One year of Brat

Happy Thursday everyone. Warning: Earnestness ahead ‼️ 

I’m seeing Charli XCX for the fourth time in a year today. I know the crowd for her Primavera set this year will be completely different from when I saw her at the festival last year. 

I wanted to sit down and reflect on the Brat era because it has meant so much to me. I hold a lot of reverence for Charli, who I think does a masterful job at balancing mystique and openness with her public persona. It has been cool and inspiring to watch the Brat era unfold and shapeshift. I love that she is playing with the life span of her own art, which I think is so necessary at a time when we are obsessed with speed, trend cycles, and the next big thing.

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Also, I know I said no Yap Sesh today, but I got some links for ya anyways. No Yap Sesh on Monday though! 

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Brat Summer was a magical thing to watch. No one seemed to see it coming, which is not to say that Charli XCX didn’t deserve the recognition. Rather, I never believed that mainstream audiences would ever catch up to her because she’s been toiling in this middle class pop star tier for almost a decade. 

Charli has straddled the line between mainstream and underground for a long time. I never thought a full crossover was coming, or that one was even necessary.

A lot of older fans have chafed at Charli’s mainstream ascendence, but there’s something rewarding about seeing the alchemy required for her to blow up the way she did last year. Brat happened to arrive at a time when people were desiring release, when interest in reviving club culture was peaking, and when audiences craved idiosyncrasy in their pop stars. In short, people were ready to receive Brat and Charli in a way they weren’t before, which catapulted her to another level of stardom.

It wasn’t just magic though, she was very strategic with this era. From creating the 360_brat Finsta to her PARTYGIRL Boiler Room in New York last March (which broke the record for most sign-ups for a Boiler Room event), she created a sense of FOMO that piqued people’s interest.

I can wax poetic about the Brat rollout for days, from the lead up to the remix album. But personally, Brat helped me not give a fuck in the best way possible. I’ve always appreciated Charli’s willingness to express herself freely, in song, online, and while dancing in the club. I’ve taken many pages out of her book over the years. 

Charli has always had a bratty persona about her — even in her early days — which I think is admirable. Brat obviously took this to another level, but added a level of honesty about relationships, embarrassment, motherhood, and friendships that really resonated. With all the expectations women are held to, who wouldn’t want to be bratty?

There are a lot of albums that I consider soundtracks to particular times in my life (Pure Heroine for my Tumblr teen years. Rina EP for when I rediscovered my love for pop music after spending my freshman year of college trying really hard to be a rockist.) Brat is the album for my mid-twenties, after spending the first half feeling anxiety-ridden over what other people were thinking of me. The grey goo of my brain was beginning to set last year, so I was in need of a vessel to channel that rededication to myself and my own authentic way of being. 

As the Brat era wound down, it’s been fascinating to see older Charli songs (“party 4 u,” of course, but also deep cuts like her first ever single “!Franchesckaar!”) get snatched up by the algorithm. Many artists have seen TikTok and other social media platforms blow up their old songs, but her decision to make a music video for “party 4 u,” a 5-year-old song, added to the discussion around her exploration of the longevity of art. 

Now, nearly a year later, she is playing with this idea of having another “Brat Summer” and not letting go of the era. In essence, an era never has to end. It carries on with you if you let it. And whether it’s music or life, I do think that is a great principle to hold on to.

So. Shall we do it again?

Other things I want to share with you

• Love Island USA started this week, but controversy hit the villa before the premiere when fans found pro-Trump social media posts from two of the competing islanders.

• I need a new Marina x Charli collab.

• Slayyyter gets me.

• Watch this video from Yap Year oomfie Kayla Says about the left’s quest for its own Joe Rogan.