“I only say iconic things.”

That was Charli XCX quoted in Interview Magazine. Based on what I’ve seen on the ‘Brat’ album, she wasn’t lying.

Charli XCX, born August 2, 1992, in Cambridge, United Kingdom, is an English singer-songwriter specializing in dance-pop, electropop, pop punk and alternative pop. She’s been an active member of the pop music community since the early 2010s with hits like “Fancy ft. Iggy Azalea” and “Boom Clap” which were both on the Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks. Her impact on the music industry is not something that just anybody could have accomplished. Music producer Izzy Camina said, “Charli has been able to bridge the gap between leftfield, avant-garde electronic music and indulgent, satisfying, clean pop, and it’s just the coolest (thing) in the world.”

The same cannot be said for many other artists. ‘Brat’ rightfully owns the title of number-one album of the year. The album demonstrates how artists can combine innovative marketing, digital tools and strong branding to create both musical and pop cultural phenomena.

Charli XCX’s musical career began in 2008 when she started posting songs on MySpace. Two years later, in 2010, she signed a recording contract with Asylum Records and began releasing a series of singles and mixtapes throughout
2011 and 2012. What initially set her apart from other artists at the time was that she didn’t conform to what was normal. She mixed genres like synthpop with genres on the other side of the spectrum, like darkwave and gothic. She pushed
boundaries by making rave-type music more mainstream than it was before.

She showed that having a vision and seeing it through without compromising is possible. The ‘Brat’ album, while being unique and very outside-of-the-box, perfectly compliments her discography. Brittany Spanos, a senior writer from
Rolling Stone magazine, said that ‘Brat’ is “a hyper pop roller coaster of post-Saturn return, early-thirties anxieties and It-girl bravado,” and that’s exactly why it was named 2024’s album of the year by Rolling Stone magazine.