TikTok Made Addison Rae Famous. Pop Made Her Cool.

New York Times

2 days ago

A couple of years ago, when Addison Rae went to pitch herself for a deal with Columbia Records, pop stardom was not a guarantee. She was best known as one of TikTok's breakout stars, someone who had used the app to catapult from anonymity to ubiquity, but as a dancer and personality — not a musician. And some early demo recordings she didn't love had recently leaked online, and she wanted to distance herself from them.
So instead of presenting a set of sonic ideas, she came into the meeting with a mood board in a binder.
First there were the descriptors: words like 'intentional,' 'intense,' 'loud,' 'dance,' 'glitter.' Then there were the colors: aquamarine, hot pink, purple, yellow. And then the screen grabs of superstar live-show touchstones: Britney Spears's 'I'm a Slave 4 U' at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna's Girlie Show tour, and so on.
It worked — she landed the deal. But what came next was a conundrum, Rae said in an interview last month on Popcast, The New York Times's music podcast: 'I was like, I know what I want people to feel when they hear my music, but what does that sound like? And what am I going to say?'
Those questions set Rae on a year-plus mission of refining her public image, one that was forged in the relentless algorithmic fires of TikTok and that has lately seen her remade as a savvy pop ingénue. This week, she'll release 'Addison,' her debut album and one of the year's signature pop releases. (Its original title was, in fact, 'Mood Boards.') It's a breathy, sweaty, urgent album — more a throwback to the sonics of three decades ago than a conversation with contemporary pop.
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