Seeing praise for Addison ahead of her debut album I started wondering what Bella could have done differently to achieve a similar level of success.

 

She had a very strong start with Build a ***** but then the hype quickly died down.

 

 

She's a TikTok artist.  They tend to come and go quickly.

Her EP has nearly a billion streams, but her career started and ended there as she clearly still clings to BAB's sound in the eyes of the GP.

Edited May 29, 20251 yr by Popboi.

Boring and redundant music. Inferno is great though and should've smashed.

Edited May 29, 20251 yr by YourFavoriteWeapon

I honestly think it's very hard for a tik tok influencer to be taken seriously as an artist 

 

Addison had really a hard time transitioning and she's not even there fully yet

 

You need one hell of an album and a full image reinvention to maybe have a chance

Bella poarch still gives off tik tok girl vibes. The difference between her and Addison is she actually making major effort to step away from tik tok. Instead of trying to associate herself with other tik too stars and doing random things for content. She is hanging out with other music artist like charli xcx and Troy Sivan. She showing up in the same circles that underground pop girls and gays like. She associating herself with the hyper pop crowd and other music producers and songwriters. It's hard and it hasn't been easy for Addison but she putting in the work not too mention Addison image/branding has been more commercial speaking than. Bella poarch imo. Addison imo gives off early Britney vibes but for the 2020s.

I believe the fact that she served in the army was a huge turn off for some people?

15 minutes ago, Trent W said:

I honestly think it's very hard for a tik tok influencer to be taken seriously as an artist 

 

Addison had really a hard time transitioning and she's not even there fully yet

 

You need one hell of an album and a full image reinvention to maybe have a chance

 

 

Being white helps too.

It's hard for Tik Tok artists to break out apart from 1 or 2 hits and her branding and music come across a bit like a novelty act. 

Build a B is the only song of hers I've heard (only through people reposting tiktoks to twt so not even the full song) and it honestly gave me no desire to listen to the full song. Sounds like something I would've listened to as a young tween/teen thinking it was super deep (lollll)

She just felt very manufactured, like "oh boy, they gave another TikTok model a record deal". Addison Rae came off exactly the same way, and only escaped that image later because of her affiliations with Charli XCX and co.

 

With "Build A *****" specifically, that was falling into a trend of TikTok-focused music that was trying to respond to Melanie Martinez. People got sick of that, especially after stuff like "Twinkle Twinkle" by Leah Kate, and the trend passed.

56 minutes ago, Kurt Hummel said:

She just felt very manufactured, like "oh boy, they gave another TikTok model a record deal". Addison Rae came off exactly the same way, and only escaped that image later because of her affiliations with Charli XCX and co.

 

With "Build A *****" specifically, that was falling into a trend of TikTok-focused music that was trying to respond to Melanie Martinez. People got sick of that, especially after stuff like "Twinkle Twinkle" by Leah Kate, and the trend passed.

Yeah it was very strange

 

Then it all came out that she was in the army and divorcing her husband, which no one even knew she had one 

 

You don't need a fandom to have a hit (see Build a B*tch) but you do need a fandom to have any sort of longevity.

 

Hate to say it but that parasocial relationship is what builds a fandom. How can you stan someone you know nothing about. 

Addison would have had this trajectory had she continued with the sound and concept that Obsessed had.

 

I feel like her networking with real pop stars and joining that stratosphere helped solidify a cult following along with her early leaks. People started liking her in an ironic way over the I Got It Bad snippet and I know I was gagging at the time that she recorded a cut as deep as Nothing on but the Radio.

 

Bella only networks with like, Twitch streamers and realistically created no standout imagery for being a pop star. :( She's very pretty but there were no groundbreaking references or concepts that inducted a swarm of people here for the actual music.

Build A B was a great start and was lowkey smashing. She never did any performance or did promo outside ok tik tok/twitch so I don't think many people took her seriously as an artist. By the time she kept releasing music her hyped died down a lot. I could see her getting a cute hit again but she's gonna need a rebrand if she wants a legit music career.

she's underrated for me, lets not forget this classic 

 

she always gave 2021'd corny cutesy uwu twitch streamer tease, not surprised she couldn't shake that image off 

Boring tiktok artist. She and quite a few others from Tiktok are fading or will fade quickly too. She's lucky she had that one hit, atleast.

Addison clearly has an amazing A&R team. Whoever hooked her up with Charli and then Elvira for the album was a genius. She found exactly the niche that would be willing to overlook her influencer past if the music was good enough (and it was).

No follow up smash

She didn't evolve as an artist tbh