It all comes down to this.
I’m done talking about wannabes. I’m done with the amateurs.
Today we cover the god, or should I say godDESS, of saying ‘Screw it’. I’m
talking about the end all, be all of having a life paved out for you with
everything in order and being all like HOL’ UP MY NIZZLE UH-UH NOT TODAY. I
mean the girl who looked right in the face of everything that was so-called
right and acceptable and straight up said ‘um actually I’m the publisher of a
world-renowned dictionary company so I’M THE ONE WHO KNOWS WHAT ACCEPTABLE
MEANS, HOME SLICE.”
Ok. Ok. I got a little excited there. This is just gonna be
really lit. Like totes gucci. We talking about Miley Cyrus.
Leggo.
Miley was a Tennessee gal, which is fitting, because she’s
the only ten I see. At first she was just known as Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter.
Which broke her achy-breaky heart, so Miley wanted to get in on that famous
life. She went for it, and succeeded early. After her family moved to Canada
for her dad’s role in the TV Series Doc,
Miley landed a part in the series as well at just nine years old.
I will reiterate. She wasn’t wearing pink, sparkly lip
gloss… she was on national TV.
Ok, I’ll stop stalling: The moment you’ve been waiting for: Hannah Montana.
As you all know, Miley Cyrus was the lead character in the
hit Disney show, Hannah Montana. BUT.
Did you know that she didn’t originally audition for the lead? AND. Did you
know that she was denied the role at first because she was too young and small
for the part? No. Ya didn’t. That’s why I’m the expert. But yeah. Miley
originally auditioned to be the lead character’s best friend, but was asked to
audition for the lead. She was then denied the lead role because of her size,
but (loud cheers) the directors saw her acting and singing talent and gave her
the role anyway ahead of over a thousand other auditionees.
From there, ya girl was having wicked crazy success. Hannah Montana was a major hit. The show
ran for years and Miley Cyrus was a household name across American families.
Miley had her life made. She already had enough money to support her most of
her life. She starred in a TV show that ran for 5 years. She had the good girl,
southern belle charm. The world was her oyster. Stay the course, Miley. Don’t
go crazy like so many others. You have so many chances here. Nah. She was going
to do it her way.
It all started going “downhill” as some people would say in
2010, a year before Hannah Montana ended.
Miley released the Can’t Be Tamed album
while filming The Last Song, a movie
based on the Nicholas Sparks novel. All while having a romantic relationship
with Liam Hemsworth. For some reason, it seems like Miley NEEDED to get herself
away from the goody-goody country girl look and closer to the edgy pop diva.
More of Cyrus’ live performances were featuring risqué choreography, and here
lyrics weren’t about overcoming your hardships with perseverance and more of
overcoming them with a big ole FU.
And apparently, aversion from controversy is a tactic she
used. In 2011, Miley scheduled an entire tour without a single American venue.
She said her reasoning behind this is because she needed to perform where she
was “most loved”. And with all the controversy that was spinning around, she
felt that place was overseas… Whatever floats your boat over the ocean to your
venues, Miley.
Ok I get it this is supposed to be an album dissection. I
get that and I’m getting there.
Blah blah blah, controversy. Blah blah blah, hair cut. Blah
blah blah, WOW SHE’S DOING WHAT SHE WANTS HOW COULD SHE.
Bangerz
Miley was going all in. In 2012, she supposedly was devoting
all of her time to the screen, appearing in films like LOL and So Undercover.
But when she landed a lead vice acting job in Hotel Transylvania, she dropped the project to put out new music
content. It seemed to everyone that Miley had no clue what she was doing with
her life, but apparently, she had a plan for everything.
In June 2013, Miley released “We Can’t Stop”, the first
single from the Bangerz. It was a commercial
success. The song topped the charts in the UK and broke Vevo’s record for most
views in under 24 hours. Ok Milez. You good. One song down. No major controversy AND
your image is changing. Good work!
Just wait.
August 25, 2013 was a huge day for our girl. To start, she
released her second single of the Bangerz
album, “Wrecking Ball”. (Not the music video yet, don’t worry, that’s
later.) This was Cyrus’ first single to top the US Hot 100 Chart. But the real
show-stopper of the day was the 2013 VMA Awards. Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke
performed… “performed”?... went on stage?... with each other for Robin Thicke’s
hit song, “Blurred Lines”. This marked Miley’s famous foam finger incident. I
don’t usually judge people for fetishes… but the foam finger thing throws me
off, okay. This was the epitome of new Miley. Picture this girl, not Hannah
Montana, when we talk about Bangerz. The
music video for “Wrecking Ball” came out on September 9, 2013. It featured Miley
swinging naked on, well, a wrecking ball. The media was stunned. EVERYONE was
stunned.
Bangerz is
composed of 13 songs that has a length of just over 50 minutes. Miley Cyrus describes
the album as “dirty south hip-hop”. She wanted it to be “very adult and sexy
and believable”. Miley described her method behind the album, “Right now, when
people go to iTunes and listen to my old music, it's so irritating to me
because I can't just erase that stuff and start over. My last record I feel so
disconnected from – I was 16 or 17 when I made it. When you're in your 20s, you
just don't really know that person anymore.”
