Why We (I) Killed Brat Summer

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. I won’t stop wanging on.

I have been thinking about the sad death of ‘Brat Summer’ for quite some time.

Without sounding like a total loser, I want this to be about what brands (and my fellow agency comrades), can actually (un)learn from this whole Brat debacle. I want to commemorate what we have put in the ground. I say “we” but it’s mostly “I”, being a part of the ad-land industry and an avid ‘Charli’s Angel’.

"Eh, it was fun while it lasted."

Madeline Argy called it when she said summer 2024 will be a year we look back at nostalgically. The most Gen Z thing you could possibly say whilst experiencing said “nostalgic” thing. But I get where she’s coming from - along with Brittany Broski, who claimed that right now, “pop music is having its heyday”. We’ve all been spoilt rotten, like greedy little children given a free pass to go buy as much pic n’ mix as we want. We’re all sucking on our lil sweets, in utter delight, like we’ve just won the candyking lottery. “Jelly babies for ALL! Or how about a tangfastic for you, dear sir?”

Unless you’ve been living under an offline rock (that’s a big boulder by the way) this summer has been a huge success for mainstream pop. Our ears have been filled with the sweet and seducing melodies of Sabrina Carpenter and her horny and hilarious lyrics. We’ve had ‘The Rise and Fall of A Midwest Princess’, aka Chappell Roan, whose 1980s-inspired, campy, ‘down-with-the-patriarchy’ bops have made pop music genuinely FUN again. Unless, you were in VIP at one of her concerts, refusing to do the HOT TO GO! dance. A in-joke for all you Pink Ponies out there.

We’ve had Taylor Swift nepo-baby prototype Gracie Abrams release her second album ‘The Secret of Us’ as she cavorts around London with her hands up her top (?!) with rumoured runaway boyfriend Paul Mescal. He’s got impeccable taste in musicians (lol) so Gracie don’t worry, you’re good! And to top it all off, the original Brat herself, Charli XCX. Charli not only claimed the colour neon green, Arial Narrow font, and the club-rat partygirl lifestyle, she even endorsed Kamala Harris for next president of the United States.

You may think that is unbrat. Getting into politics and the like. But to me, it was probably the peak of Charli’s Brat campaign. No shame, just playing the game. Bridging the gap between underground and mainstream circles, Charli’s release of her visionary and groundbreaking sixth studio album taught us one lesson and one lesson only - to be unashamedly yourself. For only she could have sent these seismic ripples across the internet.

Her history of grappling with her own identity as an artist, constantly toeing the line between semi-pop star and indie underground darling, meant that with the release of Brat, she was finally done with giving a shit about what she and others thought about her. She’s an artist. End of story. By releasing a genre-defining club album filled with vulnerable and introspective lyrics, matched with bombastic, in-your-face style production, Charli’s love letter to club music, is what finally rocketed her into the stratosphere of mainstream success. Which to clarify, after 15 years in the business with a lot of fame already under her belt, was well, a long time coming.

What initially made up the fabric of Charli’s vision for Brat (club anthems, cigarettes, parties, Aperols, cunty sunglasses and watching Below Deck in your pants extremely hungover etc.) soon took off into other avenues that no one would have predicted would go so viral. Rotting in bed and scrolling became Brat. Going to a garden centre and hiking in the Peak District became Brat. Older people wearing photo-chromatic sunglasses indoors became Brat. Even Kyle MacLachlan walking down the street became Brat. With the lyrics “bumpin’ that”, “so, Julia” and “365 partygirl” becoming part of a wider internet speak, a new era took off. And it had nothing to do with Taylor. People who weren’t even aware of Charli and her music back in June soon became part of the Brat-o-sphere with no clue about her music or its origins. And this is where the brands came in.

And without sounding too pretentious, this is when it turned cringe.

Critically acclaimed for combining pop sensibilities with abrasive beats, what killed Brat wasn’t the music and the artistry of Charli herself, but the wider marketing machine that eventually ate itself. With all sorts of brands jumping on the back of her cunty black coattails, it’s no surprise that when something leaves the hand of the artist itself, the vision gets lost and turns into something entirely different. Brands repping ‘Brat’ to sell said brand and profit of it, suffocated Brat. But all empires must fall. This is nothing new.

What turned from a fun idea to promote music, quickly turned into a whole new cultural phenomenon that eventually took the attention far away from the music. But that was also her choice. I noticed that all her promo and interviews were with online influencers and platforms. It felt like she was everywhere even thought she wasn’t doing traditional talk-shows via the PR circuit. The success of Brat will be down to her creativity first and foremost, then its marketing. Her innovative artistry, her trailblazing career, and her entrepreneurial spirit. This is what culminated in the perfect record which I think deserves a few Grammys. About time, right?

She has been slowly reshaping pop music for well over a decade and this time, she played the game. She knew full well how she could use marketing to her advantage, to further sell, what she believes is her “best work to date”.

In the age of bedroom releases and instant access to information nowadays, the stardom timeline is interestingly lengthening rather than shortening. Listeners are bored with good. They want great. They want masterpieces. They want iconic. But icons aren’t born overnight. You have to lay the groundwork.

To me, it seems that the sixth studio album is when artists are unlocking this new level of mastery and superstardom. Take Charli as an example. But also Sabrina Carpenter’s 36-minute long ‘Short n Sweet’.

She’s been in the game ten years, but it was only this summer with the release of ‘espresso’ that the world finally paid her some proper attention. Plus releasing a tongue-in-cheek music video featuring her boyfriend at the time Barry Keoghan. Take Taylor Swift’s ‘reputation’ too as an example. Her sixth album also made waves when she disappeared from the world for four years and then all of a sudden deleted her Instagram to flood our feeds with a bunch of videos of CGI snakes. A revealing romantic album promoted as a diss album, ‘reputation’ and it’s coinciding tour smashed records and propelled her into a new age of success. Here the monopolist was born.

To ‘make it big’ these days you have to be in it and at it for longer. Maybe that’s just a theory I’ve conveniently made up, but most artists seem to be unlocking a new level of success after several albums rather than a few. Some blossom early and have instant hits thanks to going viral online, but they are far and few in between. What real fans and listeners seem to value now is the graft and craft that it takes to create a canon of work. We want to evolve with the artist. We want to go on that journey with them. Feel part of the fandom and club!

Now back to Brat.

I’ve already stated the obvious, that marketing killed Brat, not the music. That album will live on entirely rent-free in my mind for years to come. But what I’ll also remember? The brands that jumped on the bandwagon for short-term success. Brands will always need to cling onto culture to stay relevant. But they should focus on what shapes and influences culture, more than just jumping on trends. Let me explain. If culture is the ocean, kudos to Alex Morris for this analogy (vast, powerful and pervasive) then trends are the waves on top, coming and going. Great music and authentic artistry is what influences culture and sets a precedent. It’s the current. Like fashion. If brands focus more on what’s beneath the surface and go with the flow of that current, they’ll catch a bigger wave.

Invest and play with your product, your packaging, your socials, your TOV, your wider creative campaigns. Be original rather than leeching onto topical stuff all the time. Sure, experiment and have fun! But think about that sixth studio album. What’s that going to look like?

This blog post was so (un)Julia. I think I am entirely part of the problem. Over and out.

Thank for you coming to my TED Talk xoxo