Since the release of Charli XCX’s brat on June 7, three remixes have been released featuring Lorde, Billie Eilish and Troye Sivan. A second re-release has been teased for Oct. 11, titled Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat.
Summer of 2024 will be historic for a number of reasons: The summer Olympics in Paris, President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race and China giving the world the first close images of the dark side of the moon. In a summer coloured by political turmoil and national achievements, one shade stood above the rest – Brat green.
As Brat debuted at no. 2 in the United Kingdom, the songs quickly spread around the world. Brat became a staple at clubs and parties and it wasn’t long before the summer of 2024 was dubbed “Brat summer.” It is nearly impossible to exist as a person today and not see the impact of Brat summer. The music is everywhere alongside the colour of the album cover, which has been dubbed “Brat green.”
From social media to merchandise, you can’t escape the shade. While the album cover is minimalistic, with the word “brat” against a solid green background, the music is anything but simple.
Charli isn’t just comfortable in the world of hyperpop, she dominates it. Every song on the album from 360 to 365 features Charli’s lead vocals over a soundscape of beats, bass and even a piano breakdown.
Being Brat isn’t just about the music. Amid the glitchy, high octane pop you’ll hear in almost any club you walk by is the struggle of the “it girl,” the fine line between not caring what others think and caring greatly.
Championing Brat are the “it girls” of the past, present and future who represent confident feminine identities that are often over-criticized for their refusal to adhere to the critics and any other minor jab against the mainstream. However, as we know from Charli’s iconic baby tee, “they don’t build statues of critics.”
Julia Fox and Addison Rae serve as two figureheads of the brat movement, both in their demonstration of the brat lifestyle and fashion. Both represent Brat, and they each have their own experience as unnecessarily criticized artists.
Fox and Rae maintain the Brat aesthetic through their choice to wear trucker hats, baby tees and sheer tops indicative of the trend’s ties to y2k fashion. Charli herself can often be seen wearing a sheer black top or some glittery dress with a pair of statement sunglasses.
Despite Charli’s decree on X on Sept. 9 that officially declared Brat summer as being over, the brat identity lives on in part due to the album’s various remixes and re-releases. Following the initial release of Brat, Charli re-released the album as Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not, which included new songs Hello goodbye, Guess and Spring breakers.
While remixes and re-releases can be simply for promotional purposes, Charli has yet to release an update to the album that does not add to the original album’s release in some way. The June remix of Girl, so confusing featuring Lorde delivers a remix better than the original but serves as an actual form of mediation between the pair since the original version is about their relationship.
Two pop powerhouses working it out on the remix serves as a monument to the power of Brat summer. The connections made and strengthened between artists can live forever in their music. As Brat summer comes to a close, the aesthetic and lime green will live on forever, immortalized in the summer of 2024.
Charli fans can catch her on her current Sweat tour with Troye Sivan beginning Sept. 18 in Detroit, Michigan and ending on Oct. 23 in Seattle, Washington.
