Addison Rae - "Headphones On" + Addison (Jun 6)

And that's not to say she's just doing this for the ~vibes and she's not taking it seriously. She obviously wants to be a successful pop act, and it's clear she's determined to prove herself as such. But success looks like different things to different people. Based on what we're seeing and hearing, I would say her sights are set on trying everything she can while she still has the freedom to do it
Oh yeah I just mean - she doesn't need a hit for cash. She can make her money other ways and this is clearly a passion project. Not a "for the lols" side gig like...say Kim Zolciak releasing music...but not something she needs to do to cement lifelong wealth. She's good there.

Financial freedom / already being super successful (she...quite literally pioneered an app that shaped a generation) means she can be more experimental. We don't need a sold out Addison Rae arena tour for her to be a big deal.
 
Dead at the discourse. Well I for one enjoy when the girls go outside the box and try things even if they don’t work out. I appreciate the effort. Aside from that, I took the time to hear the song several times and even though it wasn’t as instant as the first 2…I was intrigued. I for sure want to hear the album. Give us that album release date Addy!
 
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Sorry but I absolutely hate the, "Let's wait and see!" non-comment that has crept up on the forum a little recently, especially for artists who have been doing this for multiple years. For better or worse, she has been releasing music for four years (so not brand new to this game) and is picking these singles to represent what she brings to the table. At what point are we allowed to pass comment? The album being whatever it ends up being doesn't change how this song is here and now. If we all waited for some undefined point in the future to judge an artist's output this forum would be dead.

For what it's worth, I think this is a pretty great discussion to have, and it's crazy that we're having it about Addison fucking Rae of all people.

I also think Addison is very sure of herself and confident in what she's putting out there, so if people aren't feeling it that's totally fine! Criticism is what pushed her to push herself in the first place. Personally, all her songs give me Tumblr lyric post energy, but I'm also not mad at it

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I'm surprised they're going with Aqua and this tbh cause I get the idea the aim here is to be Britney for the poor teenagers of present day and do the whole albums and tours thing but I'm not sure these twee bops will do that for her.

I think that's maybe a longer term kind of objective for her (if at all)? For this album, at least, it feels like she's going for the alt-pop girl playbook of developing a not-so-big but loyal audience (enough for theatre venues or festival slots if she decides to do them, and enough to get an album out with a decent selection of music videos) while building her music cred, so she can then build upon that on future projects with a clearer aim of getting a proper breakthrough hit and expanding her audience into the mainstream.
 
This for me is the weakest of the three singles from the album but you can’t fault her for her confidence in her own vision. out of every rising pop girl now (outside of chappell and sabrina of course, although i’d say they’re now more established) she’s the only one who seems to know exactly what she wants everything to look, sound and feel like. there’s power in that!
 
Yeah this doesn't even come close to ‘Aquamarine’ I'm afraid. The chorus sounds like they forcefully produced it to sound "alternative"/cool but it just doesn't work. The visuals remain weirdly fascinating in a modernized Tumblr way. Lowkey perched for the album/EP/whatever she's cooking.
 
I'm late to the discourse but my POV on the 'Left-field'gate is that the word I'd personally use to describe her recent work would be... quirky. As in, any weirdness derives not from an actual transgression of pop music as a whole or from being firmly non-commercial, but from a very cleverly curated set of references displayed throughout the whole package (which is an important distinction to make here, as I think the visuals do an important amount of work in further elevating the songs, specially in the case of Diet Pepsi).

And I think she has succeeded in providing a very cohesive collection of singles so far not only in terms of the musical style, but also in the intention behind the work, or how and why those aforementioned references were chosen. So, at least to me, it doesn't seem like they're just throwing any weird, underground references they can think of at a wall and seeing what sticks, it all seems to circle around the same core idea of creating contrast by having the very polished, commercial quality of her music as well as her wholesome, girl-next-door kinda presence clash with the more uncanny, avant-garde or deviant references sprinkled mostly in the videos and the occasional inspired production flourishes or songwriting choices.

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Oh and the song + video are fab, less immediate to me than Diet Pepsi but about on par with Aquamarine.
 
What sets her apart is she doesn't the money. She 'experiments' because she can afford it. I wouldn't be surprised if she put her own pretty penny into all this. There's no pressure to bring the bread home at all costs so she can take her time with it and have fun. And you can tell she's having fun!
 
I can't decide how I feel about this one....I don't love it on first listen, it's not very hooky, but I feel like it'll grow on me and I appreciate the direction of it.

I'm obsessed with the video and the beignets though!
 
It’s about credibility with her. She’s aligning herself with creatives who can help execute whatever vision she has well or contribute to her artistic ~identity, while distancing herself as much as possible from TikTok. She has a lot of these publications endorsing her. Even given her dance background, most of these visuals don’t rely on that skill of hers at all.

And she genuinely seemed so interested in learning the ropes with music from the start, with Obsessed. I guarantee there were a lot of conversations about avoiding a launch with anything close to it. Props to her, it’s working.
 
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It's crazy to think just a couple years ago I would've considered myself a certified Addison hater. I thought she had no business attempting to be a pop star, didn't have much talent, and I didn't understand what Charli saw in her at all. But she dropped the formulaic wannabe act and really has found her own sound and identity this past year.

Yeah, I've done a complete 180 since Diet Pepsi nn. I still have a hard time with her voice sometimes (she's definitely learning the best way to use it and has been improving in that regard, it's just still not enjoyable to me), but her vision is stellar and she has so much charisma. I like that it doesn't feel like she's directly copying specific references like some of the other new girls, but efficiently flipping them into her own thing.
 
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