The summer of 2024 was defined by the color #8ACE00 – a bright, vivid “brat green”. From thousands of TikToks featuring dances to the song Apple to Kamala Harris “bratifying” her X (formerly Twitter) campaign banner, Charli XCX’s sixth studio album Brat (stylized brat) has gained a huge following. The album’s popularity led to the adoption of the viral phrase “brat summer”, rivaling 2023’s “Barbie summer” and 2022’s “hot girl summer”.
The brat album cover featured a lime green backdrop with a giant, minimalist, low-resolution Arial font, saying brat. After teasing the album cover, the hyper-pop phenomenon explained how she had always intended for the album cover to be “offensive” – according to a quote from People magazine, she purposefully chose not to put her image on the album cover, which was a common critique among her fans. Although simple, her album cover served to emphasize her originality and the themes of self-empowerment present in the tracks.
Following the release of her album, she changed the covers of all her previous albums to have the same style as the brat album cover. Charli’s marketing of her album involved popularizing the minimalistic album cover as well as interacting with fans on platforms such as TikTok and X. However, the marketing hasn’t only been on the viral singer’s side: fans quickly jumped on the simple but eye-catching album cover, spurring a rise of brat-related creative endeavors including users parodying the album cover and making their own memes about it. Now, the graphic lime green is instantly recognizable.
Adapting to the divided opinions on her album cover, Charli and her team made a bold marketing campaign move: they launched a brat art generator. This allowed users to create covers with their own text, following the stylization of the album. This heavily increased publicity for her album – soon, social media started creating a wide variety of brat-inspired crafts, from Slack emojis inspired by the album cover to lime green garden signs promoting the presidential election. This craft-making became so popular that a name was given to it: “bratification”. Soon, brat became a part of internet slang, giving rise to phrases such as “bratified” and “brat-coded” – and perhaps the most influential, “brat summer”.
Contributing to the coinage of a brat summer and arguably the most popular song on the album, Apple is an energetic dance-pop track, reminiscent of 2000s rave music with an electronic touch. In this song, Charli details themes of generational trauma and addresses her complicated relationship with her parents by using an apple as a metaphor. The lyrics describe apples going rotten from previous apples passing down their issues. While these lyrics were introspective, they weren’t what brought this song to popularity; rather, it was the viral dance trend for Apple, spurring on brat’s publicity through TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. TikTok has long been an app that brings underground artists and underrated songs to light, and Apple was no different. The dance trend, as described by its creator Kelley Heyer, follows the brat trend of “less-polished content on the internet.” Apple, along with similar clubpop rave classics such as Club classics and 365, are rave-esque songs you could find at a party of someone who is enjoying their brat summer.
What exactly is a brat summer? Charli defines a brat as someone who’s a little messy, likes to party, and is a bit blunt and volatile. The brat aesthetic initially involved drinking, being unabashedly yourself, and Y2k fashion such as strappy white tank tops and miniskirts. However, the brat phenomenon has evolved into something more: it’s become a symbol of womanhood, girl power, and self-confidence. Netizens quickly adopted this mindset, coining the term “brat summer” – although loosely defined, the key points are to embrace your messy, wild side, defy social norms, and be your own person—a stark contrast to the long-standing “clean girl” trend.
In addition to the phenomena surrounding the album, brat is an exceptional album on its own. Charli’s stand-out lyricism on the album was genius, checking all the boxes that make up the perfect album – from deep, introspective songs to catchy, club-pop hits to interesting, meticulous production, it’s no surprise that multiple songs from her album went viral on social media. Nevertheless, this is a huge difference from other pop sensations who have quickly risen to fame – while most artists have one viral song per album, brat featured numerous hits, including 360, Von dutch, Apple, and 365.
One strong theme present in the album is female empowerment, especially women supporting women. This is evident in the tenth track, Girl, so confusing. In this track, Charli contrasts the upbeat, hyperpop production with deep lyrics, regarding her overthinking a relationship with a female friend in the music industry. Throughout the song, she questions whether this woman genuinely likes her or just pretends to, addressing her insecurities. Then, she sings about how she believes this woman should party with her and spend time with her, even if they truly are opposites. This track addresses both insecurities in a friendship and uplifting other women.
Charli expanded on the theme of women empowering women outside the scope of the album as well. On July 21, mere hours after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, Charli went to X to tweet, “kamala IS brat”. Initially intending to uplift Kamala Harris, Charli couldn’t have anticipated the effect this would have, not just on her fans, but on Harris’ presidential campaign. Brat went corporate: almost immediately, Harris’ marketing team changed their X campaign banner to a lime green, brat-stylized banner and changed its header to “kamala hq” in the signature low-resolution Arial font. This move decidedly contributed to Harris’ social media popularity.
Charli’s tweet also led to fans creating memes of Harris’ popular coconut tree quote with tracks from the album playing in the background. While it may not have been her intention, Charli’s tweet led to Harris amassing popularity amongst the young generation of voters. The idea that a presidential candidate could identify with Gen Z has given hope to young voters, spreading the notion that their voice matters in the election. While there has been discourse on whether Harris truly embodies brat, there’s no arguing that her brat-inspired marketing move had a tremendously beneficial effect on her campaign.
The internet is no stranger to its summer trends: 2022’s “hot girl summer”, encouraging women to be carefree and live their life to the fullest, as well as 2023’s “Barbie summer” when you couldn’t scroll through a couple of TikToks without seeing someone take inspiration from the live-action Barbie. However, while these trends died down after the summer, 2024 has repeatedly established itself as a year for the girls. Feminist pop stars including Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan show no signs of stopping, and neither does the brat summer they represent.
