Acknowledgement:
I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/) to plan my essay, and generate some initial ideas which I used in background research and self-study in the drafting of this assessment.
Description of use of AI:
I used ChatGPT to create a essay plan and a structure to follow throughout my essay.
In common commercial media, the album and EP launches of many artists have become not only about the music being launched but a multifaceted event that goes beyond just what we hear. Music releases have become cultural events that have started to venture past the artist’s niche fan bases and now gather audiences of netizens that are struck by the trends, recognisable brand language, and reimagining preexisting words or ideas, which have all come from new initiative marketing strategies. An album that many argue changed the way popular music is consumed and brought a culture of its own to the populace is Charli XCX’s BRAT, known for its iconic green branding. Charli’s marketing passes the norms of recognisable brand language of hyperpop and influencer style branding. However, it has become an artefact on how to effortlessly keep media virality, immersive online collaboration, and brand engagement almost a year on from its release. This essay critically examines Charli XCX’s commercial involvement through the lenses of media theory, marketing strategy, environments, and creativity within popular culture, demonstrating how her work simultaneously embraces and critiques commercialism while being a part of popular music.
Charli xcx sixth album released in june of 2024 Brat, placed the highest rated album 2024 (1) and a track list of spanning 42 minutes with 15 songs, was praised for it profuse use of authenticity that mainstream was not use to, BRAT explores themes of self-obsession, introspection, and grief with unflinching self-awareness, we see these vast entrys of the many different topic present a candid narrative, it rejects the typical polished pop sound in favour for raw, minimalist and abrasive soundscapes. Charli speaks on this album as being prepared not to reach the exact numbers as previously seen as she wanted to serve her niche fan base an not to ‘break outside the walls’ and catering to any side of industry expectations, she speaks on how “On this record there is going to be no traditional radio songs, because we do not live in that world now,” (2), we see that this album as it integrity critiques and favours every aspect of popular culture itself, it opposes mainstream media algorithms and it formulaic patterns whilst operating and thriving in a commercial media system.
Commercialism is the idea of maximum profit outcome being the centre of attention for when something is created, marketed and consumed. It relation to popular music has be subject to criticisms for a prolonged duration as many argue music is a creative art form that should come from imagination and expression however many argue commercial ideology are functional mechanisms for mainstream industry success, that all pop is created in the same way so in is familiar to a audience and will inevitably be massely consumed.
Theorist Theodor Adorno states, ‘The whole structure of popular music is standardised, even where the attempt is made to circumvent standardisation. Standardisation extends from the most general features to the most specific ones’ (3). Ardorn instituted the idea that, through popular form of music, culture industry disseminated knowledge, and that we, as consumer and working class, only listen to mainstream popular music or media forms because it is what is supplied, thus suppressing our imaginations and cultivating us to fit into the capitalist society, giving us an illusion that we have a choice, stopping us from being engaged with the social and political states of the world. This implies the cultural industry, only controlled by the capitalist, has unrivalled power to ‘embed ideas and power into popular consciousness’ (4) and ‘Capitalist production so confines them, body and soul, that they fall helpless victims to what is offered’ (5). He then goes on to explain that this media is standardised, which is the process of adhering to a set of norms or criteria, and is only used as a way of advertising instead of being about creating an art form.
Brat is not only known for its soundscape but for its aesthetic style marketing that caught attention not only from her niche fan base but also by creating a monoculture within itself of a vast audience. Charli has stated that she had found the marketing side of music much more interesting than the creation of her songs (6), which we can see from the reception of Brat within the media. Many believe it rebels against the normative we see within popular music; however, with Adorno’s theory, one can argue that Charli’s music is perceived as different and contradictory to ‘mainstream pop’. This rebellion that is shown through many different areas of the album’s confined to commercial standard practice, such as the rejection of radio-style singles with songs including harsh language and abrasive soundscape, was then highly marketed through its aesthetic of ‘distorted images, clashing colors, and seemingly random elements’ (7) within the album covers, which Charli knew would garner attention through an adverse reaction of conversation of disappointment, the usage of an uncommon colour is now, ‘arguably the ultimate pennant of brat style’ (8), its unavoidable social media presence through trends that follow algorithm-based apps, and following up-to-date youth oriented appeal through meme culture. Brat appears in an anti-commercial manner on the surface level; however, when shown all these marketing strategies, it is the pinnacle of commercialism, as it is commodified and sold to a popular musical audience, reinstating Adorno’s theory that this may be a choice of listening to something that markets itself as outside of pop’s typical standard but is mainstream and has capitalised on this idea of rebellion becoming trendy to a younger audience, having her subculture of music become mass generated and capitalised on.
