Addison Rae and the power of musical aesthetics

Addison Rae made it. She broke through the wall of TikTok fame, where she gained millions of followers with dances and funny faces, and secured a place in the pop world, which she had always wanted to be part of. Maybe it’s because we got a taste of her music thanks to Charli XCX, who featured her on the track Von Dutch, or maybe it’s because her current trashcore aesthetic aligns perfectly with today’s media era — but the fact that her first studio album, Addison, is a gem is an objective observation. Released last week along with a seemingly endless series of interviews, podcasts, and editorials dedicated to the artist, Rae’s new music project has already received praise from critics and a large part of the public. There were some negative comments, but Addison Rae doesn’t seem to care much — as she says in the track Fame is a gun, «And when you shame me / it makes me want it more». After all, the controversies raised in recent weeks about the American artist concern more her «new persona» than her music, more her aesthetic than her work. For years we’ve debated the need for originality in pop culture, the importance of creating an online persona that is both original and aspirational, for the sake of inspiring and, especially, for the need to sell. But now that the beloved TikTok star has shown she understands the entertainment industry and has managed to reinvent herself under the watchful eyes of her 88 million followers, it seems not everyone is ready to support her in this new professional chapter. The new Addison Rae seems manufactured, they say, without recognising that in pop, that’s always been the point.

We began to know Addison Rae the singer in 2021, when at the peak of her TikTok fame she shared her first single, Obsessed, with her fanbase. Since then, Rae began to plant the seeds of her music career hoping her fans would soon reap the benefits. Even if Obsessed missed the mark and was received rather coldly, it certainly represented the artistic direction she was aiming for. Fortunately, in 2023 some of the songs she was working on were leaked against her will, the public began to take an interest in her voice, and Charli XCX invited her to collaborate on Von Dutch. From that moment on, the road to her first studio album Addison felt like a long descent, punctuated by strategic appearances where Rae could show what she's really made of: a world of pink with a cotton candy aftertaste that draws equally from pop titans like Britney Spears, Madonna, and Lana del Rey. All of it, as she emphasised in several interviews, topped with a media approach reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe (who, like the aforementioned icons, is name-dropped in one of the album’s tracks), between dazzling smiles and deceptive innocence.

Before talking about the musicality and lyrics in Addison, a brief excursus on the artist’s aesthetic is necessary precisely because the project started from a moodboard presented during the first meeting with the production team (entirely female, with Elvira Anderfjärd and Luka Kloser). From images of Britney Spears and Madonna in the 2000s to the colors she would choose for the album (aquamarine was one of them, as can be deduced from the song of the same name), every detail of Addison’s aesthetic was laid out even before the first note was recorded. For the single High Fashion, the artist said in an interview with Zane Lowe, the literary hook («I don’t wanna get high / I wanna get high fashion») came before the melody, which was meticulously crafted to match the nostalgic, glamorous, blonde world conceived by Rae. The album's artistic influences come through vividly, with New York channeling the electronic energy of Brat, Diet Pepsi echoing the Americana of Lana del Rey, and In the Rain drawing from the dance vibes of Britney Spears and Madonna. But Rae manages to make her voice stand out among this crowd of iconic inspirations, showing a strong ability to reference without copying. She also finds an original edge in the Y2K musicality, adding to an essentially American album melodies that evoke European pop, through harmonies and electronic flourishes that, instead of sounding redundant like many Eurodisco tracks, inject each piece with a dreamlike essence.

Like the moodboard presented to the producers for the creation of the album, Addison is a statement of intent from an artist determined to make it. Each track affirms what she wants from life, like a list of manifestations and needs that have less to do with love — although it’s a word she repeats often throughout the album — and more with recognition. «Have you ever dreamt of being seen?» Rae asks in the opening line of High Fashion. The ability to express her own taste freely is the central theme of this first artistic chapter from Addison Rae, who in an interview with the New York Times acknowledged it was a luxury she couldn’t afford during her early years of fame. «I was definitely strategic with it,» Rae told the outlet with an intensity her fanbase is only now beginning to appreciate («She’s like modern day Aristotle if he slayed,» says one of the more amusing social media comparisons). «It was a lot about like, ‘How am I just going to get out of here?’ It wasn’t about like, ‘Let me show the intricacies of myself right now.’”» It seems she’s still not satisfied with the freedom she’s earned: on her website, it says this is the first and last album by Addison Rae. The next, rumours say, will be released simply under the name Addison.