You Thought

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.