Have you been wondering why Kamala Harris is “brat” and the color puke green is suddenly in fashion? For months I had been hearing about brat summer, but I still had no idea what it was.
Finally, now that brat summer officially ended, I am going to dive deep into just what it was and answer all our burning questions about Charli XCX’s new album and the hype around it.
Pop singer Charli XCX launched her career in 2008 and has seen immense fame since then, with a total of six albums and multiple hit songs such as “Apple”, “360” and “Boom Clap”.
She also gained fame by appearing in songs with other artists, such as Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”, Icona Pop’s “I Love It’ and Rita Ora’s “Girls”.
As she’s promoted her new album “brat”, a lot of commercial success has come from her remixes of the songs with other female celebrities. So far, three remixes on her album have stood out and drawn in a larger audience: “Von dutch” with Addison Rae, “Girl, so confusing” with Lorde and “Guess” with Billie Eilish.
Other than these very popular remixes, her songs “365” and “Apple” have been incredibly successful, especially on social media. “Apple” has a trending dance on TikTok, which is popular among celebrities from Ashley Tisdale to Stephen Colbert.
Beyond that, the Kamala Harris campaign used songs from “brat” on social media and temporarily changed the profile of one of their social media accounts to use the color and typeface of the album.
Charli XCX responded by posting “kamala IS brat” on “X”, seemingly endorsing the candidate.
So now that we understand why “brat” became so popular, we need to understand what exactly brat summer is and what makes someone “brat”.
In a TikTok, Charli XCX described “brat” as a girl who is “a little messy and likes to party… who feels herself, but maybe has a breakdown, but kind of like parties through it,” and as someone who is “very honest, very blunt, a little bit volatile.” Charli XCX fans have tried to embody this energy for the summer, being unafraid to act messy, unapologetic and authentic.
However, the brat summer trend was not intentional marketing from the artist. It’s a TikTok trend started by her fans that quickly spread to mainstream media.
Fans were obsessed with the simplicity of her album’s cover art, co-opting the green cover and arial font for everything. This cover was very different from those of her former albums, which all featured pictures of Charli, the last three featuring her in lingerie.
She explained her reasoning for the change in cover art in a “X” post, voicing her belief that “the constant demand for access to women’s bodies and faces in our album artwork is mysoginistic and boring.”
Her fans seem to love the hyper pop way she portrays many relatable issues surrounding womanhood, imposter syndrome and developing into yourself. This album prove the possibility of making club bangers that still convey a deeper meaning.
Songs like “Rewind” and “Girl, so confusing” cover some hard-hitting topics about girlhood, fame, growing up and weight, but do so in a way that you can dance along to. This makes the album feel unique.
At the end of the day, brat summer only exists and the album has only been this successful because Charli XCX has a dedicated fanbase that loves the work she produces.
Brat summer. Photo courtesy of The Today Show.