By Rachel Weisz
In early June of this year, Charli XCX released her sixth studio album, “Brat”, consisting of 15 hyperpop club bangers, with a surprise deluxe edition arriving three days later. Since then, the internet has turned lime-green, and the northern hemisphere officially defines its summer season as #bratgirlsummer. With exhilarating and oftentimes chaotic beats matched with honest and raw lyricism, the album is unapologetic and nuanced. While Charli has been in and out of the spotlight for around 10 years now, this year feels different. Charli is in her moment, and the internet is living for it.
On a similar upward trajectory is emerging pop princess Chappel Roan. Dubbed the internet’s new favourite pop star, this Missouri-grown, Gen-Z artist’s vulnerable queer lyricism and hyperpop sound has caught the internet’s attention. Her album “Fall of a Midwest Princess” was released in 2023, but it wasn’t until nine months later in 2024 that the album started gaining momentum, entering the top 10 in the charts this year. In early 2024, she supported Olivia Rodrigo’s “Guts” world tour and performed for the first time at Coachella. Her NPR Tiny Desk Concert in March also went viral — currently sitting just over 3m views. Her music, as Time notes “is all about queer experiences, from messy moments of heartbreak to ecstatic discoveries of love and sex.”
And of course, we can’t talk about women in music without Sabrina Carpenter, who has been dominating both the music and internet space with her hit single “Espresso”, followed by her recent release “Please Please Please”, which featured boyfriend Barry Keoghan in the viral music video as we await her upcoming album “Short n’ Sweet”, due for release Aug. 23.
There’s no doubt that 2024 is the year for women in music, as seen by Billboard’s list of The 50 Best Songs of 2024 (So Far), which included Sabrina Carpenter with Espresso at number 1, Chappel Roan’s Good Luck, Babe! at number 3, Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em at number 4, with Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and Tinashe also taking seats in the top 10.
Some of these pop sensations have been in and out of the spotlight for some time, whereas others are just starting to have their moment. Women have existed in the top music charts for a long time, but something about this year in music feels different. It almost feels as if there is an element of respect that hasn’t been felt in this industry for some time, if not ever.
Popular music has inherently been attached to the word ‘basic’ for a long time, especially on the internet, and even more especially when the artist is a woman. As Maggie Zhou wrote for Refinery29 on unpacking internalised misogyny in music; “Pop music has long been considered saccharine and superficial. Female pop artists, in particular, are smirked at for their sparkly attire and fun bops. People turn their noses up at these tunes that grapple with love, heartbreak and relationships.”
It’s important to note we consume music drastically differently than we used to. Thanks to social media, viral moments can define an artist’s career. These artists mentioned above are all adored by fans, with parts of their songs becoming viral sensations on TikTok and Instagram. According to Mashable, Carpenters “Espresso” has “soundtracked over 117,000 videos” on Tiktok “between the original and the “Double Shot Version.” She also has creators lip-syncing “I beg you don’t embarrass me, motherfucker” all over the Internet as a playful prompt to men and partners alike.
The internet has also created the opportunity for new and different voices to represent their communities and pioneer change. Queer, female and other underrepresented voices have a platform to speak and share what they value. And so spawn incredible artists like Roan who are taking risks with pop and bringing queer representation to the forefront. Sound bites from moments on stage, and lyrics from her songs are going viral, with thousands of Roan’s fans posting their rendition of the “HOT TO GO!” dance on TikTok, reaching millions of views.
Additionally, Chappel Roan’s onstage looks are loud, exciting and extravagant while taking inspiration from different reference points. Take the time she dressed up as the Statue of Liberty during her performance at the 2024 Governors Ball Music Festival for example. “We pull from drag, we pull from horror movies, we pull from burlesque, we pull from theater,” notes Roan on her collaborations with her stylist Genesis Webb at her debut appearance on The Tonight Show. These viral moments lead audiences to her art and open conversations about how popular music artists have the power to change things.
As for Charli, her music and persona align appropriately with the internet’s often unhinged personality. “The album dropped at the perfect time within Internet culture,” said staff writer Rania Aniftos from Billboard. “Charli feels like the Myspace star of modern times, and makes the next generation of music listeners feel like they’re logging into AIM in 2006 and setting their profile status to a lyric from Brat,” Aniftos muses. For her music video for 360, Charli enlisted some of the internet’s most famous ‘It-Girls’, with iconic names such as Chloë Sevigny, Rachel Sennott, Emma Chamberlain, Alex Consani, Gabriette Bechtel and Julia Fox. The latter two she references in her song; “I’m your favourite reference, baby / Call me Gabbriette, you’re so inspired” and “I’m everywhere, I’m so Julia.”
Thanks to the internet the term brat is now so easily associated with the slightly off-putting lime shade of green, to the point that it has become a viral meme in itself. As Charli’s stylist Chris Horan notes for Vogue; “The brat campaign has transcended anything we thought it could be — everyone from Duolingo to corporate brands are jumping on board to get a piece of the viralness.” There’s no doubt Charli, as her song puts it simply, is everyone’s “favourite reference baby.”
Social media has also been used to experience moments that we may not have been able to see in real life. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have allowed us to be in the front row of some of the biggest festivals such as Coachella. It feels like we are almost a part of these viral moments — such as when Barry Keoghan was THAT boyfriend at Sabrina Carpenter’s Coachella set, acting spellbound from the crowd.
How we consume music is changing, and the charts easily reflect this. With social media becoming the forefront of what’s ‘cool’ in music culture, we have been introduced to a new era of musicians that utilise these platforms to reach millions of people faster than ever before.
Viral moments are also a way to see what audiences actually respond to and connect with. And while there is often a whole marketing and PR team behind a singular artist, audiences online have the power to respond as they please. And the response is clear — the internet loves female and feminine-presenting pop music icons. And while the music industry has a long way to go to fix the internal misogyny that’s at play, it’s nice to see women finally have a positive shining moment in music history.
The Pull 