by Meghan Breitberg
In the summer of 2024, Charli XCX released her sixth studio album, Brat, and the world lost its collective mind. The album was filled with songs showing Charli’s vulnerability within the industry, her relationships, and even her friends with songs like “Sympathy is a Knife” and “Girl, So Confusing.” The album also featured dance hits such as “Von Dutch” and “365” which explore the party girl lifestyle, and being yourself. Charli wants to start a new era, but the internet isn’t ready to move on just yet.
With the release of the album, songs quickly started to trend on TikTok. For example, Charli comments about attempting to break free of generational trauma in the song “Apple.” It started to trend after people created an easy-to-follow dance to go along to the song. The trend eventually became so popular that during the Brat Tour, Charli XCX would feature different members of the crowd doing the viral dance to the song while she performed it live.
With “Apple” trending on TikTok, it allowed for the album to blow up exponentially and multiple songs from the album trending on TikTok, like “Girl, So Confusing,” which featured Lorde. The trend involved people walking to go do something, hitting a pose, and then walking away. As simple as the trend may have been, it caught on quickly, allowing for funny quips to be said. The song also allowed young women to share their “Girl, So Confusing” stories when it came to their friendships, further highlighting the song’s message of reconciling a friendship.
The song “Sympathy is a Knife” has also been trending, recently due to the fact that a song on Taylor Swift’s album called “Actually Romantic,” which people speculate is about Charli. People on TikTok such as Connor Pullinger have made TikToks using the song “Sympathy is a Knife” defending Charli XCX, saying that the song is deeper than just throwing shade at Taylor; it’s a song where she criticizes herself for not being more than what she is.
There have been many more emerging trends with songs from the album like “Everything is Romantic,” which started to trend after it was used in the trailer for the movie Wuthering Heights. People from different fandoms have made edits featuring their favorite characters from movies and television shows falling in love with each other.
While Charli might be ready to move forward from Brat and onto a new era for herself, the internet is still obsessed with the album and its songs, which means for a lot of people, Brat Summer isn’t over yet.
