It’s hard to avoid Addison Rae’s name these days. 

In the last year, the 24-year-old TikTok star-turned-cultural-icon has been making strides to solidify her position atop the pop podium. 

Despite her success in the pop music scene, Rae’s rebrand into messy relatability has jarred fans from her initial position as one of TikTok’s biggest stars. 

Listeners have been quick to call out Addison’s inauthenticity when it has come to her rebrand, raising questions of the legitimacy of her rise to fame.

Addison Rae’s biggest hit, "Diet Pepsi", released in August last year, has been streamed on Spotify over 459 million times. 

This year, Rae has followed up her success by releasing her debut album, "Addison", in June that charted in the top ten upon release.

Amid this success, rumours contending Rae’s rise to fame have been brought to light. 

A ‘rebrand’ can come in many different forms. Importantly, it is a way for artists to shift their cultural presence through iconography and fashion — and even music, in Rae's case.

Where Rae was once found hitting the moves to TikTok’s viral "Renegade dance", ‘messy girl chic’ had defined her new image. This genre shift is established by a nostalgic vibe that prompts recollections of the 2000s. Hot pink wigs, wired headphones and studded jeans are amid the few cultural icons Rae has embedded into her recent music video. 

Rae has been quick to move away from the girl who she once was, as she is seemingly aware of these fan critiques. 

Her new album, "Addison", ditches any connections to her last name and strives to re-market her newer, identifiable form.

This raises the question: Why does everything in the music industry need to be groundbreaking all of the time?

Twenty-year-old Nathan Eding has been an avid fan of Rae’s music since the release of her first single in 2021, "Obsessed", and has tickets for her upcoming tour to Australia in November.

“I give her credit for having this big breakout. It’s not genre-bending or anything, but I would say the rebrand was super impressive,” Eding said.

His favourite songs on the new album include "High Fashion" and "Fame is a Gun".

When asked about Rae's recent successes, he said people were quick to jump onto criticism.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” he said.

Rae leans heavily into inspiration drawn from the likes of 2000s pop stars in her new album, with certain fans drawing comparisons to fellow pop icons Brittany Spears or Lana Del Rey.

Other listeners, however, have been quick to criticise Rae’s as lacking innovation with her personal brand.

Eding noted that, considering Rae’s past, people are quick to put her down. 

“She was silly and quirky, and she just dance[d] online ... so people didn’t think that she had much more in her, and I think that’s why they call it inauthentic.”

He noted the growing influence of Rae locally, enthused with the singer’s boundary-breaking rise to fame. 

“The fact that we see an Addison Rae CD in JB Hi-Fi! She’s opening with Lana [Del Rey], and playing with Charli [XCX]. It’s really cool to see the pipeline, rather than her sticking in that C-grade artist bracket,” he said.

Rae has since been announced as a headliner for the Beyond the Valley Festival, to be held from December 28 to January 1, 2026. 

With 35,000 people attending the festival last year, Rae is set to make her mark on young Victorians.

This festival illustrates a significant milestone in Rae’s career, as a hopeful stepping stone in her growing success.