kai sholmes blog

brat summer

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Sixteen years later, 2008 comes back like a fashion trend, and we are once again dancing to songs about parties, drugs, and love. Everyone who remembers music around the recession era remembers the way it sounds: upbeat, fast-paced, excessive use of the word “tonight”. And even if you don’t remember, all the clubs are playing them again. With “brat” being one of the biggest trends of the summer, many of us have realised how much the theme of the album correlates to the general mood of our society.

Some people are concerned that a character like Charli XCX became popular during a time where society is becoming more apathetic and nihilistic, but the truth is, the impact we have in shaping pop music greatly outweighs the impact pop music has in shaping us. If we really are living in such a nihilistic society, we have to understand what the problem is.

What many refer to as the “Great Recession” can be more accurately named as a financial crisis, or a period of economic depression. While the capitalists might have recovered from the Recession, the quality of life for the people (especially in developing countries) was never quite the same. With COVID-19 being an event that took the world by surprise, we see a familiar economic situation with countries worldwide. It’s not a foreign topic amongst friends to complain about the cost of living, rent, or not landing a single job after months of tediously applying. Much like the young adults in 2008, people today also seek escapism. And what better place to escape than in a club, with your head filled with loud music and drugs and alcohol…

“360” and “365” are arguably the most popular songs off of “brat”, its numbers referencing a 360 degree and 365 days of a year, solidifying the theme of the album: a party that goes on forever. In these songs and many others like “Club classics” and “Von dutch”, we hear her making references to clubs, drugs, herself, her friends, and much more. This is juxtaposed by more reflective, more conscious songs such as in “Sympathy is a knife”, “Girl, so confusing” and “I think about it all the time”, all less popular tracks. But we don’t see the comeback of Recession Pop solely through “brat”. Many surprising instances of pop musicians such as Katy Perry or Kesha’s comeback, or Chappell Roan’s sudden rise to fame all point towards the shared desire for quick happiness among the people: “everything good happens after midnight”, “I’m just looking for a joyride//I’m just looking for a good time tonight”. The special focus on “brat” can be attributed to the fact that the party theme becomes more saturated in an album full of club-style music, paired with a marketable visual and other similar elements.

Though “brat summer” may be a symptom of economic depression, I have to say that I spent most of my summer listening to artists like Charli XCX and Chappell Roan, and most importantly, that I had fun sharing this pastime with everyone else on the internet. It’s never detrimental to enjoy art, but it’s even better to be able to immerse yourself in it and then pull yourself away from it to see it from a critical view. Through “brat summer”, we get to understand that the economic depression remains a lingering, intrinsic issue in our society that desperately needs a deep-clean.

References:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/21/recession-pop-explained-how-music-collides-with-economic-trends.html
https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-notebook-4-economic-crisis/#toc-section-4
https://genius.com/albums/Charli-xcx/Brat