2024's Brat unequivocally left a footnote on Charli's career. She'd always been an underdog and had cemented her place as a critical darling and underground pop auteur, her influence now has made waves now compared to the ripples in the preceding years. Before Brat she released 2022's CRASH - a deliberate sellout record to experiment what being a traditional popstar meant and how much she realized she truly hated it. Then came her contribution to the Barbie Movie Soundtrack with Speed Drive which garnered some chart success that even confused Charli. Brat's success in general has been slightly confusing even to most of her die-hard's: Brat's rollout was as normal as any Charli rollout until the reveal of the album cover, it's now an iconic moment in pop culture. The era started gaining more attention once the album released due to the overwhelmingly positive critical reception and the confessional nature of the songs (which led to everyone sleuthing songs like Sympathy as a knife and Girl, so confusing.) Brat's popularity has led it to be dismissed as a "club record" by the GP when it's so much more than that and has led to Charli being caricatured as a "cokehead party girl" by so many.

Rather than playing into the success of Brat, Charli took it as an opportunity to further her artistry, starting with the critically acclaimed Girl, so confusing remix with Lorde which marked yet another iconic moment in pop. It eventually kickstarted the feature heavy Brat remix album that breathed new life into the album tracks and served as a thematic sequel of sorts as Charli comments on her newfound fame and personal life on some of the remixes. She took up an interest in acting and filmmaking, starring in various films including her own mockumentary in 2026's The Moment which explored an alternate reality where she pandered to Brat's success and showed some inner workings of the music industry. The era even earned Charli some Grammy's and basically increased her visibility and established her into the main pop canon.

Charli's 2026 has already been prolific: with the release of The Moment, Charli contributed a whole soundtrack album with original songs to Emerald Fennel's adaptation of Wuthering Heights which was touted as a pivot from Brat's sound. Little did we know that just a few months later that Charli would announce the true follow up to Brat: Music, Fashion, Film - which serves as a response to the state of her career in various ways from the album cover to the lyrical content thus far. Charli basically pivoted from Brat twice in the same year. Any fading popstar would've chased success but Charli didn't - she instead doubled down and yet the risks have paid off. She has gained respect from the likes of Beyoncé, John Cale, and other music legends and her fanbase continues to grow and every single move she makes starts a million conversations. Which begs the question: what went right with Charli?

Edited July 22Jul 22 by Bartender

A decade long career of pushing her pen, evolving and reinventing herself, and making quality music. It's not hard to go right when you are as talented as SHE!

My favourite thing with Charli is that she managed to break through with Brat as opposed to Crash. She did a last ditch attempt to play the big pop game, and then retreated to make music very true to her. It is a sense of justice — people picked up on what she brings at the same time she doubled down on it. A moment most pleasing etc.

as for what went right, I think she just trusted her vision and kept the creative output high. There was no hang up on a certain era or sound, just always tinkering, always trying something new. I don't love every result, but I admire that aspect of her immensly.

Artistry and following your gut won. Honestly,to me,she's never followed any trends and that worked in her favour.

Edited July 23Jul 23 by blastoisebaby

Charli is just an example of an artist that makes art that feels authentic to them, even if it the output may not stick with everyone. That's a lot more admirable to me than someone who's just making art for external validation and pleasing the most common denominator.

A true artist and pioneer tbh. So proud to have been supporting since True Godmance

Nothing went wrong … get worried if she stops making music

Two things

An artist who really found herself and trained for years for this moment

A record company who believed and trusted the artist (example the brat green cover)

Edited July 22Jul 22 by LittleStarmen

1 hour ago, Pavement Princess said:

A decade long career of pushing her pen, evolving and reinventing herself, and making quality music. It's not hard to go right when you are as talented as SHE!

barb spillin

She's a true artist who loves making music that is authentic to how she's feeling now.mp3. She's not afraid to take risks and continues to give us new material. Normal pop fans don't "get" her post-BRAT because they assume she wants the same level of success forever like every other pop girl, when that couldn't be any more untrue.

Also, Charli is smart. She built up a very dedicated fanbase that understands her artistic tendencies and made a lot of money from that alone.

She has the best marketing team.

She said it herself, music doesn't matter to her.

She's always been that girl.

1 hour ago, Egon Schiele said:

She has the best marketing team.

She said it herself, music doesn't matter to her.

She said music doesn't matter, artistry matters

Once she used the talentless Jenner girl in her video I knew this era would be a flop and I was right. I wish her a 1/2 ounce of luck in the future.

20 minutes ago, Gazing Ball said:

She said music doesn't matter, artistry matters

Even my boyfriend who was bigger OCH that me unblocked her and is digging this new era

3 hours ago, Haze said:

My favourite thing with Charli is that she managed to break through with Brat as opposed to Crash. She did a last ditch attempt to play the big pop game, and then retreated to make music very true to her. It is a sense of justice — people picked up on what she brings at the same time she doubled down on it. A moment most pleasing etc.

as for what went right, I think she just trusted her vision and kept the creative output high. There was no hang up on a certain era or sound, just always tinkering, always trying something new. I don't love every result, but I admire that aspect of her immensly.

Agree! However, I do think Crash got her a lot of goodwill and brought her back into a lot of pop fans' orbit after her experimental stage which set the stage for Brat's reception. It was all a gradual build from How I'm Feeling Now up until the end of 2024.

I don't know that Brat would've had the funding to make a music video like Guess feat Billie if she hadn't toured as hard and got such a great reception as she did. It may not have reached the highs they were hoping for with radio hits and chart positions but culturally it made her relevant (which is important because 2019's attempt to bridge her experimental side and alt-pop committed the cardinal sin of being boring).

shes genuinely a real artist that cares about what she does. as a long time fan im so happy for everything she's accomplished in the last few years

4 hours ago, Egon Schiele said:

She said it herself, music doesn't matter to her.

So why is she a singer then?

3 hours ago, Onyxmage said:

Once she used the talentless Jenner girl in her video I knew this era would be a flop and I was right. I wish her a 1/2 ounce of luck in the future.

You're gonna have to keep wishing since nothing about this era or her future is flopping it's only gonna get better from here

3 hours ago, Onyxmage said:

Once she used the talentless Jenner girl in her video I knew this era would be a flop and I was right. I wish her a 1/2 ounce of luck in the future.

Just say you don't understand her social commentary for placing Kylie Jenner in a room with a bunch of other Charlixcx clones.