Addison Rae began her career as a successful TikTok influencer. Now, she’s a Grammy-nominated artist. This year, she has fully rebranded her public image and career, potentially becoming one of our generation’s next big pop stars.
Who Is Addison Rae?
Addison Rae rose to fame on TikTok primarily between 2019 and 2021. She was one of the founding members of The Hype House, a content creation house alongside other TikTok personalities like Charli and Dixie D’Amelio. She currently has 88.8 million followers on the platform.
Addison Rae always seemed to stand out from other TikTok stars at the time. At one point, she became very good friends with Kourtney Kardashian. She faced a similar backlash that many “TikTok dancers” faced, claiming she was only given opportunities because she could dance in front of a camera. Some even claimed she had no other talent or personality outside of TikTok.
She acted in the movie He’s All That, a 2021 remake of the 1999 film She’s All That, and is cast in various upcoming releases. She also started a makeup brand called Item Beauty.
Early Music Career
Addison Rae released her first single “Obsessed” in 2021. The song did not receive high praise. It was a fairly bland song, without much lyrical depth. Because it was a fairly generic song, it led the public to double down on the idea that Rae had no talent outside of her TikTok account. At the time, many TikTokers were seemingly branching out their careers and beginning to work in music. Her single was not very inspiring and didn’t stand out, so it was generally overlooked.
Despite a slow start, Addison Rae was able to convince listeners that her music career had potential. In 2022, tracks from Addison Rae’s lost debut album were leaked online. Listeners were eager to give Rae another chance, mainly those on the social media platform Twitter/X. There was a shift in sentiment where the possibility of Addison Rae becoming a pop sensation could be possible.
AR EP
In 2023, Addison Rae released her EP AR officially releasing these leaked tracks. The release of the EP signified a transition in Rae’s music career to something more serious. The four-track EP is described as bubblegum/synth-pop. The track “2 die 4” features Charli XCX, and her cult-like following seemed to immediately latch onto Rae because of her feature on the track. This feature was essential for Addison Rae’s music career to take off, showing that she had the trust of well-respected artists in the industry.
In an interview with SiriusXM, Rae said her relationship with Charli XCX has given her so much confidence, guidance, and direction in the industry. “It was so nice to see her perspective on those things and really see someone who’s been such an incredible artist and so respected for so long,” Rae said about Charli. “It’s really just so inspiring to see someone always evolve and change and grow and really follow their heart and not sacrifice her artistry for anybody.”
AR has a nostalgic sound that is reminiscent of pop music from the 2000s and early 2010s. Critic Liam Hess for Vogue described the single “I Got It Bad” as reminiscent of early Britney Spears.
Addison Rae on the Von Dutch Remix
Addison Rae appeared during Chali XCX’s Boiler Room set in New York this February. Rae’s appearance solidified that the two were still working together and remain close collaborators. Charli also sampled Addison’s verse in the “Von Dutch Remix” before the track was released.
Charli XCX released “Von dutch a.g. cook remix featuring addison rae” on March 22, 2024. The track features a high-pitched scream from Rae. Charli revealed that Addison pulled it out when recording ad-libs for the song, surprising everyone in the studio.
Charli posted this TikTok of the moment:
This moment was talked about online extensively and continued to solidify the possibility of Rae becoming a defining pop star of our generation.
“Von dutch a.g. cook remix featuring addison rae” is Grammy-nominated in the Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical category.
Diet Pepsi
“Diet Pepsi” serves as the start of Rae’s new musical era. Rae released the single on August 9, 2024 through Columbia Records. It continues the synth-pop and bubblegum-pop sound originally developed in AR, but with more depth to both the lyrics and production. The song peaked at 54 on the Billboard Top 100 Charts. It has also gone viral on TikTok.
“Diet Pepsi” clearly represents Rae’s music style and where she is taking her music. It shows a serious change in her public image, truly moving away from her TikTok roots and solidifying herself as a pop star. She has received critical acclaim from various artists in the industry, most notably Camilla Cabello, who covered the song for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge and stated she wished she had written the song herself.
Aquamarine
Rae released “Aquamarine” on October 25, 2024. It hasn’t achieved the same reaction as “Diet Pepsi” yet. This second single continues the sound of “Diet Pepsi,” truly acting as a solidification of Rae’s musical development. Rae has begun to create an image for herself that represents this current era in her career. The visuals of “Aquamarine” continue to mirror those of “Diet Pepsi” with current references to pop culture and incorporating nostalgic sounds and visuals.
These two singles are an exciting look into the music we can expect Rae to continue to release soon. If Rae plans to release an album, it seems that it will make a large cultural impact, given that these two singles have already done that.
Neither song is perfect, but I think this allows Rae to grow as an artist and prove herself as a pop icon. Each song already shows so much growth and development from her early career releases. She has seemed to nail the perfect amount of 2000s inspiration in her songs that have fed into the Y2K nostalgia the internet still seemingly adores.
Can we say when the switch-up happened?
In terms of the overall sentiment around Addison Rae, it’s hard to pinpoint when exactly the general public has changed their opinion on the star. Rae is still considered a cult classic artist who has not yet broken through to the mainstream conversation.
It’s hard to believe sometimes that Rae has had this extreme of a career and public image switch. It’s also fascinating how successful her rebrand has been. She was a TikTok personality that was heavily discussed, but usually never in a good light. I remember listening to AR without high expectations. It was an EP I would listen to on occasion, but never seriously. Her close collaboration with Charli XCX has made people pay closer attention to her career in the past few months.
Not everyone is a fan of Rae. Many Twitter users have expressed their disdain for ‘trying to make Addison Rae’ happen. Who knows if she will break through to the mainstream pop music culture. I believe she has a good chance of this happening sometime soon in her career. It would be unlikely for her career to skyrocket like Chappell Roan. But over time the name Addison Rae will become more well known in pop music.
Addison Rae currently has 17 Million monthly listeners on Spotify and is ranked #459 in the world.
