hello brat summer
By ALLEGRA LAI ‘26 and LILY RAMPE ‘26
“I think the apple’s rotted straight to the core,” haunted my Tiktok feed all summer as everyone seemed to be doing this new brat dance. I soon realized that “Apple!” the song those lyrics belong to, one out of a fifteen song album. “Brat,” not only exploded on social media. It also caused political and cultural changes for younger generations of America. Written and sung by Charli XCX, this album became an iconic trend that reshaped the trends of the summer.
Charli XCX is a 32 year old singer, songwriter, model, and actress from Cambridge, England. She first got her start in 2008, when she released some songs on MySpace. With the support of her parents, she was able to get her start in the music industry.
“Brat,” her most popular album, exploded over the summer and caused her quick rise in fame. Charli XCX described her album in an Instagram post as “me, my flaws, my f–ups, my ego all rolled into one.”
“Brat Summer,” as the internet has coined, is a stark, slime-green contrast to the aesthetics of the previous summers, such as BarbenHeimer and Eurosummer. These are all odes to the continuous trend of capitalizing the season to further spiral down the rabbit hole of consumerism and microtrends, but as Charli XCX’s and Troye Sivan’s co-headlined Sweat tour recently kicked off in Detroit, we might still see the harsh, neon green aesthetic among the pumpkin spice and plaid of the fall.
Ironically, though Charli XCX herself is British, her album has been instrumental to Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign. Harris’s presidential campaign, in an effort to appeal to the Gen Z voters, changed their X header into a reference of the brat album, prompting Charli XCX to tweet “Kamala IS brat.” This arguably also marked a shift in Harris’s campaign, and the team initiated a TikTok account, with many users requesting to see Harris performing the viral “Apple” dance. Though Harris’s campaign isn’t inherently a representation of Charli XCX’s description of bratty cigarettes and club music, it echoes the message of Charli XCX’s initial statement --- flaws, f-ups, and ego all rolled into one.
One song on the album in particular has also led to a discussion on womanhood, particularly for female singers being scrutinized under the spotlight. In “Girl, so confusing,” Charli XCX sings about her awkward attempts to connect with a fellow female musician, while pointing out how the similarities in appearance between them have led to comparisons on the internet that have pitted them against each other in a fit of jealousy. The alleged-muse Lorde herself and Charli XCX reconciled over text message, before eventually releasing a remix of the song, provoking the internet reference of “working it out on the remix.”
Furthermore, a similar incident occurred with the song “Sympathy is a Knife,” with internet users hypothesizing a potential remix with singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, whom Charli XCX has previously pitted against as well in chart battles and fandom wars alike. Though the hypothesis temporarily remains false, and releasing two remixes featuring past foes seems too on the nose even for Brat Summer, it refreshes the ongoing conversation of musicians in the music industry, particularly female musicians, have been put into constant, unsupportive competitions against each other. And to say the least, they should try working it out on the remix.
Brat connects with women who are both self-conscious and confident, capable and compliant. As Tiktok trends shift from the Apple dance to labeling actions as “demure,” the distinct green album cover lingers as a reminder that, as Charli XCX said in a Tiktok, it’s ok to be, “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes.”