On July 21, after President Biden announced he would withdraw from the 2024 presidential election, pop star Charli XCX tweeted “kamala IS brat.”
Her words have had an outsized political, cultural and social impact in 2024 — but they arrived midway through what many had already labeled “Brat Summer,” in honor of Charli’s club-pop album “Brat,” released in early June. F
our days after her tweet, Brat Summer was declared dead by music website Pitchfork. But why? Just what was Brat Summer, anyway? And why did the Harris/Walz campaign eventually lean into it for their own branding purposes?
Ahead of upcoming “Brat”-themed nights at local venues, guest host Patrick Hosken unpacks all of this with bookers Andrew Nittoli and Riley Fressie, plus writer Arielle Gordon, who covered “Brat Summer.”
Our guests:
- Andrew Nittoli, owner at Upstate Music Group and talent buyer at Essex
- Riley Fressie, owner at Upstate Music Group and talent buyer at Essex
- Arielle Gordon, freelance music writer
