Not to toot my own horn, but I will: in the Music Column for the 256th issue of The Gazelle, I highlighted that Charli XCX will be releasing new music and recommended that we all be on the lookout for it. This is not to say that I imagined she would take the world by storm with her (then) upcoming project. It is just to reflect that the Music Column is really a space where you can find good music before TikTok makes it popular.

In all honesty, BRAT became a phenomenon that can be called unprecedented without any doubts. Charli XCX had already been on the radars of both average music enjoyers from the Icona Pop hit song "I Love It" or “Boom Clap” from The Fault in Our Stars and music fanatics who get YouTube notifications when Boiler Room drops a new set alike. Yet, I couldn’t say that she was popular. She was definitely not stadium popular at least. Charli was niche in the sense that she sat in a Spotify corner quite comfortably. Charli XCX of fall 2024 is a global phenomenon. To prove this, I dedicate an entire Music Column in its original format of New Release, Throwback, and Upcoming only to BRAT.

“Talk talk featuring troye sivan” by Charli XCX and Troye Sivan

Just as Charli declared brat summer dead and gone and tore all her fans up with a heartwarming Instagram post of the “best of brat summer,” she returned with a remix drop of yet another one of her BRAT tracks. The remix was released as a part of the announcement of Charli and Troye’s joint North American tour titled SWEAT. So far, two songs from the original album and one song from the Deluxe version have been re-released with prominent features. Some of the remixes – like “Guess” with Billie Eilish and “Von dutch” with Addison Rae screaming for 2 seconds – surpassed the fame of the originals by quite a margin. It is too early to say if “Talk talk featuring troye sivan” will follow this trend or not, but it is definitely different enough from the original “Talk talk” to count as a new release worthy of the nomination.

BRAT by Charli XCX

BRAT in all its neon glory is already old news. Since the official release of the full album, there have been so many remix single re-releases, an entire Deluxe album (called brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not), live concert reimaginings that the original BRAT (also stylized brat) can no longer be the contender for album of the summer even. Or maybe BRAT is a family of music. Maybe BRAT is the remix we listened to on the road trip. Maybe brat summer is the friends we made along the way… But it is the original, organic, and unseasoned BRAT that started the whole brat summer trend/phenomenon/lifestyle/philosophy/vibe/… It was very difficult to escape it. Everybody got something out of it, whether it was a whole new capsule wardrobe or an annoyance with hyperpop for life.

In terms of the musicality of the album, it is actually ingenious in its structure. It flows well on CD, digital, and vinyl. I would also like to highlight how listening to BRAT on vinyl might also elevate the experience because of the tracklist order. The A-side ends with the classical-hyperpop mix “Everything is romantic,” which as a song ends with the repetition of the phrase “fall in love again and again, again and again,” only for the B-Side to pick up with the song “Rewind.” It flows exactly as if the A-side completes the album, only for the B-side to be the rewind. There is also what literary critics call a composition frame created with the opening and closing tracks – “360” and “365” respectively. It is both a lyrical and a musical composition frame, which really makes you want to replay and replay the album.

It is also really smart of Charli XCX to release such a record now when there is a return to disco pop and dance-pop in the music industry and an overall obsession with Y2K aesthetics and lifestyles. Since BRAT pays homage to both very creatively, yet remains rooted in the ultra-modern Internet-age hyperpop that makes it sound so new, it markets itself without the need of any big marketing campaigns. It is just a sneaky little album. Very brat.

From Dubai to LA and back around the globe, BRAT parties were a staple at the clubs. And I think they will continue to be that for the years to come (especially considering how Charli XCX is just not going to let BRAT die).

tarb llits osla tub tnereffid yletelpmoc s'ti dna tarB by Charli XCX and Various

And we are yet to see another BRAT re-release, but this time the remix album. It is here to announce the beginning of brat fall, fully kicking demure autumn out of the spotlight. Surprisingly, nobody is that tired of BRAT yet to be angry and to call it out for the cash cow that the album has become. I think it is also partially because the remixes really are completely different from the originals. Unlike many other artists, Charli XCX relies on her featured artists to carry the remixes. She is only a backbone, with her friends and fellow musicians fleshing a new song around her vision. So being excited for this second new BRAT is an appropriate response.

The brat phenomenon is unprecedented not because there are no historical examples of masses of people creating a sub-culture based on a piece of music. In fact, one term for it – lisztomania – dates back to the 19th century, and it was created for all the fainting ladies at concerts of the Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt. We can also cite the craze around the King of Rock Elvis Presley and the Beatlemania for the Liverpool 4. But what all of these historic movements have in common is that they are a sort of cult of personality: all of the attention is directed towards the artist who remains distant on the high pedestal their fans created for them. This is exactly where the brat phenomenon differs from its predecessors: brat was about who the listener is or could be. Brat became an internalized romanticized vision of ourselves and of our summers. We did not want to be Charli XCX, we wanted to be brat (whatever its new ever-expanding meaning is). But instead of driving us further away and into our own little corners of the Internet, it connected us profoundly in such creative ways that even Kamala Harris used it to kickstart her Presidential election campaign. It is as much because of the party sub-culture around it, as Charli’s long commitment to deconstructing music genres, gender roles, and pop culture niches.

Love it or hate it, but you can never ignore it: BRAT redefined music and our relationship with it and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.