2024 has seen a renewed female domination of the pop music charts. “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” two singles off Sabrina Carpenter’s new album Short and Sweet have arguably emerged as the songs of the summer, with “Espresso” spending 14 weeks amongst the top three songs on the Billboard charts. Summer 2024 has also seen Charli XCX’s album brat bring synth-pop to the mainstream charts, alongside the exploding popularity of new pop darling, Chappell Roan.
The brat summer that was
Charli XCX’s album brat is not just a catchy album full of techno and synth-pop beats—it’s a cultural phenomenon. If the summer of 2023 was “Barbie summer,” then the summer of 2024 is undoubtedly “brat summer.” Songs like “360,” “365” and “Club classics” tell everyone that there’s nothing wrong with dancing, partying, “bumpin’ that,” making mistakes and embracing their inner Julia Fox.
brat’s iconic lime green album cover and lowercase typography have made the album’s branding marketable and easy to identify, while pandering to the stylistic trends of today’s youth.
Despite its trendy marketing, the album also explores deeper themes. The song “So I” is a gut-wrenching tribute to the late Sophie, a producer and artist who impacted Charli XCX’s music and life. “Girl, so confusing” delves into the complexities surrounding the pitting of women against each other in the patriarchal music industry. “Apple” documents Charli XCX’s struggles as the daughter of first-generation immigrants and talks about seeing the parts of your parents that you don’t like within yourself. The “apple dance” has taken TikTok by storm as people relate to this feeling of being “rotten right to the core.”
“brat summer” is about more than just partying—it’s about embracing female friendships and mending rivalries, believing that “Everything is romantic” and dancing to your own music, while also acknowledging the many complexities of girlhood. brat’s lyricism and catchy beats have captured the hearts of a generation and perfectly embodied the experience of girlhood.
The rise of Chappell Roan
This summer also saw the exponential growth of drag-inspired pop artist Chappell Roan, who recently won Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards. Roan has dominated music charts this summer, with her single “Good Luck, Babe!” notably peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, alongside songs from her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
Roan’s popularity proved undeniable during her headlining set at Lollapalooza Chicago. Roan’s performance reportedly exceeded 110,000 attendees. Audience members took part in the viral “HOT TO GO!” dance, using their arms to spell out the title of the song in movements akin to the “Y.M.C.A.” dance.
Chappell has been transparent about the fact that her music, makeup, outfits and artistry are all inspired by drag and LGBTQ+ culture, crediting transgender and queer people for “fueling pop,” in her recent VMAs speech. In her music, Roan talks about her experiences as a queer woman. Her song “Femininomenon” celebrates lesbian and queer sex, while “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” tells girls that men are not worthy of and do not understand super graphic ultra modern girls like Roan and her audience.
While Chappell’s success is undeniable, the singer has expressed that the sudden lifestyle change has been a struggle. She recently took to Instagram to criticize “predatory … ‘superfan’ behaviour,” pleading with fans to respect her boundaries in public.
Bringing back danceable pop
Regardless, it is undeniable that this summer has been the summer of the pop girlies. Some point to this trend in the music industry as marking a resurgence of “recession pop”—a trend that suggests that when the economy tanks or life gets more expensive, people are more likely to go out, dance and listen to upbeat music.
The original era of “recession pop” is thought to have occurred roughly between 2008-2015, as a result of the 2008 market crash. Many of the tried and true songs that are played in nightclubs today were released during this period – think “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas, or “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. Charli XCX’s song “Club classics” seems to speak directly to this “recession-pop” resurgence. Charli XCX expresses that she wants to dance to “club classics,” or in other words, recession-era club bangers. She then states, “I want to dance to me”, positioning brat and the rest of her career-spanning discography as the new generation of “club classic” bangers.
It’s clear that the heyday of dancey pop music is so back. But this time, it’s made by, for, and about girls.
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