Adore You
Ok. This isn’t crazy at all. What’s all the hype about? This
is a standard pop heartbreak song. “Baby, where are you?” “I adore you.” “I cry
out for you.” This is all cliché. You may be rolling your eyes. But cherish
this. Miley did just end a four-year relationship with her fiancé Liam
Hemsworth around this time. This is pure, raw, vulnerable Miley. It’s lovely
and don’t tell me otherwise.
We Can’t Stop
Oh yes. One of the three singles released off this album.
The first two songs on this album really epitomize Miley Cyrus. We go from “Adore
You” to this. What a change. The first lyric is “Red cups and sweaty bodies
everywhere.” She goes on to talk about people “getting some” and “we just came
to have fun now”. This is the start of the whole FU attitude. She can’t stop.
She won’t stop. She’s looking at all the h8ers and saying @ me next time. Also,
shout out to the girls with the big butts. That caught me off guard.
SMS (Bangerz)
Rap? F-Bombs? Um… miley this escalated quickly. Oh yeah, and
this featured the queen herself who is eerily similar to Miley, Britney Spears.
I picture this song being blared out in the club. This isn’t your sing along
song. Milez and Brit have the guys on lock while they be struttin their stuff.
4 x 4
Wait… so is this a country album. I AM SO CONFUSED. I swear I
hear twangy slang and instruments. But I’m not convinced. Like… it’s country.
The growl in her voice, the hard r’s. It
talks about a 4 x 4 going really fast. And then Nelly comes in and its suddenly
not country but talking about country things. The music is even half country
half not. Still perplexed.
My Darlin’
OK. Back to pop, feature Future. This song is incredibly
synthy. I feel like everything about this song was done while on Novocain. It’s
talking about seeing a shadow of a girl and creating a future with the girl
behind the shadow. Everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion, and on top
of it its over 4 minutes of it. I’ll pass.
Wrecking Ball
The rally cry. The staple. It’s here. To be honest, the
actual song didn’t matter much anymore after the music video came out. It was
different and emotional and obscene. I wish that didn’t take away from the
music. This feels like the most complete song up to this point of the album.
The song immediately entices you with the pulsing piano and the song has a somewhat
refreshing, and normal progression. A verse, a catchy chorus, another verse,
another chorus, a passionate bridge, and two powerful chorus. Its elementary,
my dear Watson. And maybe it’s the fact that it is normal that makes it so
refreshing.
Love Money Party
This song is contradictory. What I assume is the chorus is
just “Love, Money, Party” repeated four times. Followed by “We want love,
money, party.” Yet she goes into the verses and talks about how money ain’t
nothing and money can’t buy what’s important, how love sucks because heaetbreak,
and party can get you jacked up. I mean I guess out culture can be pretty
contradictory. But dang.
#GETITRIGHT
This is my favorite song on the album. It starts with a
pleasing electric guitar strumming. The verses are Miley singing. Not her
mumbling or rapping. Not a featured artist. But Miley Cyrus showing off her amazing
pipes. This is ideal. She’s still making her edgier side come out. In the chorus,
she’s publicly fantasizing about all the sexy things she could do to this guy.
She’s being herself and slaying my life. YAS MILEY.
Drive
YAS MILEY PART TWO. Her voice slays me. But you know that at
this point. She’s fighting for someone she loves, and I believe her emotion.
Harmonies for days in this song. This is one of the few songs on this album I
can recommend a relaxing listening. No need to dive in too deep with this one.
Just sit back, close your eyes, and listen.
FU
This reminds me of a pop-y version of “I Put a Spell on You”.
It’s the jazziest thing I’ve heard Miley Cyrus put out, and it showcases her
range better than any song I can think of that she’s EVER put out. Man, the
second part of this album is lit af.
Do My Thang
She’s gonna do her thing. That’s why I’m writing this blog
right now. Because she did just that.
Someone Else
This reminds me of “Adore You”. It’s another normal
heartbreak song but while in “Adore You” how it was focused on Miley loving, or
adoring, this guy; this time, Miley was coming from more of a ‘I hate myself
and I have no love left’ kinda place. Sad, I know.
I think “Someone Else” was a really, REALLY poor choice of
song to end your album on. This album is a big personal and music change for Miley.
Full of new mature content and music that Miley was genuinely happy about and
music she felt was showing the world who Miley Cyrus really was. All of that
and you end your album on some self-hating love ballad? It doesn’t make sense
to me. But then again, I may just be putting too much thought into the order of
songs in the album.
The glorification of self, and especially glorification of
the female self played a role here. This calls for change though, and that’s evident
with how cringy this transition was for people. Do we let tradition and order
reign supreme or do we welcome new change? This is something that people have
dealt with since the beginning of time. At the end of the day, Miley has the
upper hand. Like she said in “We Can’t Stop”, “It’s our party, we can love who
we want, we can kiss who we want, we can love who we want.”
Miley’s audience changed practically overnight, and that was
her intent. In 2013, Cyrus hired Larry Rudolph to be her manager; Rudolph is
best known for representing Britney Spears. Cyrus specifically credits Britney
Spears as her biggest inspiration, and Miley is finishing what Spears started.
She pulled every string in the book, whether it be weed, same sex marriage, sexuality,
anything.
Miley Cyrus used her platform of childhood fame to make a
career. People thought she had a certain career paved out for her. They were
wrong. She paved her own way. She looked at expectations and laughed. Miley didn’t
want to live her life being Disney’s Hannah Montana. So she changed. And Bangerz was the HUGE first domino in
getting to the true Miley.
