From Hype House to the Main Stage: Why Addison Rae Belongs and Alex Warren Doesn’t

One feels like the future of pop, the other like a youth pastor with a ring light

On Sunday night, Alex Warren, whose song “Ordinary” went viral on TikTok earlier this year, won Best New Artist at the VMAs. Last year, this was one of the primetime, highly anticipated awards, taken home by none other than Chappell Roan. This year, it was quietly handed out pre-show, a clear sign of how underwhelming the category felt. However, Gen Z it-boy Sombr was also nominated, and I half-expected him to get a grand coronation akin to Chappell’s.

Regardless, Alex still got a prime mainstage slot, which leaned hard into evangelical cosplay: youth pastor energy, gospel-adjacent staging and a nearly all-Black choir singing the whitest song my ears have ever heard. The result was underwhelming yet bizarrely committed.

Authentic but Unoriginal

In fairness, this aesthetic is genuine for him — his late father’s love of worship music shaped his sound, and faith became a lifeline during his unstable childhood following his father’s death and his mother’s descent into alcoholism. But authenticity doesn’t equal originality. The swooning, gospel-tinged pop ballad has already dominated male pop for the better part of the last decade, from Sam Smith to Lewis Capaldi.

Christian and gospel-sounding music is, for some reason, experiencing a surge in mainstream streaming, driven primarily by Gen Z audiences who are craving a spiritual experience through music, even outside of a church context. What is making this fall flat (to me) isn’t just the oversaturation and staleness, it’s the manipulation baked into the music itself. Gospel-coded pop ballads rely on the same bag of tricks: soaring builds, swelling choirs, big “lift” key changes, the kind of chord progressions designed to trigger goosebumps whether or not you care about the contents. It’s music reverse-engineered to feel profound.

So, even though Alex seemingly means it, the performance still felt tired — especially stacked against the women currently dominating pop who are challenging the rules of the genre: Addison Rae, Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter continue to produce fresh takes on sounds from the past. In that landscape, Alex’s set lands less as revelation, more as déjà vu.

Enter: The Hype House Backstory

But here’s the kicker: when I texted a friend about the spectacle, she dropped some lore I’d missed — Alex is a Hype House original.

I only knew Hype House in passing (mostly Addison Rae and the D’Amelios) but the dudes in the cast? Total mystery to me. For those even more behind than I, Hype House was an LA content mansion born in late 2019 that later gave way to a Netflix reality show no one really asked for.

Inside that circus, Alex became the unofficial vlogger-in-chief. While Charli, Dixie, and Addison were carefully curating TikTok empires, he was on YouTube doing his best David Dobrik impression (e.g., pranks and loud group chaos), seemingly serving as the house’s comic relief. His other defining storyline was his long-term romance with Kouvr Annon, portrayed as the mansion’s emotional anchor in a space otherwise dominated by drama and clout. They’re now married, and she’s the muse behind “Ordinary.”

Addison, on the other hand, was the unanimous star—the face of Hype House to anyone outside the TikTok bubble. Her viral dance videos weren’t just personal content; they served as the marketing arm of the House, the only real reason mainstream audiences even knew it existed.

Bigger Picture: Who Makes the Jump

That split carried into their careers. Addison’s leap into music felt inevitable: viral dance videos to debut album, cosigns from Charli XCX and performances with real star quality (even if the vocals can be shaky). She channels a fresh sound and a nostalgic aesthetic that suit her.

Alex’s entry feels… different. His music relies on hollow spectacle — slick megachurch vibes and clever chord progressions that evoke emotion without substance. Where Addison proves social media can democratize fame and produce genuine cultural players, Alex reminds us that virality is often mistaken for taste.

Addison is messy and magnetic; Alex is polished but shallow. Together, they illustrate the two possible outcomes when influencers attempt to transition to the main stage.