The singer’s media coverage has spilled over from social media platforms and online publications into linear television and mainstream broadcasting, with the likes of CNN newscaster Jake Tapper attempting to explain what exactly “brat” is on air after being “tipped off” about the term by his 16-year-old daughter.
The album itself received more than 75.4 million streams in its first week on Spotify, reports Chart Tracking, and Metacritic has branded it the highest-rated album of 2024.And Charli XCX? She has become one of the trendiest topics in the musical, political and social media sphere.
So who is Charli XCX and how did she become this year’s biggest pop culture icon?
Charli XCX court-side of Centre Court on day 11 of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Photo / Getty Images
Who is Charli XCX?
Charli XCX is the artist name of Charlotte Emma Aitchison, born August 2, 1992, in Cambridge, UK. Growing up in a multicultural home in Essex, the pop star’s Indian and British heritage saw her exposed to a range of musical genres in a household, undoubtedly playing a big role in her hybridity as a music producer, writer and singer.
The singer’s foray into music began when she started posting songs on MySpace in 2008. Soon after, she was discovered by a promotor who managed to book her gigs at a string of warehouse parties.
“I came from the clubs,” she told Vogue Singapore in April: “When I first started making music, I was playing at illegal warehouse raves in Hackney in London. That’s home to me.”
Now, the artist divides her time between London and Los Angeles.
Charli XCX attends May's 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" in New York City. Photo / Getty Images
Is she an overnight success?
Aitchison is no stranger to the music scene. She has been making and performing music for nearly two decades now, with six studio albums and a slew of awards to her name.
She quickly rose to fame after collaborating with Swedish duo Icona Pop on their 2012 hit I Love It and rapper Iggy Azalea’s Fancy in 2014, which stayed at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks.
In 2014, Aitchison released Sucker, which Entertainment Weekly described as “pop-punk, radically redefined and dragged, middle fingers waving, into the future.” The album included songs such as Break The Rules, Doing It with Rita Oraand Boom Clap, which after featuring in the teen romance film,The Fault In Our Stars, became a Gen Z favourite, reaching No. 8 on the charts. In 2017 her song Boys was a viral hit.
Her self-acclaimed “poptastic” 2022 album Crash is considered her most commercially successful album to date, reaching the top of the UK, Australian and Irish charts and producing top-40 hit Beg For You, featuring Rina Sawayama. Pitchfork called the project “a canny embrace of modern and vintage pop styles by one of its most sincere students.”
On top of her career as a solo artist, Charli XCX has co-written a number of hit songs over the years, such as Selena Gomez’s 2015 track Same Old Love and 2019 ballad Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.
Her self-titled 2019 album boasted an extraordinary list of collaborators: Haim, Lizzo, Troye Zivan. “The reason I like to collaborate with people is because I feel like they can bring themselves to the songs,” Aitchison told the Herald writer George Fenwick, ahead of her performance at Auckland’s Laneway festival in 2020, where she “seemed almost like a supernatural force” according to Herald reviewers.
In 2024, Aitchison reached a milestone in her career, receiving the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Ascap) Impact Award in recognition of her contributions to pop music. The singer said she was “honoured,” adding: “It’s cool to see them [Ascap] advocate for authenticity and nice to be recognised by an organisation dedicated to supporting songwriters and fostering an environment where we can craft music we love.”
By then, the artist had become a household name, establishing herself as a radio-play regular with a penchant for pop and parties. But her influence really started to soar at the dawn of Brat.
Chloë Sevigny made a cameo earlier this year in Charli XCX's music video, 360.
Brat success in 2024
Brat is the highest-rated album of 2024, according to Metacritic, and the 16th-highest-rated album of all time as of August 2024. The album has become a phenomenon and its mass popularity can be pinpointed down to its punchy tunes, A-lister collaborations and star-studded music videos.
It all began on February 29 when Charli XCX posted a green square on her Instagram with the word “brat” printed in black writing.
The simple album cover drew attention because of its a-typical, simple design and off-putting colour. Thought up by graphic designer Brent David Freaney, the cover was “deeply considered” from various design points. “We went through a five-month-long design process to get to where we arrived,” he told New York Times.
