In case you don’t know, the British hyperpop singer Charli XCX just released a new album called Brat. However, I suspect you’ve probably heard or seen something about it since Charli and the album have seemingly been everywhere for the last few weeks. I’ve listened to it. Overall it’s not my thing, though I did like “So I” and “B2b.” I’m not into the songs being so short and her synthetic vocals delivering lyrical normcore1 doesn’t do it for me. But I’m not here to review Brat; I recognize that lots of people love it and it will get lots of play this summer. I’m interested in something else: the brand of it all.
Brat may be a very good album—Anthony Fantano gave it a 102— with a devoted and loyal audience but it’s also, and maybe even more so, a marketing campaign for a product, which in this case is an album. That isn’t a super hot take from me either. People are writing articles and making videos explicitly praising the marketing campaign, which Charli has been in on and posted about herself.3 That people like the music is incidental to the fact that they like the marketing campaign. In fact, I’m sure there will be a Harvard Business Review article by a secretly cool professor about it soon. The Brat campaign is a pinnacle reference for the kind of cultural marketing brands aspire to have: people creating and sharing UGC, declaring a Brat summer into existence, making memes, and having songs featured in TikToks.
This would be amazing if it had appeared spontaneously, but Charli XCX is running a familiar cultural marketing playbook from the last few years. Brat is an album that is built to be meme’d. It’s just being done in a specific style that is built upon a sleek nihilistic post-Berlin aesthetic. That said, the album has its cultural references. For instance, there’s a Brat generator4 just like the one Drake inspired with If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.5 Brat is a fundamentally commercial endeavor. Charli has a Brat Wall for people to take photos in front of in Brooklyn and she rides around in a slime green Tesla called the Bratmobile. I don’t want to sound like some kind of hater, but who thinks ironic Teslas are still cool? And was there a discussion not to get the Cybertruck? Frankly, it’s surprising she hasn’t worked with Rush to release a Brat set of poppers for it yet.6 There’s an unmistakable rollout happening with this campaign.
If Charli XCX was only a brand, the marketing team would be getting raises—no doubt they already are. But that’s the thing. Charli XCX is not only a brand. She’s first and foremost an artist. It could very well be argued that the line between those things isn’t that clear, particularly not in our time when we believe that anyone can be or have a brand. It’s a totalizing kind of logic that isn’t nefarious so long as you buy it. Also, so what, that’s how things are now. Show biz stardom is now the stepping stone to the nobler cause of building a business empire. It could be said that there’s a self-aware element to Brat. Charli does recognize the pitfall contradictions of fame and has unfilled desires in other areas of her life. But she is also going on an arena tour this year. The music video for “360” is filled with the biggest Internet It girls around. Her actions say she’s swinging big for success, even though she’s doomed to never be number one.7 She is, however, fashioning herself as the coolest person alive—and it seems to be working, even if she’s engaged to a member of The 1975.
But, if people are buying what she’s selling, who’s to say she’s wrong? Charli XCX will undoubtedly walk away from this year much richer and much more recognizable. She went from having her early hit singles that she didn’t like to re-inventing herself as a Hyperpop icon who has now fully broken through. There’s a question to all of it as to whether Charli was early or if the public finally caught up. It’s impossible to say because it took a marketing campaign to get here. But then again, maybe that’s what it takes. When you can’t count on DJs to play your songs over the radio, you need to get your fans to make you go viral on social media—and they need ammo. Modern albums are about their earning potential more than their songs. The music isn’t the only thing musicians have to think about now. Beyoncé announced Cowboy Carter in a Verizon Super Bowl ad, Taylor Swift put out Target exclusive vinyl releases, Rihanna turned her Super Bowl Halftime Show into a Fenty campaign, Shawn Mendes opened a boutique to release his eponymous album, Jack Harlow was Colonel Sanders, and so on. It isn’t enough to sell lots of records, merch, and a bunch of incredibly expensive concert tickets anymore, that’d be leaving money on the table. So make no mistake, Brat is a pitch for Charli to grow her fame. She’s doing it well, which will work out for her financially. But if this is what defines success as an artist now, our cultural attitude towards art is severely warped.8
My editor (and girlfriend) is responsible for the phrase. I heard it and had to use it.
Pitchfork is so over now.
Admittedly this may seem like a weak example. However, I’d say it’s actually pretty plain meta-marketing to build her brand as self-aware and in on the joke but also down to market herself. In other words, she wants you to know she has a marketing team.
Technically, that site was made by fans and not released by Drake. But it was heavily associated with the release of the album with fans making tons of memes with that generator.
To Charli’s credit, Brat has mostly been a solo branding effort thus far. But then again, would you get a Brat smoothie at Erewhon if it dropped?
That will seemingly forever be Taylor Swift who “blocked” Charli from going number one on the UK Charts: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/taylor-swift-billie-eilish-charli-xcx_n_667206abe4b0502eac64e36f
Granted, this may not be a new phenomenon at all.
Brand ≠ Campaign
She was mentioned on at least two of the fifteenish “Out in 2024” lists that dirtmag made, and I thought that was funny.