If you weren’t having a BRAT summer back in 2024, were you even there? British singer Charli XCX’s album took the world by storm thanks to its earworm songs and undone aesthetic, which smashed through the stuffiness of the music industry at the time.
A bastion of anti-design, BRAT marketing took over the internet, redefining design in the music world, so naturally, when the singer announced her new single Rock Music, ears were pricked, and eyes were peeled. If the name alone wasn’t enough of a giveaway, it’s safe to say that Charli’s electropop era is dead and buried.
(Image credit: Charli XCX/Atlantic Recording Corporation)
The Rock Music cover is about as antithetical to BRAT as you could imagine. A plain white background supports a smart serif font bearing the song’s title, alongside smaller typography that reads “Created by Charli, Alex and Finn”. While it still captures the stripped-back energy of BRAT’s anti-design, it sits at the other end of the minimalism spectrum with an almost academic cleanliness to the design compared to Charli’s last album.
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Charli xcx – Rock Music (Official Video) – YouTube
Accompanied by a broody official music video laden with cigarettes and guitars, the artistic vision behind Rock Music was a divisive shift from the hyperpop playfulness of BRAT. But if the aesthetic was controversial, the song itself was a whole different story. “I like the visuals more than I like the song,” one fan on Reddit wrote, while another added, “This most definitely feels like satire and I’m choosing to believe it is lol.”
For more music design insight, check out why the alternate album art trend has gone too far or take a look at why K-pop group IVE’s new album cover feels so unsettling.