The Miley Cyrus Makeover : When a Disney Idol Meets Twerking and American Hip Hop’s Culture

Source : jezebel

When The Bling Bling Takes The Stage

So THIS happened this weekend. The MTV VMA’s, one of THE most promotional show that rewards every goddamn popular music video  on Vevo. And after every edition the most-talked-about is the one who made the most controversial or awkward performance ( cf Brit Brit in 2007 with gimme more ) or had the most baddass attitude (cf Kanye West grabbing Taylor Swifty award in 2009 ). And this year the little blond one, Miley Cyrus – who looks more and more like a 12 year old gay boy, made the buzz. She absolutely won the media battle of who-are-we-gonna-talk-about-tomorrow because obviously this show is a total bore and nobody gives a shit of who won what except when scandalicious !! Miley, for better or worse, was the undisputed “winner” of the VMAs even though she didn’t actually win awards for any of her four Moon Man nominations.

And we can’t stop, and we won’t stop. She hasn’t: there was the haircut, then the twerking, and then this video, which was the fastest ever to be Vevo certified, and now the VMAs. She adopts Jamaican patois briefly as she proclaims her right to this new image.We run things, things don’t run we, we don’t take nothin’ from nobody.

So, is Miley’s Rebellion a post-capitalist promotion of material luxury as the ultimate freedom? ( The Hairpin)

Here come the new Miley. The Miley 2.0, the one with 13 million followers on twitter and talk and act trashy everytime she can and everytime she will. Since she cut her hair short and is now newly blond Miley Cyrus doesn’t want to be perceived as a blond Disney princess by her growing audience anymore . Those 13M followers needs to be fed with trash, sex, grossness and party-party-party!  And this is exactly what she is talking about with her big lizard tongue : sex while behaving like a fooling trainwerk for her performance . The message of “We Can’t Stop” is that Miley Cyrus is going to do whatever she wants — because she’s a grown adult now.

The End of Miley Stewart

But real life has a habit of breaking into the make believe world and creating havoc. Teen girls get older and begin to rebel against the role that they’ve been given. Miley rebelled, like millions of other girls (guardiantv.com)

Long time ago, just before announcing her engagement with her on and off fiancé Liam Hemsworth ,  Miley understood she had to change her Hannah Montana  image and definitely break from the nice little Disney image she grew up with while building her star image. They were signs of rebellion before when did a pole dance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards but she was still bound with Disney. Now her new style changed with a mix of Lady Gaga / Rihanna ( as she could be called the white Riri).

Miley has almost literally remade herself in Rihanna’s image, (We Can’t Stop, is after all, a song Rihanna rejected) and yet Rihanna continues to be attacked in the media for expressions of her lived culture, while Miley, who dresses up in black codifiers for profit, skates by. (The Hairpin)

With a bit of Britney rebellion ( The Disney souvenir). She tries to mix up princess pop with bad hip-hop and even if she have a negative ass she managed to twerk everytime and everywhere she could possibly twerk, (see also this hilarious but very serious tumblr miley twerking on reality  If she’s twerking on it, maybe we’ll pay attention.). Not really surprising  that Miley showing too much skin wasn’t censored on a Sunday prime time after all… (Again, remember Britney Spears and her *It’s Britney Bitch* wasn’t censored neither). Looks like white celebrities really have some privilege.

So VMAs night was Miley night, clearly, after her trashy labeled “cultural embarrassment” performance, EVERYBODY was talking about Miley. Since then A million blog posts exploded on the web,  some to criticize her performance, others to criticize her attitude. Among them a lot were shocked by her continued appropriation of black culture or the commodification of black female sexuality and painted her entire show as racist.

Miley is very literally trying on something that Rihanna has been doing for the better part of three years, and yet it only becomes acceptable when presented on a white body, playing into the long tradition of white artists stealing and/or appropriating from black artists and reaping the benefits.( groupthink jezebel )

Well I have to agree to that.

The Obssession With Twerking

Like “Blurred Lines,” “We Can’t Stop” heavily borrows from black culture, using black folks as less supporting players than fetishized props. Both Cyrus and Thicke are second-generation celebrities, born on third base, and taking advantage of that position to steal home. (Thought Catalog)

Source : Terry’s Diarry

And then there’s the “swag” of her performance: the twerking and play-spanking with three black women. Is there something to say about her obsession with twerking ? Clearly she’ll grow out of it eventually !

Surprisingly I found her music video worst than this 30 seconds VMA’s perfo in terms of cultural appropriation and all. Once again I have to agreed with Dlisted : I’m the only bitch on Earth who actually loved every hilarious second of her desperate hillbilly lizard and plushie extravaganz wanna be twerk performance. You’ve probably noticed that Miley’s twerking is nearly all anyone can talk about on Twitter or Facebook. But critics as it right. Miley reapropriation of black culture is not to blame but the fact that this activity is perceived better or is morally acceptable by the mass now because of her is the real problem…

Essentially, what Miley has done here is indicate that 1. She wants to be sexual and 2. She needs to associate herself with black bodies to do it. By doing this, she in inexplicably intertwining the idea of sexuality as part and parcel of black womanhood; that is, that black women cannot exist without sexuality and vice versa, and that the only acceptable way to be sexual, is to “be black”  (groupthink jezebel )

The real problem is that now everybody perceive that black = twerking.  On the other hand, the way I see it  is by dancing it Miley is democratizing twerking to the mass. Does everybody is shocked when someone dance polka or tanguo ?  And somehow did people really knew about twerking before Miley ? HUH ! NO! In The Racial Implications of her VMA Performance the blogger described that the biggest problem was the ridiculed and debased aspect of the black culture. And he regrets that black fashion, art and music couldn’t become mainstream without having to be passed through a white filter, hands off.

She is playing into the stereotype that this is all black people are. To her, and anyone else who’s frame of reference does not extend beyond her, this is what it means to be black. (Groupthinkjezebel)

The thing is that cultural appropriation is a way bigger problem than Miley Cyrus and is way much older.

Folks like Justin have made a name for themselves in the R&B genre, black folks are merely special guest stars — like Snoop Dogg on pop star Katy Perry’s “California Girls,” Kanye West on “E.T” or Will.i.am on “Crazy Kids.” “Blurred Lines” even doubles up with T.I. and Pharrell, but in Cyrus’ music, black voices are all but absent.(Groupthinkjezebel)

Bad Buzz Good Publicity

Since Miley Cyrus can’t stop and won’t stop until she’s suffocated us all with her “flattened package of Honey Buns” ass, she is at the exact same time releasing a new album called Bangerz. The reason that these affinities are coming out now, at the VMAs and elsewhere, is because it’s good for business (annehelenpetersen) . And her PR team is on fire ! Did you hear Miley’s latest single, “Wrecking Ball ” ? Seriously her music is baaaaaaaaaad pop but sounds like the song you can’t get out of your head. And hey.. we all know that it’s gonna sells like HELL !!

Source : Celebitchy