By Albert Vuoso | Arts and Entertainment Editor –
No, were not talking about the multi-million dollar face lift Miley Hall received this past summer, but Hannah Montana herself: Miley Cyrus. Dropping lyrics that insinuate her cocaine usage and sex life, this former Disney Channel star has flipped her image 180 degrees and is gaining more attention than ever. Is this something we have seen before in the media industry, which generally places tight control over celebrities regardless of originality? Does the new Miley offer some sort of valuable artistic influence?
An insane number of opinions have swept through the social media world. According to the queen of twerking herself, her VMA performance sparked 306,000 tweets per minute, more than the blackout of 2003 and the Super Bowl.
“ I think it’s her way of getting attention,” says Salve Regina Junior, Samantha Boudah. “The VMAS’s were for publicity.”
Well if publicity is what Miley was seeking, then publicity is what she got. Her raunchy performance was the topic of news providers, bloggers and everyday people for weeks after it aired. The highly publicized performance also helped to solidify the success of Cyrus’s single, “We Cant Stop”. The video broke the record of most views within 24 hours of release and currently holds 220,397,104 million views.
So what does a twenty-year-old girl do with the attention of nearly everyone in the world? Jump on top of a wrecking ball – naked.
The controversial video features Cyrus in a four by four room, using a sledgehammer and wrecking ball to break the down the walls. The video displays the tiny tattoos that Cyrus has on her hands as well as her naked body swinging back and forth on the wrecking ball.
But the video shows something else, it shows tears strolling down the artists face as she mouths the lyrics, “I never meant to start a war, I just wanted you to let me in.”
“There’s symbolism in it” says Salve Regina junior, Kim Klezysnksi, “I think her nudity is a reflection that she feels stripped of her emotions.”
In a spread done by the Rolling Stone magazine this month, Cyrus reveals her goals of being taken seriously as an artist, something she hopes will be seen through her videos.
Cyrus’s struggle to be seen as an adult is a journey taken by many pop stars before her. Similar to Britney Spears in the early 2000’s, Cyrus is in the process of making bold moves to distinguish her self from the image portrayed by her Disney bosses.
“I think she’s at more of a disadvantage than most artists,” says Klezynski. “The world saw her grow up on television and now we see her smoking pot in a magazine. Lady Gaga never had those problems.”
As Cyrus finds new ways to express herself as an artist and an individual, she must remember that the world is looking.
Cyrus’s new album, Bangerz, is scheduled to drop late this October.
