Song remixes used to be hastily tacked onto the end of an album as a low-effort means to generate more physical album sales. Today, remix albums have taken on a never-before-seen level of popularity in the collective consciousness of pop music fans. Recent remix albums by Charli xcx, PinkPantheress, and Zara Larsson provide a unique opportunity for these artists to collaborate with DJs, producers, and other up-and-coming artists to put a brand new twist on the songs fans already love.
charli xcx’s brat and the resurgence of remixes
Personally, I think the new wave of remix albums was kicked off by Charli xcx in June 2024 with her endlessly iconic ‘brat‘ era. For anyone who’s a chronically online pop fan, such as myself, it’s undeniable that Charli’s brat, and its subsequent deluxe version ‘brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not‘, scored most of our 2024 summers. Like what pop fan wasn’t having a brat summer in 2024?
During the rollout of brat, Charli xcx released remixes of brat‘s two lead singles: “Von dutch A. G. Cook remix featuring Addison Rae” and “360 featuring Robyn and Yung Lean.” After the full release of brat in early June, Charli continued to release singles that not only featured new artist collaborations, but also often changed the composition of the original song. “Girl, so confusing featuring Lorde” and “Guess featuring Billie Eilish” both became fan favorite singles in their own rights, eclipsing their original versions on the charts and in the hearts of the fans. Eventually, all these remixed singles, along with “Talk talk featuring Troye Sivan,” were released together as part of an entire reimagining of brat, ‘brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.’
While brat certainly didn’t invent the concept of remixing an entire album, it certainly re-popularized remix albums as a means to construct an era around each album rollout, especially in the pop genre. During the COVID-19 pandemic, renowned pop stars Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga released dance-pop remix albums of their 2020 albums ‘Future Nostalgia‘ and ‘Chromatica.’ ‘Club Future Nostalgia‘ and ‘Dawn of Chromatica‘ reimagine their original versions by putting an EDM or hyperpop twist on each of the tracks. DJs such as Kaytranada and Arca remix some tracks while frequent Charli xcx collaborators, A. G. Cook, Yaeji, and Shygirl, also provide features and remixes.
Long before brat, Charli xcx released fan favorite albums such as ‘Charli‘ and ‘Pop 2‘ that include over 10 different collaborators across each of their tracklists. While these albums were not met with the same level of commercial success as brat, Charli fans, also known as “angels,” raved about seeing so many collaborations between Charli and their other favorite pop artists. Some of her most notable collaborators pre-brat era include Troye Sivan, Clairo, Kim Petras, Caroline Polachek, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Lizzo, among others.
era-based marketing in pop music
In 2022, global pop mega-star Taylor Swift announced The Eras Tour, her sixth global concert tour. The Eras Tour unmistakably popularized the phenomenon of pop stars depicting each of their albums as distinct eras in their careers, with each era and album portraying a different mood, aesthetic, sound, and color palette. Since then, it has become increasingly common for pop artists to utilize individual representative colors and themes in the rollouts of their albums.
With the popularization of era-focused marketing in the pop music space, remix albums are becoming a distinct tool for generating multiple waves of buzz around a singular project. Rising pop princesses PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson both recently released remix albums as part of their 2025 ‘Fancy That?‘ and ‘Midnight Sun‘ eras, respectively.
PinkPantheress’s ‘Fancy Some More?‘ is not her first foray into remixing one of her albums. In 2022, Pink released ‘to hell with it (Remixes),’ an album full of reimagined songs from her debut drum’n’bass album, ‘to hell with it.’ The British singer and producer continued her dive into remix albums with Fancy Some More? in late 2025, following in the footsteps of Charli xcx. Much like brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, Fancy Some More? also utilizes vocal features from global artists and remixes from producers to rework each song’s composition. PinkPantheress is known as the main producer of her music, so hearing other producers rework her productions was super fun to hear. This remix album also provides a jam-packed lineup of featured artists from all across the world, including Anitta (Brazil), SEVENTEEN and Yves (South Korea), Oklou (France), Jade, Sugababes, and Rachel Chinouriri (UK), JT and Ravyn Lenae (USA), Kylie Minogue (Australia), Zara Larsson and Bladee (Sweden).
It cannot be ignored that, by far, the most successful single from PinkPantheress’s entire Fancy That? era turned out to be “Stateside + Zara Larsson,” a remix that features the original “Stateside” production and a glorious vocal feature from Zara. Personally, I was floored when I witnessed the utterly immense rise of this song in early 2026. “Stateside + Zara Larsson” amassed huge success, with the music video hitting 100 million views on YouTube, 700 million streams on Spotify, and reaching number one on the Billboard Global 200, an incredible first for both PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson.
In the official music video, both pop stars showcase the aesthetics they curated for their Fancy That? and Midnight Sun eras. Pink’s is royal blue and red with polka dots and tartan patterns, while Zara’s contrasts in bright yellows and pinks with tropical, beachy motifs. I think the stark difference between such deeply curated visual identities was what made the “Stateside + Zara Larsson” music video and song feel so memorable. It’s such a treat to see two stars in completely different eras team up and be transported into each other’s worlds.
Following the triumphant run of her “Stateside” feature, Zara Larsson released ‘Midnight Sun: Girls Trip,’ her first reimagined album. The ‘Midnight Sun‘ era marked a whole new level of notoriety for Zara Larsson. Her rise back into pop culture began in 2024, with her 2017 Clean Bandit collab, “Symphony,” becoming the backing track to viral TikTok memes depicting glittery, rainbow dolphins jumping out of the ocean under a sunset. These viral posts seemed to inspire the tropical, nostalgic aesthetic Zara utilized in her Midnight Sun album rollout and would continue throughout the reimagined album. Midnight Sun: Girls Trip gave fans a star-studded lineup of talented women from around the world featured on remixed tracks from Midnight Sun. The lineup of collaborators includes Kehlani, JT, Margo XS, Madison Beer and Eli (USA), Shakira (Columbia), Emilia (Argentina), Tyla (South Africa), Robyn (Sweden), BAMBII (Canada), Malibu (France) and Helena Gao (Denmark/China).
In a May 2026 interview with iHeartRadio, Zara discussed how Charli xcx’s brat era remixes directly inspired her to create Midnight Sun: Girls Trip. She reflected on the pressure to move on and begin a new era by stating, “there’s infinite possibilities to keep being creative on this album, like keep doing new versions of a song that you love and like exploring what that would sound like.” She continued that Charli adding new productions and new verses to the brat songs “expanded the world that she had created.”
The future of reimagined albums in pop eras
Obviously, remixes have been loved by pop fans before brat and its remixed tracks, however, the monumental success of songs like “Guess featuring Billie Eilish” and “Von dutch A. G. Cook remix featuring Addison Rae” have granted remixes the space to stand out from their original albums. I think that in the coming years, we will continue to see dance pop artists utilize the deluxe and remix album as an essential tool to extend the life of an era.
An upcoming pop girlie who is currently putting a new spin on a reimagined album is Slayyyter, who is in the early stages of rolling out a companion album to her breakout project, ‘WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA.‘ The companion album, ‘wor$t man in america‘ is set to feature recently released singles “brand new chanel$” and “crank 2,” both reimagined extensions of the previously released singles “BEAT UP CHANEL$” and “CRANK.” Both of these singles are standalone tracks, not remixes of their counterparts, but they still incorporate similar motifs, reworked verses, and even continue the story told in the previous singles. With this ongoing rollout, I have to wonder if companion albums will become the next tool for pop stars to reimagine their projects and continue to build continuous hype around a particular era.