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It's a summer for brats, and the vice president's newly launched presidential campaign is the latest to join in on the fun.
“Kamala IS a bad girl,” the singer, born Charlotte Aitchison, shared with her 3.6 million followers on X, referring to her successful sixth studio album, Golf clubGiven that the album sparked the “Brat summer” trend on social media, it’s no surprise that the July 21 post went viral among Gen Z, garnering more than 18 million views and 244,000 likes.
But what does a Brat summer mean?
When Charli XCX's sixth studio album came out Golf club The album, which dropped on June 7, went viral on social media for its catchy future club classics. A slight departure from the artist's hyperpop era, this album embraced grunge house beats much loved in the late 2000s and early 2010s, arguably creating this generation's party anthems. Charli XCX has been around since the 2010s, jumping on Iggy Azalea's “Fancy” to belting out the effervescent “Boom Clap” from the 2010s. Under the same star soundtrack, but it has not enjoyed as much commercial success as it has since. As a brat launching this summer.
From getting the reclusive Lorde to hop on a remix of Charli’s song about their friendship, “Girl, So Confused,” to a TikTok dance to “Apple” that went viral, Brat has become a pop cultural phenomenon among Gen Z and millennials.
As for “Brat summer,” the movement bucks social conventions and constructs and rejects the strict “clean girl” aesthetic and instead celebrates the unapologetic, messy party girl. Gone are the days of Barbie pink, and the album’s neon green hue is seemingly everywhere this season.
“You’re that girl who’s a little bit messy and sometimes says dumb things, who feels like herself but then she can also have a breakdown, but she gets over it,” the “Apple” singer explained in a TikTok video. “She’s honest, direct and a little bit volatile. That’s Brat. Think Courtney Love in the ’90s, Amy Winehouse in the early 2000s and Ke$ha in the 2010s.”
How has it been interpreted and what are people doing to welcome Brat's summer?
Many people have been embracing their inner child this summer, taking the grungy, it girl energy of the album and infusing it into their daily lives.
If the atmosphere of a packed, hot dance floor could be summed up in one album, it would be Golf club. It captures the feeling of being sticky, covered in sweat, and standing at the back of the club debating whether or not you want a drunken cigarette. There’s a hint of existential boredom, of wanting to numb out everything that ails you during the day with a wild night out, with Charli vocalising her fears of ageing and singing how she wants to hit the rewind button on “Rewind”.
The album evokes nostalgia for the old days of clubbing, when iPhones didn’t record every second, with frequent nods to the 2000s in lyrics and song titles like “Von dutch.” It embraces the idea of being messy and wild without the fear of being captured on camera. It’s all about chaos. The key tenet of being a “bad boy” is not worrying about what people think of you and what they have to say. It’s about owning your wild side and, as Charli sings on “Club Classics,” never stopping the party until dawn.
How can I have a Brat summer?
To embody the energy of a brat, one might have to channel Charli XCX's muses, including Julia Fox and Gabriette.
Fox is referenced in the lyrics of the song “360”: “When you're in the mirror, you only see me / I'm everywhere, I'm so Julia.” Down the drain The author is widely known for her tendency to push boundaries, her no-holds-barred attitude, and her raw honesty. She is confident and unafraid to challenge the status quo, rejecting beauty in favor of looking iconic. By experimenting with your appearance, you too can be “so Julia.”
In the music video for “360,” model Gabriette mentioned that it’s all about looking sexy and scary, wearing slightly smudged eye makeup like Effy Stonem or mimicking Mia Goth’s eyebrow-less look. She rejects socially acceptable elegance and opts for the just-rolled-out-of-bed look that Ke$ha perfected in the 2010s.
According to Charli, anyone can be a brat. In an interview, she said: “It can be like that, very luxurious, but it can also be very, very vulgar. Just a pack of cigarettes, a Bic lighter and a white strappy top. No bra. That’s all you need.”
How does Kamala suddenly get involved?
After President Joe Biden announced he would end his 2024 presidential campaign and then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place as the Democratic presidential nominee, the 31-year-old British pop star expressed her support, which then spawned an avalanche of memes embracing Harris’ nomination.
From fan cam edits and compilations to remixes, TikTok users have begun using songs from Golf club to immortalize the vice president's most meme-worthy moments, including: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of everything you live through and what came before you.”
After the official @BidenHQ campaign account transformed into @KamalaHQ, the campaign quickly capitalized on Charli XCX's viral post, updating its cover photo to the Golf club The album has a slime green hue with “kamala hq” in the same black minimalist font. Not only that, but Harris’ personal social media accounts also followed the pop star: on X and Instagram.
“Kamala Harris running for president in 2024 is so typical Brat Summer and you can't tell me otherwise,” one person tweeted, while another said, “The Brat Summer/Kamala crossover was not something I was expecting but I'm totally here to watch it happen as my worlds collide.”
