Brat

Chari XCX

If you asked anyone in Gen Z what defined the summer of 2024, they would say “Brat.” What started as an album devoted to a niche community that embraced dance and electronic music suddenly became a cultural phenomenon bigger than “Brat Summer.” The album, seemingly inconspicuous with the color now coined “Brat Green” and Ariel font, became the forefront of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, reaching the younger demographic nationwide. Yet, despite how big the album became in the summer of 2024, it is important to note its impact inside and outside its fanbase. 

“Her music in general means so much to the LGBTQ community,” freshman Sam Sickler said. “And she’s such an icon within that community. It means a lot. It’s impactful because it displays personal experiences in a fun way.” 

Sickler said one of his favorite songs from the album is “Everything Is Romantic,” which uses electronic beats to back vocals about love, longing and finding romance in different aspects of life. 

Cowboy Carter 

Beyonce 

“This ain’t a Country album. This is a Beyoncé album,” Beyoncé wrote on her Instagram, as she released the cover for her eighth studio album. “Cowboy Carter” became her most acclaimed album to date.

 “I think her expanding into further genres like country music really shows not only her versatility but the ability for an artist to bring something that isn’t as popular to a fan base that wouldn’t have previously been as interested in the genre before,” junior Misha Choudry said. 

Dropping the album “Cowboy Carter” not only showed Beyoncé’s versatility as an artist, but it is also a reminder of the roots of country music, tracing back to the hymns of southern enslaved people. “[‘Cowboy Carter’] was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” Beyonce said, nodding to the gatekeeping of the country genre. Despite the challenges she had to overcome to release such a contrasting album from her rest, unsurprisingly, Beyoncé came out on the other side with 11 Grammy nominations for “Cowboy Carter” and an even more massive fanbase appreciating country music. 

Short and Sweet 

Sabrina Carpenter

Released right before Coachella 2024, “Espresso” is a song that has been playing on repeat everywhere you go. The meaning behind “That’s that me, Espresso” is slightly unclear, yet whatever it means, Sabrina Carpenter has it. Her 2024 album “Short and Sweet,” although a sharp contrast from her early music with Disney Channel, has taken over the pop genre. 

Senior Sallee Rosen says Carpenter’s new music has attracted many young fans, who appreciate her “girls supporting girls” message in many of her songs. This has become especially apparent with her album tour, where fans similar to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dress up like the artist and have fun with people who share similar music tastes. 

The Tortured Poets Department 

Taylor Swift

While every single Swiftie out there was analyzing every single song lyric, music video, tour set, costume and piece of merch hoping for some hint as to when Taylor Swift would drop her rerelease of the “Reputation” album, Swift was creating a 16-song album with a 31-song “anthology.” It was overwhelming, to say the least, yet Swift did what she does best: make hard-hitting breakup songs. But along with the heart-wrenching poetic songs about her most recent breakup with Joe Alwyn, “The Tortured Poets Department” had songs that meant so much more than singing about her ex. 

Junior Kelly Wentz describes her favorite song from the album, “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.”

“It just has those relatable lyrics, like, ‘I cry a lot, but I’m so productive,’” Wentz said. “It represents anxiety. It represents the fact that you have to push through, which is high school junior year. You have to keep going … You can’t fall back. And that’s just so relatable in this current moment.”