TThey say the dead never really leave us as long as they live on in our hearts. And so it is with Brat Summer. She was the bra strap we refused to hide and the bra we never wore at all. She was the cigarette butt that burned a hole in our sheets. She was the fifth bottle of wine at a dinner for two. And now – she’s gone. She was killed, like many good things, by a bench. I’ll explain.
If you’ve lived online or near a queer person for the past four and a half months, chances are your timeline and life have been awash in neon green (Pantone 3507 C, to be exact). This is the work of British pop singer Charli XCX, whose sixth studio album, “Brat,” drops in June 2024. XCX has been on the verge of superstardom for nearly a decade. Her low-fi aesthetic and shameless party-girl energy have seen us through two of the longest things to ever happen on this earth: a John Green film adaptation and the pandemic. Before “Brat,” XCX collaborated with artists like Troye Sivan, Christine and the Queens, and Icona Pop. But with this latest album, XCX has crossed the Rubicon of fame.
The timeline is as follows: In May 2024, XCX played a set at Brooklyn’s Lot Radio in front of a Brat green wall. A few weeks later, the wall was adorned with the words “i’m your fav reference” in Brat’s signature lowercase sans serif font. Word got around. The Brat spirit was contagious. Every time a new message was painted on the wall, the spirit grew stronger. When Brat officially launched, its iconography was already viral. For XCX fans, the imprimatur it was clear: a roasting summer was needed.
It’s hard to explain what it means to be a brat, but I’ll try. Shakespeare once wrote, “Brat is human, forgive is brat.” Does that help? I’ll try again. Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the brat of all time, it was the brat of all time.” No?
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To have a Brat Summer is to embody the album’s vibe: wild nights, no belief in consequences, wild vulnerability, cocaine, existential despair, bacchanalia, ambivalence about motherhood, jealousy, bisexual chaos. After years of saccharine and polite pop stardom — Swift’s cottagecore and Grand’s High ponies — Brat Summer embraces chaos. Of Pilates and healthy eating and sober living, Brat Summer says: Not my thing, but thanks. For many of us whose natural instinct is not to remove our mascara after a night of drinking, Brat has felt like a relief, like freedom. It’s also just plain fun. See the green plant? That’s Brat. Madeleine Gray’s Green Dot? Brat again. Did my editor let me keep the last line? Brat.
But in late capitalism, with popularity comes the inevitable: normal people and brand collaboration. Of course, as more and more people with less and less real brat energy have jumped on the brat bandwagon, the message has been watered down. Sorry, straight people, but your Monster energy drink does not make you a brat. Many have argued that the day Kamala Harris’ campaign adopted brat iconography on its social media channels was the day Brat Summer died. I disagree—I think a biracial U.S. presidential candidate calling Trump “weird” is pretty bratty. Instead, I’m marking Brat Summer’s time of death as August 9, 2024. On that day, Deutsche Bank, a German investment company, announced on Instagram that it was “seeking a brat in finance.” If there’s one thing that isn’t bratty, it’s the banking-industrial complex.
Brat summer may be over, but their spirit lives on. Keep going like a bitch, keep going. As Emily Dickinson said, “Brat is the thing with feathers.”
