I can’t imagine what you all have been thinking these past three weeks. “She didn’t write about Brat? She runs a music blog and doesn’t listen to Charli XCX!”
A few months ago, I started this no-longer-weekly music newsletter. At least I was consistent for a little while. Who really wants to hear from me every week, anyway?
In case you must know, I’ve been taking an intentional break from weekly music blogging to focus on other kinds of writing I’d like to pursue. I also just needed a break. Listening to music feels like a full time job at the rate most artists are releasing.
But fear not, dear readers. I, like you, believe Charli XCX freed pop music from the shackles of the “clean girl aesthetic.” Brat, a hyper-pop depiction of girlhood in your 20s as messy, imperfect fun, reminds us life is meant to be lived however we choose. Our confidence isn’t always pretty. Our “aesthetic” doesn’t have to be aesthetic.
But how does an album come to define a cultural moment? All art is subjective, and I decline to care too much for stats. The title “Album of the Summer” has little to do with merit and everything to do with experience. When I listen to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, I’m transported back to Summer 2022. Some may have the same experience, and some may not. When I finished listening to Gracie Abram’s The Secret of Us, I couldn’t help but think this album would be some girl’s Melodrama. Somewhere, a heartbroken 17-year-old will spend all of August on her floor crying to “Blowing Smoke.”
Every once in a blue moon, however, a work of art has a collective, near-universal impact. Despite Charli’s still niche sound and fanbase, the marketing for her album is everywhere. Many brands adapted the “brat” font and slime green to their own socials. Even if you’re not a fan, many will likely hear a song from Brat or even just hear of Charli XCX and think of Summer 2024.
We can’t fully know what music will define this summer until it’s over, the reason I’ve put off making a Summer 2024 playlist for the time being. But in pop music at least, Brat is the strongest contender.
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