America’s Next It-Girl, or, Who is Addison Rae?
By Nathan Hilyard
The stage is set in sultry blue lighting. A dark silhouette flies down from an elaborate system of pulleys, the crowd is roaring so loud the lenses of your glasses vibrate. This is the largest concert in the history of the world. The president is here. Oprah is here. Michelle Obama couldn’t make it and was really bummed. The stage lights flicker, the opening strains of a pop song begin, and Addison Rae begins to sing…
Though this world may seem distant, it is possible. Addison Rae, throughout the past four years of internet stardom, has bounced between spheres of notoriety and somehow managed to maintain relative recognition within the public eye despite not having a specific breakout moment to garner such interest. But she is the next big thing.
Rae grew up as a competitive dancer in Louisiana, where she gained her first experiences as a performer. She enrolled in Louisiana State University for Broadcast Journalism, but she soon grew in popularity on TikTok, which encouraged her to drop out and pursue other career opportunities in Los Angeles. Her early videos were much of the typical sort: dancing, comedy skits, cameos from family members, and generally ordinary hijinx of the late 2019 sort. When she arrived in Los Angeles she joined the infamous “Hype House” which featured other creators such as Bryce Hall, Chase Hudson, and Charli D’amelio. These early years were important, but generally uninteresting for Addison. She’s yet to start working on original music, and is not showing off the stylistic developments that will soon cause her to stray from the rest of the TikTok pack.
In terms of TikTok stardom, Rae is really nothing special. She fits in swimmingly with the rest of the stars who are now infamous, but Rae has managed to play the social game in a very interesting way. Rae has had her fair share of controversies throughout the years, many of which being so camp and silly they really prove the adage: “Any press is good press.” Take the infamous mask incident, where she flaunted a boat paddle sized piece of plexiglass over her cheeky little grin in place of a covid compliant mask; or being a little bit confused about where Korea is; or her ridiculous Christianity themed bikini which sparked outrage from her religious fan base. This final incident is a clear indicator of her impending it-girl status, as upsetting the Christians is a smart move habitually made by notorious former pop it-girls. Her predecessors, such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Britney and more, all have been the victims of the Christian critique at one point in their career.
All of these incidents allowed Rae to stay in the spotlight (albeit the spotlight of the social media courthouse) while garnering attention for these comically embarrassing mishaps.
Though she’s maintained fame, it’s important to understand why she is different from the other internet stars with similar career trajectories. In terms of the other, there are ample examples of TikTok stars giving the whole ‘music thing’ a go. Notably Dixie D’amelio opened her musical career with the sleepy-eyed single “Be Happy” where she explains in less than poetic terms the difficulties of regulating emotions: “Sometimes I just don’t want to be happy,” and the world says “okay whatever.” In another example, Chase “Huddy” Hudson released his 2021 debut album Teenage Heartbreak, which, when listened to in its entirety, reads as a 33 minute pop-rock checklist, covering everything expected and nothing exciting.
How does Rae stand against these competitors? Fortunately (and unfortunately) we have little to base an opinion off of. In 2021 she released her only official single “Obsessed,” which, though not groundbreaking, is genuinely a solid pop song. It’s self-celebratory, danceable, and has a respectable lineup of songwriters including Leland and Ryan McMahon, many of which have formerly written for Conan Gray, Carly Rae Jepson, Troye Sivan, and Charli XCX. “Obsessed” is a formidable opener, and Addison has plenty of room to grow
Though that’s her only official single, she has an extremely solid line-up of unreleased songs to be found on YouTube and Soundcloud. The future-global-hit “I Got It Bad” seems as though it hopped off the 2007 pop radio rotation, while “Nothing On But The Radio” has a Lady Gaga writing credit and was supposedly meant for Born This Way (2011) and Artpop (2013) but didn’t make the final cut for either. It’s apparent that Rae has studied up on the icons, having even recreated Gaga’s career defining 2009 VMA costume for halloween, and nailing it quite well.
Addison Rae has additionally gotten attention for her personal Spotify account, which features a variety of cult icon artists such as Arca, PJ Harvey, Lana Del Rey, No Doubt, Hole, and Fleetwood Mac. Such a lineup inspired buzz from some queer fans, with one viral tweet saying: “addison rae hired me to run her spotify account she makes me click on esoteric nonbinary vibes artists and play it at 2% volume and if i play something normcore she beats me and doesn’t let me eat for 3 days” by twitter user @fuglibetty , to which Rae responded “ur fired.” Though this joking tweet pokes fun at Rae, it garnered 15 thousand likes and began a buzz within the queer twitter community, which famously is a starmaker.
Though she’s just getting started, Addison Rae is America's next it-girl. She has the music, the style, the fan base, and the perfect amount of controversy to keep momentum moving. Though her past is still a bit cloudy and there may be more controversies hidden, the promise of some radio ready hits and media whirlpools is enough to propel her into the limelight, but if that will be for good, or until her inevitable demise, we will just have to wait and see.