“Brat” is difficult to define, especially when I’m trying to explain to my mom why labeling Vice President Kamala Harris as a brat is a good thing and why everything seems to be lime green. “Brat,” British singer Charli XCX’s most recent album, has become a cultural phenomenon in the short months since its June 7 release.
Despite her more than 15 years in the music industry, “Brat” is by far Charli XCX’s most popular album, a far cry from her previous hits “I Love It,” “Fancy,” and “Boom Clap” — all of which were played nonstop on the CDs that my mom let me and my sister burn for car rides. For many, especially audiences in the United States, the album is an unexpected return to electronic music. In the past few years, many of us may have heard some of "Crash," her first top 10 album in the United States, or one of her songs featured in the soundtracks of popular movies such as Bodies Bodies Bodies and Barbie. Despite these developments in the artist’s unique sound, many still picture Charli XCX as her 2010s self. For that reason, “Brat” feels triumphant, especially for those of us who have followed Charli XCX over the years.
Like many other pop culture breakaways, “Brat” is not just an album but also a lifestyle. Oozing with lime green, all things branded “Brat” — in lowercase sans-serif font, of course — are taking over. Take Harris’s X account KamalaHQ, which has made its banner a mirror image of the album, but with the slogan “kamala hq” instead. Smudged mascara is in. Being messy is in. Loud is in. House is in. Indie Sleaze is in. Breaking down generational trauma is in.
And here on campus — where we are more familiar with a darker shade of green — the “brat” aesthetic has begun to color the social canvas of Dartmouth. Showing up in social events, with the album dominating DJ sets and announcements for dance shows turning green and apple-themed, “brat” has become the overarching theme of 24X.
We’re no stranger to “themes” of summer. Last year was the summer of Barbie. The year before, 2022, was Euro Summer. And, of course, every summer since the 2019 release of Megan Thee Stallion’s smash hit “Hot Girl Summer” has been a hot girl summer.
This summer, The Tabard coed fraternity’s termly Lingerie performance was “brat”-themed, according to The Tabard social chair Kabir Beotra ’26. According to Beotra, the organization selects “culturally relevant” themes for the performance, such as last year’s Barbie theme.
“We were trying to find something that compared to [Barbie] in terms of cultural significance, and for us this year, it was ‘brat,’” Beotra said.
Assigning each summer a theme makes planning events a bit easier for social chairs, Beotra added — explaining that a summer theme “creates the aesthetic for you.” A theme sets the tone of the summer and the following year. Last year, Barbie took over fall sorority recruitment and undergraduate advisor residence hall themes.
Themes also help each class create their own identity after sophomore summer, with “an aesthetic that remains yours and yours only as a class,” Beotra said. Barbie was for the Class of 2025, but “brat” is for the Class of 2026.
But what makes “brat” summer different? “Brat” summer does not fit as perfectly into the formula as its predecessors did. It’s not exactly aspirational or idealized. It does not even fit into its own logic. There is no central ideology to “brat,” and many things green-hazed and labeled as “brat” seem totally unrelated. Yet, this is what makes “brat” so great. It’s customizable.
“It’s a very loose term,” Beotra said. “The definition is kind of just whatever you make of it. It’s trashy but cute, and it’s not restricting.”
Like The Tabard, other social spaces have chosen to host “brat”-themed events this summer — such as Chi Delta sorority’s “Brat-wurst Summer,” a play on their regular Oktoberfest social event. According to Chi Delta social chair Ella Klinsky ’26, the mass popular appeal of “brat” led the sorority to borrow its aesthetic for marketing the event.
“It’s a core cultural tenet of the summer,” Klinsky said. “It took the world by storm.”
Sara Shelton ’26, however, is a bit more cynical when it comes to the mass use of the “brat” aesthetic. While “brat” was initially “something very niche … coming from a niche pop artist,” it has now lost its meaning, she said.
One of the key reasons for “Brat”’s popularity — particularly when compared to Charli XCX’s previous albums — is the meteoric rise of music promotion on social media, specifically TikTok. Users have circulated videos of live sets and a dance to the song “Apple,” which has gone viral on TikTok. While “brat” began as a niche aesthetic, it has since flowed into the mainstream — including the Dartmouth campus.
“More recently, anyone who wouldn’t initially have any relationship with [the album] feels like they do because it’s been so widely disseminated,” Shelton said.
Brat’s versatility engenders its popularity, but it also causes an oversaturation. There’s always a thin line with cultural moments. When is it too much? When is it ‘over’?
Companies and politicians often attempt to ride the bandwagon of these cultural phenomena to ingratiate themselves to young audiences. At the moment, “brat” is being used by a wide variety of companies including Duolingo and Kate Spade.
Charli XCX instigated the explosion of Harris’s “brat” association with her tweet, “kamala IS brat,” following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race on July 21. In a series of videos, lime green took over KamalaHQ, despite detractors — including my mother — saying that she might meme herself out of the race.
Shelton said this brandification of “brat” is where the summer theme goes sour.
“It becomes diluted because it loses any niche meaning,” Shelton said. “It becomes commodified.”
Does all of this mean “brat” summer is over? Is it tired now? Summer is coming to a close and the tides are ever-changing. In the past week, “brat” seemed to lose some traction, being traded for the new TikTok phrase “demure.”
I do have to admit, I would be a bit sad to see “brat summer” go.
While many could view it just as a wild, messy, party girl album, “Brat” is more than that. Charli XCX sings about the effects of generational trauma, the grief of losing a friend far too young and the trials of female friendship. Yet, the album still doesn’t take itself too seriously. “Brat summer” is about letting go, something which is good to remember as we approach the final days of the term.
Few things have stayed constant for me this sophomore summer, but “brat” has. I’m often found listening to “Mean Girls” on my way to class or “Spring Breakers” while I study outside the Collis Center for Student Life. And “Brat” is always blasting out of the Still North Books & Bars speakers when I’m on aux, much to my co-workers’ chagrin — I have opened and closed the store to the album for the whole summer.
