Addison Rae is a household name among Gen Z. Since the beginning of doom scrolling, Rae has been promoting herself on TikTok by lip-syncing and dancing to trending songs. To most, she may be remembered as a prominent member (in 2019) of defunct influencer-setup ‘The Hype House’. Some might not know, however, that she has now made a name for herself in the art pop scene. What you also might not know is that this was her plan all along.
Rae has been pretty open about her journey to stardom so far. Speaking to Rolling Stone earlier this year, she stated that since starting TikTok, it has always been her plan to eventually become an actress and pop star. Her true trajectory began in 2021 when she landed a multi-film deal with Netflix after starring in He’s All That. Still, since then, no one has seen her in any other Netflix by-products. 2021 was also the year that her music career took off with the release of her flop single ‘Obsessed’, but this didn’t stop her landing a deal and after the flop of her first single, ‘Obsessed’, Rae with Columbia Records in 2023 where she released her EP AR, featuring Charli XCX.
From the For You Page to the Coachella Stage
Since last summer, Rae has been a machine, pumping out new hot singles every couple of months. The start of this was her appearance on Charli XCX’s widely-popular ‘BRAT’ campaign. Rae featured on XCX’s ‘BRAT’ remix album with the ‘Von Dutch’ remix, which premiered Rae’s infamous and girlish scream that became a trending ‘sound’ on social media. Her guest lyrics acknowledge her up-and-coming status and are directed towards jealous listeners, featuring phrases such as ‘While you’re sittin’ in your dad’s basement / Bet you’re disappointed that I’m shinin’ / I’m just living that life’.
Rae’s oeuvre, as well as the works mentioned, now consists of five singles, ‘Diet Pepsi’, ‘Aquamarine’, ‘High Fashion’, ‘Headphones On’ and ‘Fame is a Gun’ that have featured on her debut album Addison. Across all is an unmistakably coquettish, pixie-like, illusive aura. There are certainly some Britney elements in there, as Rae plays with her perception by describing her innocence as lost in the backseat of a car on ‘Diet Pepsi’. In ‘Aquamarine’ Rae possesses listeners with her celestial voice, and she appears like a mermaid in the music video. In ‘High Fashion’, she toys with her innocence more, singing suggestively about cigarettes and sex. In the music video to ‘Headphones On’, she prances around the Icelandic countryside, escaping into her world with apple earbuds and pink hair. In ‘Fame is a Gun’, Rae sings about how the hate she receives online only makes her want more fame in a whispering and alluring voice.
During this process she has also worked with experimental producer and musician Arca a, who remixed one of Rae’s singles cleverly into ‘Arcamarine’. It is safe to say that Rae has tried to position herself well-away from traditional pop culture – she’s no longer the innocent girl with the scrunched-up nose on your for you page. Perhaps she never was.
Given how Rae has climbed a new ladder into the pop music world it makes you think, is this the birth of this summer’s pop girl? Is this how pop stars will climb their way to the top? By utilising her platform on TikTok, which now boasts 88.3 million followers, Addison has garnered a broader following backed by the likes of Charli XCX and Arca, all the way to the Coachella stage, where she was a surprise guest for both artists’ performances earlier this year.
Haters hate how she has managed this; just scrolling through a few comments on her recent videos tell her to retire early, that her pretty privilege has gone too far, how this isn’t the Addison they know, and that she should stick to lip-synching. But all the hate is ironic, at least to Rae and her fans (known as the Sunraes), often expressed by her on stage and as shown earlier in ‘Von Dutch’. It seems that people struggle to accept the idea that a young girl from TikTok achieved all this on her own.
If you’re not a fan, each to their own. But if you’re gonna hate, best keep it to yourself because Rae is singing about you without you even realising she’s just living that life. Strap in haters; it’s gonna be a Sunraes summer.
Another article you may enjoy: https://thebadgeronline.com/2025/06/an-interview-with-kevin-atwater-vulnerability-songwriting-achilles/
