You know what it reminds of and why it is so disturbing? It is like the uncanny valley in animation! She is almost like a real “bad girl” but something is off and that unclear sense of what it is, that coming off as almost real but without a soul inside, gives a somewhat zombie like sense to it.
My first encounter with the song, “We Can’t Stop,” was on VH1. And my reactions to the song were:
- VH1 still shows music videos? I had no idea.
- The song sounded generic to me, like it could have been written for any pop star. It seemed like she was trying to adopt someone else’s identity rather than establish one for herself. I just did a quick check on Wikipedia and saw that it was originally written with Rihanna in mind. It certainly fits her persona better than Miley’s.
- I don’t understand why she was autotuned to hell in the song, because she’s already proven that she can sing. But I’m old and uncool, and not the target demographic.
- Like others have said in the thread, it looked like she was trying way, way too hard to be a serious adult artist and distance herself from her Hannah Montana days.
As for the VMA performance,
Princhester hit it right on the head with the media reaction to it. I’d said something similar to a friend of mine after watching the talking heads on the various news channel showing extended clips of the performance and then reacting with feigned outrage. The Emperor has no clothes in this case.
It seems like it was a calculated move that generated exactly the reaction Miley and her PR team was looking for. It generated a ton of publicity with the performance and got millions of people talking about her for a solid week. What does she do to capitalize on it now? She’s a million dollar brand, and I’m cynical enough to suspect that someone’s plotted out a strategy for her to follow. The problem, as other people in this thread have pointed out, is that she might not have the chops to pull it off.
d) plaything of and/or overmistress of strange alien power beings.
Well, fuck, it’s progress. 44 years ago a groupie fucked a fish, and all she got was bragging rights. Today she’d get a career.
The Seattle PI or The Stranger really should track her down for a “where are they today?” story.
Simmer down now
OMG I agree with Miley Cyrus! LOL CUL8R
I know I’m late to this party, but I responded with the following to an acquaintance on Facebook who posted a quasi-endearing plea for empathy from people towards Miley Cyrus in response to Miley’s, as my acquaintance termed it, “cry for help.” She also raised concerned about Miley’s reported substance abuse. I suppose don’t many here would be sympathetic to my acquaintance pleas and concern for Miley Cyrus’s career and health (she’s a mother legitimately concerned about her own pre-pubescent children, who I think were or are “Hannah Montana” fans,) but here’s my response anyway:
I confess I’ve little heeded the career of Miley Cyrus before this debacle, and that I watched her MTV Video Music Award performance to see what the fuss is about. What is obvious to me is everything she did was as crassly calculated as any McDonald’s advertising campaign. She learned well from Disney. The MTV VMA has often been about outrageous pop singer performances; Miley Cyrus wants more than anything to keep her name in front of the media and build her fan base beyond “Hannah Montana,” which, let’s face it, will inevitably fade away as little girls who were into it grow up. There’s no despairing “cry for help” from Miley here. She’ll be crying all the way to the bank. Her hyper sexualized dance movies were little different in kind from Elvis’s pelvic gyrating or Michael Jackson’s crotch-grabbing, not to mention antics from the likes of Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, Lady Gaga … need I go on?
From the choice of lyrics in her opening song “It’s Our Party We Can Do Want We Want” to the teddy bear frontispiece discarded for a skimpy, flesh-toned bikini, it was entirely a calculated act. One for Miley to present herself as an adult, sexualized pop singer, and distance herself from Hannah Montana and her Disney fantasy nice girl character. The only way she’d return to sweet, nice girl songs is if she thought doing that would keep her name in the media and sell more MP3s. Don’t count on it. If you want to rail against sexualized on-stage behavior from pop singers, well I’m sorry but that ship has long since sailed. As for the pop singer drug use, that’s as old as Elvis’s pelvis. Perhaps older.
I’m not saying any of this is a good idea–I for one will try hard to avoid observing anything further from Miley’s career–but the nature of the shock and surprise to me is quite amusing. In the end, as she has made clear in a couple recent interviews, Miley is getting exactly want she wanted.
Tell your friend that the only thing about Miley Cyrus’ performance was that it was nowhere near outrageous enough.
It didn’t seem like anything particularly notable to me, but then, as it is, I’m immune to pop singer cultural outrage.
You can look her up on wikipedia (as suggested above), or go straight to the horse’s mouth and read Procopius’s Secret History.
The clue is in the title whether it’s true or not; Procopius did have a bit of an axe to grind. Still, fun reading; enjoy.
Her new NSFW video is here on Vevo: http:/ /www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8
You had me for a couple seconds with the crying, then you licked a mallet. And cried again. What, you expected the mallet to respect you after that blow job? Why oh why didn’t you make friends with Pharrel, Timbaland, or even Missy? Who is producing you and encouraging you to play out this manic phase in front of everyone? Did you kill his or her dog? Because someone is totally squandering your talent and having a huge laugh about the fallout. Take a vacation and a break from the camera for a couple years. We’ll give you another chance, we promise, because we remember this: Miley Cyrus - The Backyard Sessions - "Jolene" - YouTube
Thanks, Google, for pulling this article with Miley’s rap after I posted that disjointed video. Now I know why the hit-making producers aren’t lining up to work with her:
Poor kid. She’s all over the place.
You don’t have to watch her, you know.
What? Oh my god, thank you so much for telling me that. I thought for sure that someone would test me on this. You should totally give such advice for a living.
This stings less coming from someone who a post earlier was giving career advice at a pop star.
You don’t have to read the thread you know.
And miss your hard-hitting breakdowns of celebrity dysfunctionality? Perish the thought!
Have you any contribution to the discussion other than snark at your fellow posters? Because art and artists who shop their wares to the general public subject themselves to both praise and criticism. Pop culture icons who oversaturate the market are especially vulnerable to criticism. Sml price to pay for fame and fortune, though. But if you are not a consumer, an observer, critic, or just have nothing relevant to say perhaps this isn’t your wheel house.
Your first post in third thread was a diatribe directed at Miley Cyrus. It’s very unlikely that Miley Cyrus is a reader of the SDMB. So I’m not sure you’re in a good position to be chastising anyone.
My post is relevant to the discussion. IS’ post is pure sniping at another poster, nothing else. Is that typical board behavior?