Soon after its reveal, the album cover was turned into a meme generator, with the garish green colouring used as a filter on social media posts and pop culture references - and soon going viral.
The video was directed by Aidan Zamiri and centres around the most relevant pop culture ‘it’girls on a mission to “fulfil the prophecy of finding a new hot internet girl.” It was soon hailed by the internet as the Gen Z “fashion girlie” equivalent to Taylor Swift’s 2014 Bad Blood video, starring Gigi Hadid, Selena Gomez and Zendaya.
The album was officially released on June 7, receiving more than 75.4 million streams in its first week on Spotify and selling over 100,000 units in the US.
Songs like Von Dutch became popular for their catchy Y2K essence while others’ popularity surged off the back of social media virality, with Apple generating a TikTok dance fad.
Other tracks have soared in the charts thanks to their A-lister collaborators. The Girl, So Confusing remix featured Kiwi singer Lorde and addressed her and Aitchison’s long-rumoured feud, which turned out to be mutual jealousy over the other’s music. “When Royals came out, I was super jealous of the success that that song got, and that [Lorde] got,” Charli XCX told Rolling Stone in May.
“She was into my music. She had big hair; I had big hair. She wore black lipstick; I once wore black lipstick. You create these parallels and think, ‘Well, that could have been me’. But it couldn’t have because we’re completely different people.”
The pair seem to hash it out on the song, which discusses feeling a lack of confidence and projecting those insecurities onto others.
Another hit song off the album, Guess, has soared in the charts, featuring an underwear-strewn music video and collaboration with Billie Eilish. Guess, writes Pitchfork, is “a weird noodle of an electroclash track about how annoying it is when everyone’s up in your business, but make it flirty.”
The album itself has received rave reviews, with the Guardian describing it as a “masterpiece that understands how a hard persona can offer protection,” while Variety wrote: “Brat vaults Charli back to the front of the line as a pop innovator, not that she’d ever slipped.”
The soundtrack to a pop culture movement, Brat has now spiralled into other forms, with a number of songs becoming TikTok famous and the album itself acting as a catalyst in various internet trends.
What is the meaning of brat and how has it changed?
Dictionary defined as “an ill-mannered immature person” and traditionally considered an insult, “brat” has been recontextualised in the Gen Z dictionary as a compliment.
With Charli XCX’s latest album, it has taken on a whole new meaning, which the artist took to TikTok to explain.
Brat, says Charli XCX, is “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and like maybe says some like dumb things sometimes, who like feels herself but then also like maybe has a breakdown ... It’s brat, you’re brat, that’s brat.”
The word soon became a viral phenomenon, with trends such as “brat girl summer” taking off on social media. Then, it became an unexpected game changer in a political campaign.
The post prompted Harris’s team to change the photo of the official Kamala HQ X account to a green background with black writing - a direct reference to the cover art of Charli XCX’s 2024 album.
Soon, Harris’s campaign became intertwined with the online “brat” frenzy and saw the presidential candidate rise in the polls - and in the public opinion of Gen Z voters.
CNN hosted a roundtable to discuss the term “brat” and its use in the political sphere. Newscaster Jake Tapper revealed he was “tipped off” about the term by his 16-year-old daughter but still confused over its significance.
“So, is the idea that we’re all kind of ‘brat,’ and Vice-President Harris is ‘brat?,’” he asked, to which panellist Kaitlan Collins responded: “I don’t know if you’re ‘brat’. I think you aspire to be ‘brat.’ You don’t just become ‘brat’.”
When she’s not partying with her famous friends, she is touring around the US and Canada. Her next slew of shows will be in Detroit, Laval, Toronto, Columbus and New York in September. Her tour will then head to the UK in December.
What could be on the horizon for Charli XCX is more events with the singer on the decks instead of the microphone. A week ago, she made an appearance at Ibiza club Amnesia with a boiler room performance, playing some of her hit songs in a DJ set.
All we know for sure is, whatever is on the cards for Charli XCX, it’s going to be “brat”.
Megan Watts is a lifestyle multimedia journalist for the NZ Herald whose passions include pop culture deep dives, backstage band chats and doing things for the plot.
