Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
Even if you haven’t listened to Tate McRae’s new album, it’s likely you’ve seen her dance. In her music videos, on Saturday Night Live, at the Billboard Music Awards—whenever she gets the chance, McRae’s going to bust a move. In fact, the marketing strategy behind the breakout pop star’s recently released sophomore album, THINK LATER, seems to be entirely centered around her dance pedigree, which includes becoming So You Think You Can Dance’s first-ever Canadian finalist. The album’s lead single, “Greedy,” as well as its follow-up, “Exes,” were both released alongside choreography-heavy videos, and McRae, 20, has since been on a circuit of live and televised performances that flaunt her beyond-her-years confidence as a dancer. These performances have garnered plenty of attention online, leading her to become one of the most talked-about new pop artists of the year.
In a recent interview with Vogue, McRae suggested that this success speaks to a growing demand for dance-centric spectacle: “There are so many videos that I look back at and it’s really the full production—the singing, the dancing, the visuals. I think people miss that.”
She’s right. McRae’s success, and the discourse it has sparked, speaks to a glaring hole in the pop music landscape—specifically, new stars who can command a stage with their dance moves as confidently as they can with their music. Maybe it’s nostalgia for the ’90s and early-aughts, when we came to expect elite dance routines from our pop stars, thanks to the paths blazed by Madonna and Janet Jackson; maybe it’s an overexposure to contemporary choreo-averse megastars like Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift; maybe it’s seeing post-conservatorship Britney Spears exuberantly dance her heart out on Instagram.