I don’t think I’ve streamed an album as much as I have streamed this one. I can’t seem to get a hold of what gets me to stream it over and over, looping even while doing readings (not ideal I know). Is it the provocative and suggestive but sometimes deep lyrics, is it the upbeat tempo of most the songs or is it the repeated exposure the Instagram algorithm seems to subject me to?
However, I too seem to be captivated by the branding of Brat Summer. I too find myself gawking at anything that’s ‘brat green’ and mentally saying ‘That’s so Julia’ ever so often. What surprises me is that an album with next to no cover art can be so widely popularised and identifiable. However, there’s a creative reason as to why she does this, Charli says she picked it because she found it “actually quite disgusting”. But, why would one want to do so? Because it helps raise conversations about something bizarre and unexpected. Furthermore, the ease with
which it can be replicated has made it go viral. The minimalist cover art makes it way more identifiable than the cinematic shots that most labels invest in for their artists.
It seems to be a genius marketing move, with fans posting the caption ‘brat’ anytime they see anything lime
green to major brands incorporating the trend. There were hundreds of versions of the cover art, most of them trying to finalise the shade. The marketing team went in-depth into the history of the colour, how it has/had been used and what reactions it elicits. They further created a brat generator allowing fans to emulate the album cover in whatever they wished to. There is an option for the extended version of the album and even a brat mural in Brooklyn! All these help to create fan experiences that are easy to partake in allowing almost everyone to be in on the phenomenon.
However, the virality of the album has to be the culmination of the catchy lyrics, the tempo that makes you want to club even at 5 AM.
The album seemed perfect too, it talks about rebellion and self-expression while tying to a contemporary generation’s interests. It makes sense why people would resonate with these themes. Even though this album was released on the 7th of June this year, 8 (9 if you count The Girl, so confusing featuring Lorde) of Charli xcx’s top 10 most popular songs on Spotify are from this album alone. This album, though marketed as a club record, still deals with some pretty serious feelings about envy, career and grief so there is a lot of lyrical depth. It even dedicates a
song to SOPHIE, someone she frequently collaborated with until her tragic passing. The album expresses the very meaning of ‘girlhood’ and ‘womanhood’ as not merely happy and wonderful, but discusses the very messy emotions that come with it.
Combined with the club beats, it creates ‘conversational’ club music as articulated by a billboard article. Her emotions and feelings are so raw in some of them that it is astounding. The best part about the original brat album is that there are no features, the album is just quintessentially Charli putting herself out there as she is.