Taylor Swift\u2019s recent Eras Tour<\/a> has helped to repackage this reinvention as clearly defined \u201ceras\u201d. The tour reinforced the idea that each album represents a distinct world, and encouraged fans to structure their memory, identity and engagement through these phases.<\/p>\n These artist eras are now experienced, circulated and intensified through social media. Albums have become centrepieces of wider cultural worlds built through visuals, personal stories and fan participation. Meanwhile deluxe editions, remixes and companion releases increasingly blur the boundaries of the album itself. <\/p>\n Thinking in terms of eras provides a way of understanding these multiple releases as belonging to the same creative chapter that fans actively participate in, expand and help define.<\/p>\n Fan studies research<\/a> has long shown that digital technologies expand opportunities for fan creativity and participation, allowing audiences to play a more active role in shaping and circulating cultural meanings<\/a>.<\/p>\n On social media, fans don\u2019t just follow an era \u2013 they help bring it to life. Through videos, memes, fashion, conversations and creative interpretations, they shape the meanings that come to define a project and extend an album beyond the music itself. Artists often encourage this by revealing visual aesthetics, sharing cryptic teasers and discussing new projects in interviews long before release, inviting fans to imagine the era before the music is even out. What emerges is something larger than an album alone: a shared cultural world built together by artists and fans.<\/p>\n This can clearly be seen in the work of Charli XCX. Released in 2024, her album Brat became instantly recognisable for its lime green artwork and deliberately chaotic aesthetics, becoming one of the defining pop moments of the year. <\/p>\n \n The album\u2019s rebellious energy was rapidly taken up by fans online, who helped to build a recognisable Brat universe that connected with the core themes of the album through fashion, memes and video edits. One example was the \u201capple dance\u201d<\/a> a viral TikTok dance that accompanied Charli\u2019s song Apple<\/a>. It was originally created by fan Kelley Heyer before being taken up by Charli herself and becoming a regular feature then in her live shows. <\/p>\n Participating in an era in this way was also a way of expressing identity and belonging, allowing fans to signal shared values, tastes and community through creative participation.<\/p>\n Charli\u2019s new album Music, Fashion, Film (released on July 24 2026), signals a shift in tone and style, showing a distinct new era. Where the Brat era embraced bright green visuals, club culture and a chaotic energy, Music, Fashion, Film introduces a more cinematic, fashion-led aesthetic, with stronger influences from rock culture.<\/p>\n The album\u2019s artwork itself is a collage featuring figures from music, fashion and film. As with Brat, fans are similarly able to co-produce a particular world around this new era, being invited through a website generator<\/a> to add their own images and remix the album cover. This built excitement around the release and encouraged fans to share visual references and interpretations before the music was fully out. It\u2019s an example of how eras increasingly begin even before albums are released, shaped through expectation as much as through reception. <\/p>\n The third single from Charli\u2019s album, Wink Wink, with its tongue in cheek declaration \u201cI\u2019m not a bad girl anymore, I promise\u201d, signals a deliberate departure from the Brat era. <\/p>\n This has shaped early fan interpretations of the project as a shift in direction. Charli herself has reinforced this, explaining in interviews that her albums often \u201crepel against each other\u201d<\/a>, suggesting that reinvention is central to her creative process, with it being \u201cfun to flip the form\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of Charli\u2019s recent collaborators<\/a>, Ariana Grande has highlighted a different dimension of era building with her new album, Petal (released on July 31). Whereas Charli\u2019s recent era has centred on a bold visual aesthetic, Grande has framed her new era primarily through emotional openness and personal storytelling. <\/p>\nCharli XCX<\/h2>\n
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\n Brat by Charli XCX is a work of contemporary imagist poetry \u2013 and a reclamation of \u2018bratty\u2019 women\u2019s art<\/a>
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\nAriana Grande<\/h2>\n
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