It might come as a surprise to anyone living under a rock (a.k.a. those with more “pressing” matters in their lives besides pop culture) that “brat” has been deemed the word of the year by Collins English Dictionary. While some snobs might be quick to point out that it’s not like the Oxford English Dictionary declared this, the news of brat’s status as the word of the year makes it even more impossible to deny the far-reaching influence of Charli XCX on all facets of “the culture”—even language—in 2024.  Granted, “her” word was closely trailed by such other relevant terms as “era” (courtesy of “low-key” XCX nemesis Taylor Swift), “supermajority,” “yapping,” “looksmaxxing,” “delulu” and “rawdogging” (which, in this instance, doesn’t quite refer to a sexual definition, so much as going through a harrowing or boring experience without any “tools”—e.g., taking a flight without mainlining any form of entertainment). Yes, it must be said that, compared to the others, “brat” comes across as pretty much the only non-Newspeak kind of word.

To boot, “brat” is also the word with the most attitude, the most chutzpah. With its original meaning, “brat” already had a cunty connotation, its Collins definition being: “A child, esp. one who is ill-mannered or unruly: used contemptuously or playfully.” Charli XCX, needless to say, wanted to wield the word playfully when she started to conceptualize the album (complete with its “I don’t give a fuck” slime green color and pixelated font), but not with the intention to have it mean exactly the same thing as a “spoiled child”—though there is a touch of that in the new meaning of the word.

Instead, as Collins has distilled XCX’s definition (this version reclassified from noun to adjective), it refers to someone “characterized by a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude.” As in, “Who the fuck are you?/I’m a brat when I’m bumpin’ that” and “365 party girl/Should we do a little key/Should we have a little line?” The hedonism and confidence related to the updated iteration of the word under Charli’s stewardship of it has led to an array of think pieces on the phenomenon, including one from The Guardian. Mainly pertaining to dissections about how the reason that decadence and debauchery (executed in trashy, low-budget ways) is “back” has resulted from the same reason that Kesha ascended the music charts in 2010, just two years after the far-reaching effects of the 2008 financial crisis. That reason being: the more bummed out about finances and the future that people are, the more they want to retreat into the numbing excesses of partying (which is also why the 1980s were billed as the Decade of Excess…despite the majority of the population being in the “have nots” category thanks to Reagan’s push toward neoliberalism on steroids). So it is that, as Collins also added of its “motive” for crowning the word with this year’s honor, “‘Brat’ has become one of the most talked about words of 2024. More than a hugely successful album, ‘brat’ is a cultural phenomenon that has resonated with people globally, and ‘brat summer’ established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life.”

Indeed, it could even be argued that one of Charli XCX’s primary inspirations, Britney Spears, presaged this “way of life”/desire for total hedonism just before the full-on declaration/unavoidable reality of the crisis by releasing the party/dance floor-ready Blackout in October of 2007 (and yes, sometimes the crisis is referred to as the 2007-2008 financial crisis). In 2024’s case, the desire to black out/retreat from currently quaint notions of “sober” or “clean” living stems from far more than just “recession vibes,” but a general sense of foreboding about the future based on the events of the present. From election panic (on an even worse scale than 2016) to the genocide in Palestine to the innumerable catastrophic weather events that have been happening due to human activity-caused climate change, the overall feeling of anxiety permeating every corner of existence has only ramped up in the years since post-2008’s brand of “messy girl pop”—as epitomized by Kesha. Which is why, appropriately, Charli XCX included her on a remix of “Spring Breakers” for Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. A “nod” that was meant to pay homage to her “forebear,” even if XCX was already making music at the same time (it just hadn’t yet been “legitimized” by a record label).

To call the present reign of Brat a “full-circle” moment from that early 2010s period would be to ignore the fact that, beneath the surface of it all, nothing ever really “got better.” The apt metaphor here being spilling something on a wooden floor and covering up the stain with a rug. Sure, there was an illusion that the global financial market “corrected itself” or put itself almost immediately “back on track.” And this largely because the government was so quick to give the banks a bailout never afforded actual human beings who make far less egregious financial fuckups. But, in truth, “many important economic variables did not regain pre-recession levels until 2011-2016.” Putting the full recovery at 2016 takes us up to the year Trump was “elected,” ergo the last year that anything felt at least somewhat “stable” on a political and financial level—in the United States anyway. That Charli XCX is British, however, perhaps only adds to her objectivity with regard to having her finger on the pulse of “what America wants/needs.” That she’s been an expatriate living in L.A. for a while also lends her a certain cachet in terms of knowing “the American culture” despite being a perennial outsider within it.

Alas, Charli XCX’s major achievement in lexicographic recognition (not just from the public, but the Establishment itself) still had to come from a British entity—Americans not being quite as precise or interested in (or even all that concerned with) the language that subliminally rules their lives. Or, as Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) once phrased it, “He’s totally fine having his personal freedom slowly stripped away, as long as he’s completely unaware that it’s happening. Just like a true American.” Besides, who can be bothered to care about the systematic stripping away of personal freedom when you’re “just livin’ that life,” brat-style?