MILEY CYRUS
CHILD STAR TO HEART OF HOLLYWOOD
APRIL 2020 Miranda Roberts
Miley Cyrus How Did A Childhood Star Grow Into One of Hollywood’s Most Famous Entertainers? To answer that question, first we must look at how Miley first entered stardom. She was born in 1992 as Destiny Hope Cyrus. The attention was on her from day one due to her family’s stardom. Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, and her godmother, Dolly Parton, were famous country singers. Her name was powerful, even outside of the country music niche. At just 11 years old, she took the Disney Channel stage and auditioned for a role as Hannah Montana’s best friend. While critics felt she was too young and too small, she was selected as the lead for notable acting and singing capabilities.
Securing an audition, let alone getting a role, with this network is difficult, and Miley has a handful of individuals to thank for her opportunity. Her mother, Tish Cryus, was able to connect her with talent agent Mitchell Gossett. Parton directed her to Morey Management Group for her musical career. Finally, her father’s finance manager joined Miley’s management team. It is important to understand how many people were directing her choices and actions from the impressionable age of 11. The media took notice of her early on and decided she had what it took to be a star.
2008
2008: Miley Takes Control of Her
2009: She’s done with Disney -
Fast forward five years to 2008 when Miley Ray Cyrus legally changed her name and embraced a different destiny. Her first album under her new name, as opposed to Hannah Montana, was titled Breakout. The album’s name mirrors her goals to distance her from her Disney Channel pop sound.
Having broken out from her pop-star role, Cyrus released another album: The Time of Our Lives EP. This featured popcountry crossover ‘The Climb’ from her tv show finale, the Hannah Montana Movie.
Own Sound on Breakout
Despite sonic shifts, Miley was appealing to a similar audience. She was still working with other kid stars like The Jonas Brothers, and Aly & Aj as she began her “Best of Both Worlds Tour.” This was noticed nationally when throngs of parents complained about ticket shortages on behalf of their children. In addition to performing 70 sold-out shows, Miley also dabbled in Youtube stardom, voice-acting, and dating. Just as the press gets to decide who to feature, they also decide what is newsworthy. When a teen hacker gained access to Miley’s gmail and leaked swimsuit and underwear photos, they deemed that as relevant. Hannah Montana was a role model for many young girls. She solved everyday teen problems on the show but now Miley had to face life’s unscripted problems in the spotlight.
What’s next?
With the show ending, Miley showed the first signs of changing her image. She traded her blonde wig for short shorts and a provocative on-stage performance. “Party in the USA” has locked-in a spot on our generation’s soundtrack and is sure to be played in years to come. While most of us simply remember the catchy chorus, this song caused an uproar during a 2009 Teen Choice Awards performance. The media said Cryus was “scantily clad” and “too risqué” with headlines drawing attention to her younger fanbase and age.
Now Miley had to face life’s unscripted problems in the spotlight.
2009
2010
2010: Media Loves The Shock Value of Psychedelics Miley’s third album, Can’t Be Tamed, was her greatest effort to move past her childhood so far. Her lyrical content as well as live performances sparked controversy from the media. While performing the title track on Britain’s Got Talent, she pretended to kiss one of her female dancers. NY Daily News said “Miley Cyrus is not that innocent” and NJ.com wrote that she “sunk to sexual shock value to further [her] career.” The media went farther than just scandalizing her musical performances. They were able to find a blurry video of Miley smoking a bong in her L.A. home just five days after she turned 18. A Huff Post headline read “Miley Cyrus’ Bong Smoking Is a Desperate Cry for Her Parents to Pay Attention” and featured comments from Psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere. He claimed she was deeply affected by her
parents divorce and said, “many people like Miley aren’t able to verbalize their grief so they act out.” The article, and many others, criminalized her behavior and determined why it happened. Miley had made no comment about this and the substance smoked, salvia, was legal in California. These scandals clouded the lens on a new professional direction for Miley, Romance movies. She starred in “The Last Song” where she met and began dating co-star Liam Hemsworth.
2011-2012: “I’m Sorry That I’m Not Perfect” Miley started her year with the Gypsy Heart Tour. There were no North American dates because she said she only wanted to travel where she felt “the most love.” Along with leaving the country, she left her careerlong label, Hollywood Records after the official end of Hannah Montana.
She decided to focus more on acting and starred in LOL and So Undercover. While she had never publicly addressed scandals from the previous years, Miley joked about them while hosting SNL. Her monologue was a song called “I’m Sorry That I’m Not Perfect” which pitted her pole dancing and bong rip against larger scandals like Tiger Woods and Charlie Sheen. Miley embraced the things she had done and laughed about them. This threeminute bit answered her critics and she received an outpour of support from her fans.
