XCX herself. Right after the dance went viral, though, “Guess” featuring Billie Eilish was released on August 1; this was most likely the game changer for Brat. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Dance/Electronic Songs chart, making this XCX’s first No. 1 since 2013. Eilish and XCX took advantage of this opportunity by producing a music video and creating lots of content to promote their new song.
All in all, Brat by Charli XCX was a perfect storm of incredible branding, well-produced music, a great feature artist, and pure talent. Happy autumn, and may Brat Summer be forever in our hearts.
