is addison rae actually our next main pop girl?

headphones on 🎧

when addison rae first exploded on tiktok, her content didn’t appear on my fyp. i had a vague idea that she was associated with the hype house, the kid laroi had dedicated a song to her and that she was set to star in netflix’s joyless remake of ‘she’s all that’. i was also aware of this jimmy fallon appearance that continues to get meme’d to death.

that is all.

fast forward to 2025 and a lot has changed. a few weeks ago, i all but foamed at the mouth when the lousiana pop polymath dropped a 15 second teaser of the lusciously enigmatic ‘headphones on’ ahead of its official release.

produced by luka kloser (whose other credits include work on ed sheeran, ariana grande and tate mcrae records) and elvira (maisie peters, tove lo, conan gray), ‘headphones on’ is a trip-hop, gen x-soft club-inflicted banger that sounds equal parts influenced by björk and britney. its video is a colourful, hypnotic journey through a sweeping scandinavian terrain, spearheaded by rae, who dons an iconic american apparel purple hoodie. buried under the guise of a ‘head empty, no thoughts’ hook, the track lyrically deals with family trauma, suffering and the radical acceptance of pleasure amidst hardship. art pop perfection, honestly.

‘headphones on’ is the fourth single from rae’s upcoming debut record, which she announced in the most it-girl way possible during arca’s weekend one coachella set.

it follows a string of, dare i say it, near flawless singles.

lead single ‘diet pepsi’ is a sultry alt-pop hit that calls to mind vivid americana-esque imagery set against a down-tempo, heroin-chic beat reminiscent of early lana del rey. it’s her biggest ‘hit’ so far, currently sitting at 370 million+ streams, and marked her first debut on the billboard charts, where it remained for 20 weeks. ‘aquamarine’ is the darkest of the lot, lending from the pulsating house that carried maddona’s ray of light, and ‘high fashion’ is pure dance-pop bliss. each track has been accompanied by equally captivating music videos (a lost art), which has seen rae work alongside incredibly solid creative squads that wouldn’t feel out of place in the credits of an a24 film.

addisonraee

A post shared by @addisonraee

‘addison’ is set for release on june six, and the cover (shot by Y2Chaotic) calls to mind a very particular ‘rock of love’ / trucker’s wife y2k aesthetic. camp!!!!

naturally, the phrase ‘main pop girl’ has been thrown around regarding rae’s upcoming album. a main pop girl is an artist who can simultaneously commercially dominate while capturing the zeitgeist — an artist with the most mass appeal but also the utmost taste. so, could someone who has yet to go on a headline tour even qualify for the title? in this pop music landscape, yes.

self-proclaimed pop connoisseurs everywhere are now well acquainted with rae’s trajectory. personally, i remember the shift in her perception from “wildly popular yet basic gen z tiktok dancer” to potential “saviour of modern pop” began in early 2022, when tracks from her debut ep ‘ar’ leaked. the circulated tracks showcased a reverence for the maximalist pop of the 00s that had since been tossed aside by the then current crop of chart dominators. inquisitive fans also spotted co-writes by none other than a pre-brat charli xcx (rae’s mentor, the ultimate tick of approval and cred). others noticed that her spotify playlists started to feature artists like arca, cashmere cat, david bowie, earththeater and fiona apple — a far cry from the sped-up jason derulo tracks that soundtracked her videos.

her tiktok content also slowly phased out of trending dances into something cooler, nonchalant and curated. it was all tied together perfectly when she modelled dirt-bag left brand praying’s ‘holy trinity bikini’, inciting a fully-blown religious scandal. by then, the republican accusations that had been levelled against were nothing but a distant memory.

despite this initial rebrand, tracks like ‘obsessed’ didn’t quite meld with the then-current pop landscape, garnering its fair share of mockery (as evidenced in this video). the culture at the time was fixated on taylor swift’s artistic reemergence as a result of the ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’ eras, with albums like ‘red’ and ‘fearless’ receiving their well-overdue critical re-imagining. phoebe bridgers’ cult-classic ‘punisher’ had taken her from dive bars to the met gala. billie eilish’s ‘happier than ever’ saw a departure from moody electronics, and instead dabbled in acoustic instrumentation. and of course, olivia rodrigo’s driver’s licence had taken over the world.

naturally, a manufactured pop hit wasn’t quite on the agenda — but, the chronically online spectators in the pop pantheon saw the vision (the ‘raecists’). this placed her in the perfect position to be built up as an ‘underdog’, in the same vein as other ‘meta-pop stars’ like kim petras, slayyter and of course, pre-brat charli. being able to see the bigger picture in an artist's vision during its development phase is an essential feature of online pop fandom, and rae became the perfect pop-trainee to root for.

there are also skeptics who question the authenticity of rae’s rebrand, but considering her co-signs from people like eternal cool-girl julia fox (who has called rae ‘her muse’) haim, and of course, charli, it’s clear she is the real deal. (katy perry, take notes).

@haimthebandour 4th haim sister!!! we love u @Addison

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“i would like to say my taste, or maybe my intuition—oh, you know what? i’ll say this. the most underrated thing about me is my ability to evolve and transform. people like to say, ‘her pr team is working overtime on the rebrand.’ and i’m like, ‘girl, nobody’s rebranding. this is me’,” rae told interview magazine in 2024.

in 2024 we hit peak-pop. the brat era, chappell roan’s breakout and sabrina carpenter’s short ‘n’ sweet (the teenage dream of our time?), proved a hunger for brash, glossy and OTT pop — or, reccessioncore pop — hedonistic music reminiscent of the shiny hits that dominated MTV in the 00s. however, while the sound of popular music might start to mirror the era more closely, the way it operates and how it connects won’t quite match.

the success of brat indicates there needs to be a meta-narrative (and a hint of irony) around an artist in order to capture the zeitgeist. charli, in many ways was the ultimate pop underdog — beginning her career in the mainstream pop machine, venturing into experimental territory, and semi-intentionally becoming the most popular artist in the world. this fifteen-year climb to brat as a cult classic phenomenon is the story that carries the record over its gritty electronic sheen.

rae’s arc — cosplaying as a pop star to actually becoming a pop star — works perfectly in this context. what percentage of rae’s 88 million followers who discovered her from a random dancing video know that she featured on ag cook’s 2024 album, let alone who ag is? it’s this kind of contrast that makes her fascinating. she’s simultaneously a symbol of basic, or “normie” mainstream media and the ultra-cool underground. this makes the juxtaposition of marrying “high” concept music videos and tasteful sonic references with lower-brow references like britney more powerful. having tapped into this niche culture and community, rae will likely have a diehard fanbase long after her commercial success (or massive tiktok follower count) drops.

somehow, in a time when the lines between reality and fiction are becoming more blurry, a tiktoker ‘trying on’ becoming their favourite pop stars of the 00s feels refreshingly….real. after all, who among us hasn’t wanted to completely rebrand and uproot their entire personality?