bumpin’ that.

Naiya P-K

Illustration by Molly C

Charli XCX released her new album Brat on June 7th, 2024, and it immediately became an internet sensation. Its lime green cover invokes toxicity, and the title “brat.” uncapitalized with a period, has an unapologetic sense about it. The songs have hyperpop and club techno rhythms, with lyrics that range from talking about girlhood, generational trauma, and doing coke in the club. Overall, the album carries the message that it’s cool to be a party girl and that it's fun to live life on the edge. 

The album struck its target audience with force. Teenagers and young adults everywhere were blasting these songs and talking about them, creating an entire culture surrounding this album. When I first listened to the album I found it very catchy, but felt that the songwriting was simple in a way that I didn’t find sensational. I did recognize, however, that Charli XCX was promoting the idea of girls prioritizing having fun instead of focusing on romance (the usual trope), which I personally can get behind. It was refreshing to hear that people my age should be having fun with reckless abandon, but as summer went on it was clear that many people took the “reckless abandon” message too far. 

The message to have fun with reckless abandon is brought to a pinnacle by the song 365, which is about being a party girl doing coke in the club. (Personally this was my favorite song on the album, but obviously I’m not endorsing cocaine habits.) The whole song centers on a great beat and cocaine: When I'm in the club, yeah I'm (Bumpin' that) // When I'm at the house, yeah I'm (Bumpin' that) // 365, party girl (Bumpin' that) // Should we do a little key? // Should we have a little line? (Ah-ah, ah) // Wanna go real wild when I'm (Bumpin' that) // Meet me in the bathroom if you're (Bumpin' that)...

So, for people who don’t know slang regarding cocaine, people take “bumps” of coke with a key, or else they snort lines of it off of hard surfaces. People at clubs and parties meet in bathrooms to do coke, and then rejoin the party feeling more elated. So basically the insinuation of this song is that 365 days a year, Charli XCX wants to party and do coke with her friends. The hyperpop beat makes it sound fun though, a detail which can’t be overlooked. If these lyrics were set over minor chords, depressing music, slow BPM, they would be almost a warning NOT to do coke all the time. 

But, because of the hyperpop beat and Charli XCX’s status as a cool girl in the music industry, they become an invitation to live life on the edge like she does. She’s clearly having fun, right? Right, well a lot of people chased after this wild party energy as the theme for their summer. Who doesn’t want to be the fun person taking bumps in the club just like Charli XCX? I think it’s a social thing as well– since Charli XCX got so many people in the industry to promote this album and party with her, all of it shown in clips online, the public took it as oh wow, she’s made so many friends and is having so much fun, all because she’s living life like this. Maybe I’ll have more fun and be a social butterfly if I live like she does! Obviously this is a generalization, but even as a generalization, this mindset is problematic on many levels: class hierarchy (she’s a celebrity, she has privileges that are out of the public’s grasp), shock culture and publicity (she might have been playing into the shock of doing drugs to gain traction), and also age (she’s in her 30’s, but the target audience for this album is clearly gen-Z, who have much less life experience and wisdom than a 32 year old popstar). 

Well a lot of young people disregarded the obvious differences between their world and Charli’s, and became obsessed with brat culture–i.e partying all the time and doing ‘party drugs’. (Party drugs are things like cocaine, ketamine, and ecstasy.) I’m not just saying this because I’ve seen things online about it, but because a lot of my friends and people in my social circles were chasing the brat summer dream. I went to parties, clubs, bars with them, watched them do drugs, danced with them, played into the crazy summer night energy. And you know what? It was fun. But on the other hand, some people weren’t able to limit how often they had this type of fun. I heard the term “what? C’mon, it’s brat summer,” used many times when someone was questioned about the amount of coke they were doing. Like seriously, so many people were doing coke, even people who I’ve never seen do drugs before. A few people I know were doing it so often I had to ask if they were addicted, and they would roll their eyes. Even my summer fling was basically addicted to coke during the month of July.

Now, I’m not saying that Charli XCX and brat were responsible for all of this drug use. People have their own reasons for things like this, obviously. But I am saying that the culture surrounding brat made it more acceptable for people to be doing these drugs so obviously. Indie Sleaze culture, as well, has been making a comeback for a year or so; a subculture that endorses drugs, partying, music, and tumblr. “Brat summer” has almost become equated with a more palatable, modern indie sleaze phenomenon. It lets people play into their vices without really acknowledging the harm of them. 

So yes, the culture surrounding brat was taken to extremes and led to some drug misuse. It also had a lot of odd cultural offshoots– but I won’t get into the Kamala Harris brat memes, or Charli XCX’s birthday party in L.A, or Troye Sivan. If I delve into all of those this would be a chapter of a book, not an article. 

Well on another note (feel free to stop reading here), to voice my personal opinion on the ‘problematic’ messaging in brat… I don’t think it’s that bad! Like actually, people do drugs literally all the time. Musicians, especially ones who make hyperpop, rap, and club music talk about drugs ALL THE TIME. This album is not marketed to children, we’re all adults here. So what if Charli XCX likes party culture? So what if she does coke, so what if other people do coke? So what if other people do coke while listening to brat? It’s true that this album became way more popular than others of its genre, but in a lot of ways America was at a point in time where extreme party/club culture was coming back anyways, even before brat was released. Everyone was so pent up with boredom during the pandemic, and summer of 2024 was the first time everyone felt they could let loose and be part of nightlife without serious risk of covid. I was very involved in nightlife this summer, my friends were very involved with nightlife this summer, we all had a great time for most of it– if anything, it was good that summer was so nightlife heavy because now we can come back to Oberlin and not feel completely depressed about the lack of good nightlife here. Truly, “brat summer” really was just an interesting cultural phenomenon to witness, and I don’t think anyone should take it too seriously. That was the point of the album anyways! 

  -9/17/24