By Kaitlyn Chan and Sasha Zimmermann
brat’s resurgence after being declared dead and its contribution to social media marketing
As Vice President Kamala Harris joined the presidential race, taking over for former Democratic candidate President Joe Biden, she has been using the album brat by Charli XCX to boost her campaign marketing to target young voters.
Just after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race, @BidenHQ on X changed to @KamalaHQ. The account’s background was subsequently changed to the brat lime green album cover aesthetic, with “kamala hq” replacing the album name.
This marketing strategy was a good way to connect with Gen Z and millennial audiences, as many presidential candidates in the past have not focused on these generations, thus mostly older generations made up the voting populace. Within forty-eight hours of President Biden’s announcement that he was stepping down from the race, almost 40,000 people registered to vote–83% were ages 18-34.
Harris broke a fundraising record, raising $81 million (USD) the first 24 hours after announcing her presidential bid. In the first week and a half of her presidential campaign she managed to raise $200 million (USD) catching up to Trump’s campaign, which has raised a bit over $200 million (USD) throughout the entirety of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Kamala Harris is the first to utilise social media to put out numerous messages and to pay attention to social media trends, instead of simply staying in the box as a political figure. She follows viral trends, uses trending audios and tries to keep up with younger generations.
She has been the subject of multiple viral memes, one of which being an audio clip of her referencing her mother’s words to her: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” (Forbes 2024). Edits on TikTok have been made of Kamala dancing and laughing, set to songs on the brat album.
The @kamalahq account on TikTok responded to this trend by posting multiple videos set to brat songs, as well as “Femininomenon” by American singer-songwriter Chappell Roan, who is also another presently viral female artist.
brat is an album that was released in early June by singer-songwriter Charli XCX. Charli XCX has been in the music industry for over a decade, and has been a part of pop culture for a long time.
Her breakthrough came in 2014 with her feature on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” and her single “Boom Clap” for the soundtrack on The Fault in Our Stars. She has also collaborated with Australian singer-songwriter Troye Sivan on “1999” and “2099” and released “Speed Drive” for the Barbie soundtrack. Gen Z and millennials alike know her because she has been a part of their pop culture for so long; she is a cultural icon for those online.
Charli XCX is the face of the “brat girl aesthetic,” which is a repurposed version of the early 2000s party girl style. This is a rejection of the “clean girl aesthetic” that has been the main trend of the 2020s. There is nostalgia surrounding this “brat” aesthetic, as it is very reminiscent of American singer-songwriter Kesha’s style back in the 2000s and most notably Ke$ha’s song “Tik Tok.”
brat has gone viral on social media, most notably on TikTok. For her “360” music video, she featured numerous celebrities and creators that younger generations may know, such as Julia Fox, Chloë Sevigny, Emma Chamberlain, Rachel Sennott, Quenlin Blackwell, and Alex Consani.
You may be wondering, what is brat?
- “A pack of cigs, a Bic lighter, and a strappy white top with no bra” (The News Movement 2024).
- “It is honest, blunt, and a little bit volatile. That’s brat” (The News Movement, 2024).
- “girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes.”
- Trashy yet classy, people can be rich and still have this aesthetic
- Messy hair and smudged makeup
- Sleeping in going out clothes and makeup from the night before
- Reminiscent of y2k party culture and style
- House parties–Charli XCX is famous for hers
- Going to the club
- Lime green and chartreuse, bold colours in lieu of neutrals
- Various body piercings–not limited to ear piercings–and tattoos
Around this time however, news and media outlets such as Dazed have reported brat to be “dead,” even going to say that its introduction to politics has caused its demise. A Dazed article by James Greig claimed that “God forgive Charli xcx, for she knew not what she did: what was presumably just a tossed-off tweet about Kamala Harris was seized upon by the Democrats.” Greig claims that Charli XCX was unaware of what she did when she said that “Kamala IS brat,” but her tweet was in response to Kamala’s nomination as presidential candidate–not to Kamala HQ’s brat themed background.
Greig also compares the Kamala–brat connection to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s comment in 2016, “Pokémon Go to the polls.” “Pokémon Go to the polls” is an irrelevant comparison to “Kamala IS brat,” as Clinton said this without any connection to the game, while the Internet branded Kamala as brat before she even became the presidential candidate.
The brat marketing around Kamala Harris is mostly a response to people making edits of her to brat. The background change on X was influenced by what the Internet has created–most of the brat edits created are not by Kamala HQ, but from various creators on TikTok and X that have deemed Kamala “brat.” Charli’s tweet only made this connection surge in the media.
Multiple articles claim “brat summer” was dead once politics and basic people got involved, but Charli XCX has been putting out remixes since that have reignited the brat trends–songs like “365” and the newest “Guess” remix with Billie Eilish are currently being used as trending audios on TikTok.
People have not ceased to talk about brat and the “Guess” remix music video with Eilish is #1 trending on YouTube and is at the top of Apple Music’s hits. Songs like “360” are still charting on the U.K. Singles list, and brat has remained on the U.K. Albums chart–its peak being #2. New music and collaborations continue to come out, with Charli’s tour starting in September.
It’s unlikely that people will stop talking about her or brat, so claiming “brat summer is dead” simply because one or two journalists deemed it “cringe” now that mainstream has gotten ahold of the trend, does not reflect public opinion.
Chappell Roan, another currently popular artist that broke into the mainstream this spring, was seen holding up a brat CD at the end of July.
The artist herself responded by saying “Oh ? See you next week :)” on 25th July when news articles and social media accounts began to proclaim the death of brat summer.