However, some may argue that there are many faults within Adorno’s theories. The theory itself has somewhat biased points of view. When we look at how it can have limitations with Brat, a central point is that Adorno argues that the audiences only consume what is given to them through passive consumption, which, previously explained, is accepting the message of the song at face value. However, Charli’s fans have an active digital presence that engages with the brand’s marketing strategy, which defies the idea of passive consumption.
Stuart Hall’s theory highly relates to commercialism within popular music such as Brat, in particular his theory of encoding and decoding. Hall believes that within the process of organising a message, two determined moments construct its meaning. His communication model elucidates how messages are constructed (encoded) by creators and subsequently interpreted (decoded) by audiences, highlighting the active role of both producers and consumers in the interpretation of media. Hall created a visual model to help aid our understanding of his theory. I have provided this below.
This means that with all artistic creation, there will always be a driving motive or creative intention that is wanted to be portrayed within the chosen medium. Sometimes this can be set up to co-align with formulaic writing styles within music as a marketing technique. However, inevitably, there will always be an interpretation at the beginning and an interpretation at the end. However, it depends on the discourse of the source on both ends of the process on how these two interpretations will vary from one another. “There is no necessary correspondence between encoding and decoding.” (9)
Within music, our encoder, Structure 1, is assigned to our producer, such as Charli and her collaborators. We could also relate Charli’s record label within this, as labels will have a significant role in what an artist will produce. However, we see that Charli states in the Apple interview that “Labels got on board and they left me alone, and that is really all I have ever wanted.” (10) They produced the original ideas, values, and ideology within the track. This can be lyrically, through the soundscape, and visuals. In interviews, Charli has elaborated on the duality of the “brat” persona, describing it as a blend of luxury and trashiness, encapsulating a carefree attitude that challenges traditional feminine ideals. Charli and her team encoded the message of rebellion, raw emotion, and anti-pop authenticity into the album. They then distributed the complete album and its principles through social media, interviews, and music videos, which helped strategically place the album within the cultural and commercial discourse that created its platform today, which highly shaped its reception within the market. For Brat, Charli used many cost-effective marketing strategies that gained her global interest. Many of these marketing points were tailored to make her fan base feel a part of the creative process of Brat, such as an Instagram burner account that explored exclusive content on the making of Brat through an exclusive feel of being on her private account. This brat word generator imitated the iconic look of the brat cover letting user customise their own brat covers which led to many fan creating this for the profile picture sparking a chain reaction in social media and even pop-up street gigs that gain attention thus leading to mass media coverage. These tactics showed her maximising the content release and hiring engagement with minimal costs, a very commercial approach of keeping marketing and reach as far as possible whilst also keeping costs low: “By letting fans text each other secret iMessage previews, we flipped the promo script—made every listener a walking billboard.” (11)
This leads us to the end product of Decoded Structure 2, which is the reception of the audience and consumer. Within decoding, there are three responses from the discourse: Dominant, which is the consensus everyone agreed with; Negotiable, which is when exceptions are allowed; and lastly, the Oppositional, which is where the audience may have understood the intended media present, but choose to reject it and see it in a “globally contrary way” (12). At the same time, critics offered both Dominant readings that celebrated its bold authenticity and Oppositional readings that saw its subversive stance as a calculated commercial manoeuvre. These responses demonstrate how Brat’s encoded messages of rebellion and self-awareness were market logic it sought to challenge.
Although Hall’s theories help create a robust framework for understanding the commercialisation of Brat, there are many faults in this theory. A point shown is that Charli may have intended for Brat to come across as this rebellion against popular music. Inevitably, the marketing goals and algorithmic platforms such as TikTok and clickbait storylines shaped that meaning regardless of what Charli had intended for her niche audiences to have consumed. The commercial system already set in place in popular music influences the message she could send out.
In examining Brat through the lenses of Theodor Adorno’s critique of the culture industry and Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model, we uncover the Close connection between artistic freedom and commercial frameworks within popular music. Charli XCX’s Brat serves as a compelling example of how an album can simultaneously critique and participate in commercialism. While Brat outwardly positions itself as rebellious, raw, and anti-mainstream, its viral marketing strategies, aesthetic branding, and algorithm-driven visibility illustrate how even challenging narratives can be taken over by the very commercial logics they seek to challenge.
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