You can blame Charli XCX.
Before her most recent album was released, the word 'brat' was reserved for unruly children and twentysomething actors from the 1980s. The release of her sixth album last month, however, has heralded a new movement amongst Gen Z: Brat Summer.
The album’s neon green cover and slightly out-of-focus lower case font perfectly encapsulates Brat Summer: it’s a little bit garish, a little bit messy, but a lot of fun. The movement has taken over TikTok, while Charli herself has embraced it wholeheartedly.
When asked in a recent interview what the essential ingredients of Brat Summer were, she replied: "It can be luxury," she said, referring to footage of herself on a speedboat. "But it can also be so trashy - just like, a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra. That’s kind of all you need."
Suddenly, ‘brat’ has become a badge of honour for Gen Z - the antithesis of last year’s super-girly, immaculately-styled ‘Barbiecore’ summer. Hot pink is out, and ‘slime green’, as some have deemed it, is in. But Brat Summer is not specific to women; men are welcomed into the fold too, although there’s a real danger of some of those Brat Boys (Paul Mescal at Glasto) straying dangerously into Hot Rat Boy Summer (Matty Healy) territory. Confused? You should be.
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It’s enough to make you forget that behind the social media swagger, posturing, hashtags and smudged eyeliner (one of the main tenets of Brat Summer) lies one of the best albums of the year so far. Brat is a louche, provocative, grimy, aggressive pop record dripping in hedonism and ravey chaos, but it embodies everything that a modern pop record should be. It also makes a striking point that it is largely the female pop artists who are making the pop music worth listening to in 2024 - so far, we’ve had stellar albums from Beyoncé (if you want to call Cowboy Carter pop), Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Zara Larsson and yes, alright, Taylor Swift. Some of us witnessed one of the most spectacular shows of the last few years when Swift brought her Eras tour to Dublin, while Chappell Roan’s forthcoming Olympia Theatre gig is one of the hottest tickets of the autumn. Even Sugababes and Girls Aloud have been back for another bite of the cherry (although most proponents of Brat Summer might have to ask their parents about them.)
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Either way, it’s safe to say that the tyrannical reign of Pop Idol, X Factor and identikit boybands is well and truly over. And whether Brat Summer has a lasting impact on culture or ultimately evaporates into the ether, for now this new movement is undoubtedly a cause for celebration. I, for one, welcome our new Brattish overloads. The gaudy colour scheme takes a little getting used to, but the soundtrack is a million times better.
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