Miley Cyrus is probably the most talked about person in the world right now. Dominating Twitter, Facebook and Youtube with an iron-fist that was once the sole preserve of Gaga, but her most recent controversy stems from the touchingly traditional medium of the letter – even if it was published online! It might be easy to write Sinead O’Connor’s comments off as the writings of someone trying to claw their way back into the spotlight but write off the stupidity of that idea, and O’Connor’s giving Cyrus some resounding home truths.
The 90s megastar says what pretty much anyone with a shred of fame in Hollywood is afraid to. That Cyrus is being ruthlessly exploited in an enormous publicity stunt by her label to sell upcoming album Bangerz. Where everyone in Hollywood gives lip service to Miley 2.0, O’Connor smacks her down as being ‘prostituted by the music industry’.
However, where the Hollywood leading lights aren’t coming out in a vehement condemnation of O’Connor it took another member of the music wilderness, Amanda Palmer to stand up for Miley. Sadly her argument’s more than a little difficult to swallow. Her assertion that O’Connor shouldn’t criticise Miley because female stars get too much of that from men is understandable enough, but her determined assertion that this is all Miley just seems a bit ridiculous. In fact the only thing I vaguely agree with is Palmer’s belief that it’s coming from a place of desperation.
Her last album was way back in 2010, Can’t Be Tamed, after which Cyrus decided she wanted to be an actress. When her dreams of doing that came crashing down around her with a series of truly dreadful films, she went back to the drawing board and likely a meeting room. It’s easy to imagine her sitting down with some label executives to talk comeback. Unfortunately Cyrus hasn’t had a very public battle with an eating disorder, substance abuse and self-harming, and so can’t release an uplifting spiritual ballad that represents her battles, like Demi Lovato did with ‘Skyscraper’.
Instead, they tell Cyrus, she needs controversy. Britney style controversy. After a quick shave, bleach-job and a pathetic attempt to find a word that can double as a street term for ecstasy and her name, they launch Miley with a number that’s trying to channel Rihanna. In fact it’s trying so hard, it was actually meant for her, but she turned it over.
In fact the entirety of ‘We Can’t Stop’ is so blatantly illustrative of what a media puppet Miley Cyrus is. She might think she’s being ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’, and revelling in the short-term success twerking and her bum have brought her, but the career’s going to come crashing down in a year or two’s time when people lose interest. Lukewarm reception to upcoming album Bangerz is evidence enough of that.
It wasn’t so long ago that another Disney starlet graduated to maturity. She became ruthlessly sexualised, wrapped up in a party lifestyle she’d become convinced was cool, then had a very public melt-down, fell apart and became a shell of her former self; lacking in personality and entirely glassed over in interviews. Britney Spears ought to be an example of how not to launch a pop career.
It was almost laughable, when I read an interview with pop super-manager Larry Rudolph the other day, about how Spears directed her own mature image back in the day with ‘I’m A Slave 4 U’ and how Miley’s doing the same. I adore pop music, but there’s absolutely no way you can say either Spears or Cyrus have directed their own careers. Cyrus might go onto write her own songs like Britney did, she might be able to smile at interviews and talk about how she loves her new ‘message’ and the ‘music’ she’s making, but her effort to laugh off O’Connor’s remarks by referencing her suicide attempt in 2012 points toward the fact that her words have really hit home. Deep down, I suspect Miley Cyrus is uncomfortable with the direction her career’s taking and at some point in the future the cost is going to catch up with her.