From June to late October, pop stars such as Charli XCX, The Dare, Addison Rae, Troye Sivan, and many more, are producing music fitted for a club or rave, especially for Gen Z. Charli XCX first made a comeback in February of 2024 when promoting Party Girl, a viral Boiler Room set, to reach out to the rave/club community. This set had over 25,000 RSVPs (the largest count in Boiler Room history) and was packed with influencers, media, press, special guests such as Addison Rae and Julia Fox, and anyone who was ready to party. Party Girl was the beginning of an unexpected era for fans of Charli XCX and no doubt was a promotional event for her upcoming sixth album. This club-pop direction for the sixth album held momentum and energy throughout the night, which had fans anxiously waiting for the release. Fast forward to June 2024, when Charli finally released her pop album “Brat”.
Brat quickly gained traction among mainstream charts and overtook the internet within the first week of its release. Due to this popularity, viral Tik Tok such as the Apple Dance plagued everyone’s For You Page and created summer-long trends like brat Summer. The impact this album had on the internet even branched out the political campaigns and companies participating in having a brat summer. For instance, Kamala Harris was called a brat in an earlier political campaign to reach out to younger audiences for votes and follow the trends that seem to be grabbing everyone’s attention.
Due to Charli’s massive influence, fellow pop stars tagged along with the hype of club music reappearing on global charts again. The Dare is a New York-based DJ who released his 2022 hit “Girls,” and has been on a viral wave ever since. He even got a mention on Barack Obama’s music roundup, causing the internet to go into a frenzy with the explicit lyrics of the song. Due to this immediate exposure to the scene, The Dare helped produce Charli’s top song, “Guess,” as well having Billie Eilish on the remix boosted his career, and took over the industry with his chaotically sensual and enthralling aura. Following this peak of attention, The Dare released his debut album in September of 2024 and has been following alongside Charli in reviving club music for Gen Z.
With the release of Brat and summer slowly coming to an end, Charli announced a tour with pop star Troye Sivan. This tour, Sweat, had resurfaced all momentum over the summer and was a perfect way to end the summer with an album that had so much love and attention from fans. Troye Sivan was as much of a musical threat as Charli with his earlier release of “One Of Your Girls” and “Rush” back in 2023. Both songs were addictive with the lyrical aspect and how connected they felt with the queer community. The combination of Troye Sivan and Charli XCX fans overtook every ounce of the internet and continuously demonstrated how younger audiences enjoy club-like songs. During this tour, Troye and Charli brought out Addison Rae at Madison Square Garden to perform her recently released hit “Diet Pepsi”. This song gained just as much love from fans and potentially pushed Addison’s career toward a pop star life. Will this be the new upcoming pop star with the influences of Charli and Troye?
The Sweat tour is now ending, and it is approaching October. Throughout the cities, fans started to notice more promotional names for Brat. Does this mean remixes? Is there going to be a new album? Did fans create these billboards at the height of the tour? After these billboards were gaining popularity, Charli announced a Brat remix with various beloved artists such as Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, AJ Cook, Lorde, and many more.
This album definitely encapsulates the overall feeling of Brat and the powerful impact it had on the internet. From someone in Gen Z, I had heard Charli for months and the phenomenal effect of becoming a popularized trend and influencing younger people to go out and party is fascinating to witness. Additionally, as someone who enjoys every pop star rising to the occasion, these albums and hit songs are on constant repeat.
If you want to listen to more, here are the Spotify links! Additionally, some interviews to really dive into Charli’s inspiration and reason behind the album!
The Dare Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mqiqsaX4LzFnUP7PmHGAb?si=TBPeZa5aSS2NL9J6RiZTPw
Charli XCX Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/25uiPmTg16RbhZWAqwLBy5?si=L3diz8trQoq72EpQdKIM8A
Troye Sivan Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3WGpXCj9YhhfX11TToZcXP?si=ygcLdUY4QgKEC8SLe_K_cw
Addison Rae Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gvjmrtzydbMpyJaXUtwvP?si=CSlEzLLwQd6WsRyO2jpV_g
Charli XCX Interviews: https://youtu.be/f23XPDptjec?si=Ol2TcA8dWAUZ7Ea0 https://youtu.be/LgBMFg7ZgJw?si=_itYGIwD5YKj3za1 https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/charli-xcx-brat-billboard-cover-story-interview-1235732025/