‘Twas the night before brat summer, when all through the house,

Not a twink** was stirring, not even a mouse.

The girls and gays had prepped their outfits with care,

In hopes that Charli XCX and her 360 group would soon be there.

The clubs were all nestled with boring remixes that put them to sleep,

Yet not so far away hyper-pop fairies danced up the street.  

The beginnings of “Brat Summer” date back to 2022, when brat was merely a green image with the word “brat” on Charli XCX’s iPhone.

Born Charlotte Emma Aitchison, Charli grew up in the Essex County of eastern England with her Scottish father and Indian mother. At age fourteen, she began posting songs on the now-dead social media platform called Myspace that was popular back in the 2000s.

Charli continued furthering her music career as a young artist, catching the eyes of several music promoters in and around Essex. She was invited to perform at illegal raves, and with the support of her parents, Charli began her path to stardom.

A few years later, Charli signed a recording contract with Asylum Records. 

But it wasn’t until 2012 that her song “I Love It” with Swedish duo Icona Pop skyrocketed her to fame.

Over time, trends began to shift and change, and Charli began to fall more out of the spotlight. She has released several albums before brat that have definitely put her on the map, but it was brat that truly brought her back into the limelight.

In 2023, she began to form and shape the brat album, but it wasn’t until 2024 that brat came to life. 

The year had just kicked off and Charli XCX was performing her now iconic Boiler Room set, an online music broadcaster and club promoter, at a warehouse in Bushwick, New York. 

The old warehouse, when added a little hyper-pop club music, had transformed to the most popular place to be where you could only watch from your phone screen. 

Because, if you were lucky enough, or if you had the right connections, you would be hearing Charli perform her Boiler Room set live.

In her set, Charli teased snippets of her hits “365” and “Spring Breakers,¨ joined on stage by Addison Rae and Julia Fox, both of whom would soon become part of Charli’s ¨Brat Summer¨ entourage. 

Riding the wave of fame and praise she received from her Boiler Room set, Charli dropped “Von Dutch” a week later, then remixed it with Addison Rae and her long-time executive producer A.G. Cook in March. This went viral all over social media, putting Charli in the spotlight for new music. 

Winter passed into spring, and more hits began to pop out. Charli dropped “Club Classics” and “B2B” on April 3rd. On May 10, “360” was born, the pregame to brat, which Charli would officially drop the next month.

And just like that, on June 7th, 2024, brat came into this world with nothing but an ugly, loud, green cover.

Brat instantly became not only the album of the summer, but an iconic time where people, brands, businesses, and schools all came together because of a four-letter word that held so much power and significance. 

Brat was born a star.  

 Three days later, Charli gave birth to brat again, except it was brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not; an extended version of the album. 

A kind of move like that from an artist can only be successful if you’re the queen of pop music, like Taylor Swift, yet for Charli it only propelled her further with the success of brat.

With any album, there’s always a period of time when the album has to marinate before it becomes a household name. It may take up to months, even years to truly make it into the mainstream media and be recognized by hundreds of thousands of people.

Yet for brat, it was an instant success the minute it came out, inspiring the TikTok viral “Apple” dance based on the song “Apple¨ from the album.

Every single shade of green spotted anywhere and everywhere resembling the album color became brat.

Brat-themed dance parties were held and ¨365¨ never stopped playing at the club or in the car. Last-minute trips to Ibiza in see-through white tank tops with yesterday’s makeup on became the muse of “Brat Summer”. 

“Brat Summer” is the term fans have used to dub the massive success surrounding the album that has become a cultural revolution in the span of three months.

One of the greatest aspects of the brat album is how not exclusive it is, in the aspect that you have to be a fan to be a part of “Brat Summer”. 

“I think a ‘Brat Summer’ can be anything you want it to be,” says Mr. Grant, a teacher at Pentucket. “Listening to it last night, it ebbs and flows perfectly. See, it’s confessional and vulnerable, so I did have a ‘Brat Summer’. I think everyone had a ‘Brat Summer’. You don’t have to be in Bushwick or go to a club to have a ‘Brat Summer’.”

Whether you had a ‘Brat Summer’ at home or at the club, there’s no

doubt that the brat album has helped to reinforce the sense of creativity, independence, and utter wildness that social media has ripped away from us for so long. 

“I fully embrace the message of the album. It is such a great message for everyone, although I think it is important, especially for girls and women living in this time. Many of her songs and accompanying music videos feature many women who are well-known for being so unique and against the status quo. Brat has really been a great example of a fun album that has a great message behind it,” says Claire Troiano, a senior at Endicott College who is completing a student-teacher position with Dr. Bent this semester.

On the social media side of brat, the ugly green and tiny black font was simple yet iconic enough to capture the attention of fans, old and new.

“I thought the marketing campaign was very effective,” Mr. Grant says. “They rolled out the album cover and branded the album before it came out, which is crucial to the success of an artist.” 

Not only was brat on the upward incline of trending, but it was trending for all the right reasons.

