When Kamala Harris became the prospective new Democratic party presidential candidate on July 21, social media was quickly flooded with coconut and palm tree emojis, black writing on lime green backgrounds, the word “brat”, and questions about the actress Maya Rudolph’s whereabouts. But how do these memes and popular culture references relate to the US election campaign?
Following last year’s “Barbiecore” theme, social media posts this summer are all about neon lime green and being “brat”. The trend emerged from the new album of the same name by British pop singer Charli XCX.
Many social media users have adopted the album cover art (black arial font on a neon lime green background) as a meme (a popular and shareable cultural idea). According to Charli XCX, the meaning of “brat” is to be “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party … Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown … is very honest, very blunt, a little bit volatile”.
