Lessons on the Language of Music from the Album of the Summer
The British-Australian pop duo, Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, moved the party to the United Center last Monday, as the “SWEAT” tour is now in full force and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. As we steadily approach brat winter, I sat down with a Chicago-based graphics designer to talk about why we stick “brat” in front of every word.
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When Charli XCX announced her return in February to Boiler Room, the holy grail of electronic music, it was a clear indication of how the new full-length record would be both visually and sonically — hot, sweaty and unapologetically raw. It was also the day we got the first glimpse of what would be known as “brat.” Months later, after a phenomenal release both in terms of critical reception and numbers, the British icon paired up with Australia’s own Troye Sivan for their U.S. headline tour “SWEAT,” which made its way to the Windy City last Monday.
Brat has evolved beyond a club-inspired/hyper-pop record since June when it was released. It’s now a visual identity, a marketing strategy or even a political slogan of sorts. In many ways, the visual identity took over the music and constructed Brat as a recognizable aesthetic, rather than a recognizable sound.
The SWEAT tour followed the same tendency, as it heavily relies on the atmosphere it creates, rather than “proper” vocal performances or what may be conventionally expected from the pop stars of the year. Instead, Charli XCX and her creative team seemed to have drawn inspiration from the Mecca of electronic music, overseas.
As you walked on the floor of the United Center, you were welcomed by a giant scaffolding, two screens and a walkway with a caged underpass beneath it. Reminiscent of Berlin’s techno staples like Tresor or Berghain, the duo channeled the industrial, metal, bare-bones feel of a German club and redrew the standards of what a live music performance is or should be.
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Being a double-headliner tour, the two took turns performing three or four songs each before switching, yet one couldn’t help but feel like Charli XCX held the most attention, given the roar that engulfed the arena every time she would take the stage. The two complemented each other with ease, taking the viewer through a constant back-and-forth between the madness of nightclubs and the intimacy of the afterparty.
While Troye Sivan’s acts seemed much more calculated and planned out, employing mesmerizing choreography and props, Charli XCX stuck to what has always worked best in her new era: a mic, a pair of sunglasses and her unmatched chaotic energy. And it was through this chaos that Charli XCX managed to impose herself as the main attraction of the night.
On a few occasions, Sivan would cross into Charli XCX’s register and embrace the sweatiness of the club while Charli XCX insisted on the hyper pop sounds of Brat and rarely switched tones. With some exceptions, such as legendary pop hits “Vroom Vroom” and “I Love It,” the setlist largely consisted of tracks from her newest album, Brat.
The sold-out show was an hour and a half marathon of rumbling bass and screeching synths, courtesy of the Party Girl, alternated with soft melodies and intimate moments that turned the 21,000-seat capacity arena into a bedroom. Yet, as you walked out of the venue and headed towards the Green Line, while silently acknowledging the irony, you could only think of that overwhelming moment in which a giant neon green curtain reading “brat” dropped from the ceiling, which meant that the REAL party was only starting.
So what is it about that green “brat” image that makes it so inexplicably appealing? I sat down for a conversation with Christian Solorzano, founder of Chicago Graphic Design Club, about the visual language of “brat” and how the design elements of the record contributed to the phenomenon it is today.
“I remember when I was younger, you’d buy a CD and the most exciting piece about it was opening it up and looking through the book and reading the lyrics,” Solorzano said, as we talked about how we consume music.
“Album covers have become more one-dimensional and have extended to be more of a campaign. When an album comes out, it’s tied a lot with the sensation … with Brat, it was ‘brat summer,’ and then it got appropriated. I don’t know if a designer is capable of predicting that to happen,” Solorzano said.
Coincidentally, in a teaser for an upcoming interview from Zane Lowe, Charli XCX said herself that, “This has been the total opposite of like an overnight success story.” Brat did not happen instantly, but it was a culmination of a series of events that started with a cramped Boiler Room in Brooklyn.
Solorzano went on to explain the relation between anti-elitism and the success of Brat.
“The components of something like that, becoming what it became, was simplicity and also how accessible it seems. It’s kind of ugly, and I think we can all relate to ugliness,” Solorzano said. “There’s something relatable about something that feels so basic and not very high brow.”
Indeed, nothing about Brat was high brow, either in terms of advertising, the actual music or the album’s general energy. In fact, in many ways Charli XCX, Brat and the Sweat Tour, all recontextualized pop to the most essential form of shared enjoyment of music: an improvised, cramped up rave/party where everyone is there to dance. Solorzano told me about the role of imperfection in design, which was a theme within the album.
“To me, there’s something that feels so punk-rock about it. It has this attitude of lack of perfection, and I think culturally and in society, we live in a time where that imperfect nature of something makes it very to identify with, and easy to replicate as well. I feel like we long for something that is kind of disruptive,” said Solorzano.
Our conversation on the album of the summer ends on a note that sums up the scale of this cultural reset.
“I can’t recall any other album cover that has had that much cultural appeal. I can’t think of anything in recent times.”
We don’t know how many Brat seasons we have left, but we do know that in less than a year, this record has reshaped what is expected from pop icons in terms of aesthetics and visual language within music. As the definitive edition of Brat, which includes bonus tracks and remixes, is set to drop on October 11, possibly marking the end of the club-inspired era, most of us wonder what the icon from Essex has planned for the future.
Header by Alexis Phelps
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