Stardom or Despair
Miley Cyrus in her battle with her personality.
Found everywhere from YouTube to the front page of the tabloids, Miley Cyrus is known as America’s wild child. Whether it be from her many music videos to her interview comments Miley Cyrus has many different side to her. Miley likes to give off vibes to all people to live life the way they want to live it to not let other people make your decisions for you and to do what you truly want to do. She applies this to her everyday life by her many changes in hairstyles or her style of dressing Miley is doing it her way. Miley is going through her life as a set of multiple traits or masks that can change at the flip of a dime leaving the audience to want to know what is coming next.
American teens have based their image off of stars forever and Miley is no exception. This can be seen in a conducted focus group from the summer of 1999 with a similar pop star Britney Spears. Melanie Lowe discussed the topic with a group of tween age girls. The girls took the same view on Britney as how girls of the same age group think of Miley today. The girls explain as to a recent Britney Spears visit to their local mall “It would be cool if she moved here— we could hang out!” (Lowe) These girls are looking up to these superstars and hoping that these stars won’t crush their dreams.
Mileys lifestyle is one that most young wish they could be at least for a little while. The hipster like movement has caught on with Miley and she intends on showing it in her everyday life. Miley does what she wants like the famous twerking that crazed the media for days on end. Showing one of her many personas the persona of an African American and trying to use the African culture in her music videos. As Dodai Stewart explains “If you want to look “cool” and “edgy” and “tough,” just steal the styles and dance moves of black people.” (Dodai) This transfers over to her music and the videos that go along with it. In her we can’t stop music video she is giving off a gangster vibe whether it be her multiple necklaces or her gold grill that she puts on in the beginning along with multiple gold rings. She seems to embrace her gangster way of life. The thug feel is just one on a long list of personalities that Miley shows off daily on stage or in her music which will leads viewers to not knowing who the real Miley is.
Miley feeds off of attention, always wanting to steal the show, this has been a common occurrence since a young age. Since her Disney days Miley has been a show stopper as Hannah Montana on the stage in front of her young audience till today wither her teen and twenty year old demographic. In her Disney show Hannah Montana Miley would capture crowd’s attention by the mystery behind her true identity.
This transfers over to her life today leaving crowds wondering if she is who she is on stage or if it is just a cover for another identity. She went on to explain, “Well, that’s a character. I don’t really dress as a teddy bear and, like, twerk on Robin Thicke, you know?” (Marcus) That statement makes it seem that she doesn’t really want her reputation tainted by her mistakes or by what she does on stage yet, she still does it every time she comes out. Whether it be one of these stunts or the way she dresses the critics all have something to say about it. This enters a mask aspect that she is putting on this mask to make her appear as a different person on stage but be totally different outside of the spotlight. This comes with the added to how she is a bad girl in the spotlight but a good girl while not on stage or producing her music. Her newest tour kicking off on Valentine’s Day 2014 promoting her new album with headlines of using minimalist amounts of clothing and riding a giant hot dog as provocatively as possible. That was then accompanied with her acting out some self-pleasure. This being just the newest in a long list of recent escapades in Miley’s life.
Another trait that is commonly shown is her need to show affection or a sexual output. In the many songs like adore you, wrecking ball and we can’t stop she shows an affectionate need for someone. The levels of sexuality in these different instances changes from we can’t stop being at the top of the spectrum with an ultra-amount of sexuality with very minimal clothing and lots of very sexual references that come off as kind of slutty. The slutty aspect seems to come out especially when she is on stage. This has been shown while on stage with Robin Thicke grinding on him like a stripper or very recently acting as Monica Lewinsky and pretending to give oral to a Bill Clinton impersonator. While wrecking ball has Miley swinging on a wrecking ball naked the song takes a much different vibe. Instead of the slutty aspect she seems to be in desperation and just wants someone to hold her tight, she is looking for love instead of just a one night stand. The song adore you is almost a part two to the song wrecking ball in that it conveys a very similar message in that is a slow song that she finds the love of her life and how much she enjoys it. While it continues the minimalist views on attire with her being in only undergarments. While the type of love varies it is a good range of emotion and affection. The love trait comes out in just about every song that Miley sings and acts in for her music videos it leads to open up many more traits.
The rebellious bad ass trait seems to be very important to Miley. Miley has cut her hair short and wears it in a greaser style haircut or a fifties gang style cut this comes with the added leather jacket as shown in her we can’t stop video. In addition the multitude of different tattoos that line her body from her fingers up her arms and down her torso seem to be random and with little meaning these are most seen in her videos in which a lot of skin is being shown. She is taking these mostly masculine aspects and making them her own feminine image. That furthermore making her stand out from the crowd and make her noticeable to other modern day pop stars Miley also likes to drop hints at her usual drug use, on multiple occasions talking about molly and marijuana telling of how they are a good time. The use of drugs show a rebellion towards the laws that are set in place. Her rebellious behavior spills over to her music videos wherein we can’t stop you see a rebellion look to America in her friend eating a hundred dollar bill sandwich. The action of eating the sandwich seems to set a mood of being against America in an almost anarchy form since the US currency is what makes the country run. The bad girl reputation may be used to break away from a previous Disney lifestyle but it is becoming more and more apparent as her videos are revealed.
While Miley seems to want to be viewed as an adult she still acts very immature and childish. This trait is seen very easily in we can’t stop because of all the different tricks and gags along with hitting the piñata in her video we can’t stop. The piñata is very symbolic of children’s birthdays and when you are twenty one year old performer children’s birthday parties are far out of the question. The giant teddy bear aspects are also very relatable to children in that most children growing up have stuffed animals and the only ones that some adults have are dead animals that they had killed and brought taxidermy. The gags that were used in we can’t stop were some of the classics like cutting off fake fingers to placing a fake tongue in one of the boy’s mouths. These different gags at first just seem like a joke but when looking at the grand scheme of things comes off as a much larger concept one that keeps the audience guessing at the deeper meaning. Some of these tendencies may lead to Miley not being taken as seriously but that doesn't seem to be at the top of her list.
No matter what trait she is wearing Miley does not seem to be going away anytime soon. The world needs to open its eyes and see past the rough edges and look beneath all of the fame and glamour and see the Miley that they want to see whether that is the adolescent and innocent Miley or the bad girl that we all know today. Miley is growing into her adult skin and searching for her true self, while there may be a few hiccups on the way she is on her way to eternal stardom.
Bibliography:
Lowe, Melanie. “Colliding Feminisms: Britney Spears, “Tweens,” and the Politics of Reception.” Popular Music and Society 26.2 (2003): 123-40. Print.
Marcus, Stephanie. “Miley Cyrus Says She’s Just Playing A Character, Doesn’t Want To Glamorize Drug Use.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Dec. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Stewart, Dodai. “On Miley Cyrus, Ratchet Culture and Accessorizing With Black People.” Jezebel. N.P., 20 June 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