Scandals clouded the lens on a new professional direction for Miley
2011 - 2012
2013 - 2014
2013-2014 Drugs, Dancing, and the Dictionary
Miley ended 2012 with a new blonde pixie cut and kept the changes rolling into 2013. She hired Britney Spears’ old manager, signed with RCA Records, and worked with hip-hop producer Mike Will Made-It on her fourth album, Bangerz. Before the album release, two singles and accompanying music videos were released. Both the “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball” videos reached millions of views within 24 hours of release. Along with commercial success came media scrutiny. She was nominated for four awards but that was not what the media picked up on. Cyrus performed a “We Can’t Stop” and “Blurred Lines” mash-up with Robin Thicke. Her performance featured a flesh-colored costume, sexually-suggestive dancing, and strange use of a foam finger. After the performance, Cyrus gained over 213,000 Twitter followers, 226,000 likes on Facebook, and 90,000 downloads of “Wrecking Ball” which more than doubled her social activity.The performance resulted in the word “twerk” being added to Oxford’s Dictionary. An article in The Hollywood Reporter described the performance as “reminiscent
of a bad acid trip.” This wasn’t the only article linking Miley Cyrus to drug use this year. A Rolling Stone article quoted her calling MDMA and weed “happy drugs.” She smoked a joint on stage at the European Music Awards when accepting her award. All of this seemed to outweigh the media’s coverage of her dog’s death, her commitment to veganism, and her creation of the Happy Hippie Foundation.
2015-2016 Calm After The Storm
After a crazy two years, a North American tour, releasing a new album, and hosting an awards show seemed like nothing for Cyrus. She surprised fans with her new album, Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz, at the end of the MTV Awards she hosted. It was released for free through SoundCloud and was more experimental than her last five releases. Miley’s manager at RCA claimed she was willing to end her contract if they refused to let her release the album for free.
In March of 2016, the couple got re-engaged.
2017-Present What Is She Up To Now?
Miley turned 25 and began work with NBC’s The Voice. She started as an advisor and eventually replaced Gwen Stefani, making her the show’s youngest coach ever. She worked with them on three seasons before confirming that she would not be returning for season 14. In Fall of 2017, she released her sixth album, Younger Now. She quit cannabis before the press tour of this album but was reintroduced a year later by her mother. A few months later, she married Liam Hemsworth and seemed to take some time to enjoy that development. However, she did take on a role in an episode of Black Mirror where she played a pop star named Ashley O. The role drew many similarities to her time as Hannah Montana.
Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz did not count towards the multi-album deal she signed with RCA and acts more like an experimental side project.
Her seventh album, She is Coming, came out in the Spring. She followed up this 6 track EP with singles “Slide Away” and “Don’t Call Me Angel” about her relationship with Hemsworth. They split due to “irreconcilable differences.”
Miley spent time dating model Stella Maxwell and comedian Dane Cook before reconnecting with Hemsworth.
Since October, she has been dating a childhood friend and fellow celebrity, singer Cody Simpson.
2015 - 2016
2017 - NOW
Miley & Media Literacy Authors + Audiences
Most of us never interact personally with stars and if we do it is often fleeting. Despite that, we all feel as if we know certain celebrities. All of our ideas come from the media. In the case of Miley Cyrus, the media is controlling what consumers listen to. For example, Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz, was funded by Miley Cyrus herself, as opposed to RCA Records. As a result of this, the record hardly got any press and it is her least known record. While we saw many negative headlines throughout her career, Miley Cyrus is still extremely successful. This has some wondering who exactly comprises her fanbase. Her fan base consists of the 10-15 year old Hannah Montana fans who are now 15-20. As long as you can bring your fans along with you, they will feel like a part of the journey and remain loyal to you. Miley earned her fans trust early on and as a result was able to take risks and experiment. Miley Cyrus had a loyal fanbase since the beginning and it makes financial sense to keep them happy. Once Hannah Montana was over, she could no longer rely on the commercial elements associated with a children’s program. There wouldn’t be any more dolls, apparel, or jewelry to support her. As long as Hannah Montana was still relevant in consumers’ brains, she diluted Miley’s personal image.
Messages + Meanings
Miley Cryus used her 2013 VMA performance to effectively kill Hannah Montana. While this behavior was widely criticized, it was part of a deliberate marketing plan. The idea, used by many other childhood celebrities, is to erase the prim and proper image and create new ones that fit the aging audience’s new desires.
Childhood stars Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan came to a point where they had to progress from child to adult. This process almost always requires a re-brand which helps to explain Miley’s decision to Breakout. After the performance, Miley gained social media traction, increased record sales and sold-out tours. While some people viewed the performance and her new look to be a trainwreck, her rebranding plans worked really well and revenue for her label skyrocketed after the VMAs.
Representation + Reality
Beyond record labels, producers have a huge say in the end result of any musical work. A producer is the person who is in charge of making your song sound the way they think your song should sound to be competitive in the market. This includes picking the recording studio, deciding which engineer to use, playing instruments, and so much more. While Miley Cyrus is a female musician, the industry is still male-dominated. On the five records I mentioned, (Breakout, Can’t Be Tamed, Bangerz, Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz, and Younger Now) there were 25 credited producers and only two of them were female. For each album, there is typically one main credit and in Miley’s case they were all men. Having less than ten percent of your producers being female is not uncommon. Only two percent of producers in the entire industry are female. The men in the majority have control of many aspects of the final product. The cycle they create is vicious as bands tend to choose producers with more credits and end up with the same male producers over and over again. Not only is this intimidating for women, it is harmful for the industry. If you are skipping out on fifty percent of the talent pool, you are likely missing out on some great talent.
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