Over the weekend,Charli XCXperformed an outstanding set atLido Festival. The London festival ran over two weekends, with Charli XCX headlining on June 14. The star has had a hefty year touring globally with Brat, so performing a set in a different context has been an opportunity for Charli XCX to experiment and make creative decisions that gobeyond what the Brat tour has seen.
During the performance, there was a short break, during which short lines of text were projected onto the screens. The text was an expression ofCharli’ XCX’s inner thoughts aboutBrat Summer, her identity as a performer, and her concerns about fan reception.In what felt like something between a diary entry and a confidential phone call, this is what Charli XCX wrote to her audience: “Is Brat Summer FINALLY over? I thought it was, but actually… I don’t think it is. So tell me the truth, will you hate me if I stick around? Because honestly, I don’t know who I am if it’s over. And so … I’ve decided … I want this to last forever. It wasn’t just a summer thing, it’s a forever thing.”
This confession has a tone of apprehension, and a potential hardship of what it would be like to leave Brat in the past. Throughout the monologue, Charli XCX wonders if she has become inextricable from the hit record/cultural movement, but hopes, then accepts it will be present forever. This raises the question:if Charli XCX reincarnates from Brat to create more projects, will she survive the criticisms from her fans, or even herself?
A History Of The Reinvention Of Musical Artists
It’s been a long discussion about whether contemporary musical artists have an expiry date, particularly after a seminal work like Brat. Unfortunately, this hot topic seems to be more prevalent when discussing female musicians, which is an immense argument to be had in much further detail.In the past, the issue of expiration has had a simple, but mightily creative solution—reinvention.Throughout the 20th century, the notion of reinvention was revolutionary, but quickly became a norm in popular culture. Think ofDavid Bowie, how he was Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, and Aladdin Sane. OrMadonna, the Material Girl, all the way through to Madame X. Point being, think of your favorite pop icon, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that they will have gone through at least one major reconstruction in not only their persona, but their musical direction. The need to investigate this is to calculate the balance between the use of reinvention to satisfy the creative mind, or to satisfy the attention spans of audiences.
How Does This Relate To BRAT?
As an audience, we must not forget that Charli XCX has herself already accumulated versions of herself that feel different in tone from Brat. This is in no way a criticism. She started very young, and artists progress naturally over time, but why is Brat something that she wants to last forever rather than, say, “Boom Clap”?
Brat feels like her Charli XCX’s “true” self. There is a genuine sense of authenticity, as this record feels remarkably personal.In a past interview, Charli XCX described the lyrics on Brat as“texts I would send to my friends.”This then immediately places the listener in the same proximity to the star, her idea, and her feelings as her closest friends. This is interesting, but perhaps gives too much power to the audiences and what they consequently expect from Charli XCX. By bravely opening up on Brat as she would to a close circle, she perhaps welcomes strangers to think they ‘know’ her as she leads them to believe.
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Charli XCX has been releasing music for over a decade, most of which has been very successful globally. There are so many musicians in the world, so to make it to the charts at all in a musical career is no mean feat. However,Brat has accomplished absolute global domination.It’s a huge triumph for Charli XCX, but also a heavy weight to bear. For a fair number of fans, Brat was an entry point to Charli XCX, and so that is by default the high-point—and a very high one indeed.Are we aligning the triple GRAMMY award winner too much with Brat for her to be able to grow, or are we expecting too much from a new project beyond that?It seems like a lose-lose for Charli XCX, and we should cut her some slack.
Real BRATs Aren’t Just Fierce—They’re Fragile, Too
This notion of needing to be more forgiving towards an artist is exactly why her Lido Festival stunt was an incredibly intelligent move. By now, Charli XCX has performed her Brat tour in nearly 40 different shows.Even if not in the arenas, everyone has seen clips of iconic moments circulate online.She works incredibly hard to perform over and over again, and to have it all over social media is something that is simply out of her control. Charli XCX recognizes how huge her outreach is. Electing to have a vulnerable moment in a show is an apt method to maintain a personal connection with her audience, and using their devices to extend her message. It feels communal.
Charli XCX’s choice to project the message to a whole crowd through blurred text in her staple Calibri font brought back her vision of authenticity and friendship to her output. It’s a circle back to herinterview confession of the lyrics ofBratof wanting the lyrical content to be what she would text to her close friends.The chopped text projected on the screen does feel like that, particularly with the use of ellipses signaling what could be her typing, or thinking.
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Are you ready for it?
Charli XCX admits that she doesn’t know who she would be if Brat Summer were to end, but that’s okay. Her vulnerability and candidness is what make her so striking, and different to her previous releases, so unbelievably relatable across so many people.Time inevitably moves away from the release of Brat, but that’s not to guarantee that its impact is leaving any time soon.She’s even changed the text on the album art to say “forever