“I think brat is a confident and creative expression. I think that it encouraged people this summer to live [their] best self and not care what other people think,” says Julia Nieberle, an aesthetician at Namaste Spa in Danvers.

“Like you’re just giving, you’re serving,” Thea Scata, a sophomore at Pentucket quotes. “You’re confident in what you say, how you think, how you dress, what you do. That’s my definition of brat.”

By the end of July, brat had sold over 70,000 copies in the U.S. alone. As brat began to make its way as a staple in the mainstream media, it caught the eye of more than just users on TikTok and Instagram, but those in politics as well.

Meanwhile, Charli XCX was out and about, hopping from club to club DJ-ing her own music with celebrities like Addison Rae, Julia Fox, Rachel Sennott, The Dare, and her fiance George Daniel. 

In the midst of her partying, Charli XCX tweeted, “kamala IS brat,” on July 22nd, sparking thousands of edits and memes of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president in the upcoming 2024 US presidential election. 

When Kamala HQ, the social media account in charge of running Harris’ online campaign, caught wind of the Kamala Harris brat trend, they ran with it. They even used many songs off of brat such as “365” and “360” on Kamala HQ social media. They also made their Twitter backdrop the cover of the brat album.

Soon, brat became not only popular because of its existence, but also because it was being used in politics. It encouraged the youngest audience able to vote, Gen Z, by beating them at their own game.

“Regardless of anyone’s political view, you have to admit that Harris’ use of brat while campaigning is a great strategy. Every big election year, young people are constantly reminded that their votes matter the most, and all politicians will encourage all eligible voters to register and then go vote. Harris’ strategy works because she is appealing to young voters through the use of young people’s interests and trends,” Miss Troiano explains. 

“Although I don’t know if Kamala is 100% brat, because she’s under the constraints of society and government and she’s got a lot of rules that she’s got to follow,” Ms. Cromwell, Pentucket AP Literature and English teacher explains. “But I think that her stepdaughter is ‘brat’. Ella Rose, she’s totally ‘brat’. She’s a fashion icon.”

The amount of meaning and significance that brat holds is endless, but that’s what makes it so powerful. Brat can be anything you want it to be, which makes it so freeing and empowering to listeners. 

As Maddy Shikes, a senior at Pentucket puts it, ¨The brat album has a little bit of attitude, but knowing about it, and thinking, ‘You’re a brat!’ But like, in a cute way.”

“It’s kind of edgy. It means something edgy, and it means something bad, but not really bad. Not murder, like society, like judging you bad. It’s just somebody being themselves. The brat album is the opposite of repression, it’s expression,” Ms. Cromwell adds.

“In regards to fashion, the brat album creates more expression in choices, whereas before, you would kind of stick to basics. And I think in general, a lot of people feel that way this summer, like kind of trying out-of-the-box items. Specifically to fashion, I feel like that was where the brat album came in the most,” Julia Nieberle says. 

It’s slightly controversial, but that is what makes it a cult classic. There is no sleeping, no thinking, no bitterness, no sadness, and no money, just a bratty attitude and a can of Diet Pepsi. Totally brat. 

As August approached, the “Brat Summer” phenomenon raged on, yet slowly began to unwind after Charli XCX’s birthday party on August 3rd. 

August soon came to an end and the back-to-school season began. Staying up until 3 AM partying, dancing, clubbing, or even just being up in the early hours every night was no longer relatable when it’s 10 PM on a school, work, or study night. 

On September 2nd, the chancellor of “Brat Summer”, Charli XCX, announced that “Brat Summer” was officially over, tweeting, “goodbye forever brat summer.”

Online funerals were held, and toasts and poems were made, all in tribute to “Brat Summer”. May she forever rest in the VIP section of heaven.

Though “Brat Summer” may be over (at least in the Western Hemisphere), the legendary moment of “Brat Summer” and the brat album is a kind of iconic movement that doesn’t happen often, if at all anymore. 

Brat was a true cultural reset; it had all of the independence and just the right amount of trashiness the music industry so desperately needed.

It’s iconic, and it’s loud. It’s the smell of cigarettes and having $50 left on your debit card, which you spent on the cheapest flight you could find with your friends at 3 AM.

But wait, it’s still not over! Just when you thought “Brat Summer” was done, it’s coming back, as “B(r)at Autumn.” On September 12th, Charli XCX announced brat and it’s completely different but still brat, dropping on October 11th.

 In the meantime, Charli XCX and Australian singer Troye Sivan are currently on the Sweat Tour, after remixing and dropping “Talk Talk,” one of brat’s biggest hits, also on September 12th. 

It may be fall, and it may be 50 degrees outside now, but the “Brat Summer” culture will live on, just in a different form. 

Don’t be too sad, we’ve still got a lot to look out for with brat. As Charli XCX has yielded her massive resurrection to fame and constructed a complete cultural reset, you will be seeing brat (and maybe a brat´s sister album?) around for a long time. 

**NOT a slur; ¨twink¨ is slang used in the LGBTQ+ community to describe a slender gay man. It plays a huge role in brat culture, which is why I reference it.