Better him than me, thats all I got to say

Oh Miley, You no make me smiley:

It’s an awkward thing when one tries to critique oneself through the things that one dislikes, especially through things that involve popular culture. When it comes to the topic of popular culture many people are hesitant and even ashamed to mention their likes and dislikes in fear of not seeming in the loop. When assessing my own taste in popular culture, I found a great deal that I caught myself critiquing. Though despite all the artist I could have harped on a one Miley Cyrus kept making her way into my mind.
I was not able to locate they exact reason in which I found myself quickly changing the channel or the station on the radio when the sound of her voice resonated from the speakers and into my ears. Even before this class asked us to evaluate why we may even go far as to hate this artist or their music, I pondered the same question but like always to no resolve. What was it about this young teenage girl that engendered such disgust and unsettling sentiments? What did she represent to me that she did not represent to her legions of fans worldwide? Finally, what reservations, conservativeness, and anxieties do I feel and why?
Upon asking these questions I realized that I needed to do more research on to who this young pop star really was, where she was from, how and to who was she being marked to, and why that was unsettling for me. Miley Cyrus was born Destiny Hope Cyrus in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and goddaughter of country singer Dolly Parton. Not fancying myself a country music enthusiast I can see from this information alone why I already have a small bias towards her and her music. I’ve closed mindedly have associated country music with prejudice southerners doing their line dancing and spitting and chewing tobacco. Already, just because of her social location I had my own preconceived notions from her even though it only makes up a small percentage for my dislike of her.
Being the daughter of a 90’s country pop singer, Cyrus was exposed to a variety of different actors, singers, and all types of performers. While living in Canada during her fathers filming of a show called Doc, Miley saw for her first time the Broadway production of Mama Mia! Which in turn sparked her desire to be an actress. A few short years later at the age of 11 Miley received word of a casting call for an early pilot for Disney’s Hannah Montana. Initially Miley read for the role of the best friend but was asked later to read for the role of the lead character, Chloe Stewart. After her audition directors deemed her too young and petit for the role, but because of Miley’s persistence and ability to sing they reconsidered her and gave her the role renamed the character Miley Stewart, after her.
It was after receiving the role did Miley’s mother, Tish Cyrus, go to Mitchell Gossett, director of the youth division at Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty, who specializes in creating child stars. After obtaining her teen Miley’s career took off and she was propelled into instant teen idol status. Many critics attribute her success to partially her talent and Disney knowing how to use its media influence to efficiently and successfully market Hannah Montana. It is at this exact moment that I was able to understand the reason I did not like Miley, which in fact had hardly anything to do with her but the industry she represented. Perhaps because of my age and gender I am not the ideal target audience for her music, but because of that I think I am especially more critical of her.
In her own career biography it is noted that her success was attributed to Disney’s strong media influences. It is this fact that is bothersome to me. I find it very unsettling that a company can create and artist and manipulate their image to create a one size fits all star. What represents this sentiment the most for me is in her all American anthem Party in the USA. The song was originally written by a British songwriter for herself to sing, but because of its catchy tune and Cyrus’s need for filler songs for her new album her people quickly picked up the song. The song describes Miley’s move from Tennessee to L.A and the success she found here. She describes first hearing her song on the radio and how now because of that there is a party in the USA. This song had major success and even peaked and number too on the billboard top 100 list.
For me this song represents a culmination of reasons in which I dislike Miley Cyrus’s empire. She is clearly and unashamedly commodity that has been packaged a altered and re-altered into this homogenized product that appeals to all tastes. Especially with the song Party in the USA, she appears more and more like some blandly tasting dish treat that’s sugar coated and is being shoved down my throat by corporate America.
Here we have a barley 18-year-old girl, if even at the time, hoping out a car in some daisy dukes/coochie cutters, prancing around showing her mid-riff, all along with a huge American flag waving in the background. This overt, safe sex, American patriotism is what does not sit well for me. This is a character that once and still does appeal to young girls, who in many ways grew up with her. As much as Miley may not have been aware of her use as a puppet, the principal still stands that she is now representative of the pacification of American consumers.
Yes, on a political and social level these are the reasons why I find Miley and stars like her detrimental, but I feel there are many things that I hate along those same lines. But why so much a strong hate for this particular artist? After examining all the information I know about her and the obvious reasons why someone could and would dislike her, I realized that I truly dislike her because I actually might like her. I find it scary that for some one whose music and shows I dislike I could probably sing along to all her songs and know all this random information about her. I dislike her because she can make me potentially compromise all the reasons why I would like because yeah I may want to put my hands up because a party in the USA sounds like a hell of a time. It was at this moment that I realized I hated Miley because I actually deep down inside may be a fan?