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“Remember only God can judge ya
Forget the haters ‘cause somebody loves ya” (“We Can’t Stop” lyrics)
These lyrics from Miley Cyrus’ lead single of her 2013 album Bangerz perfectly encapsulate the new Miley Cyrus. First gaining popularity as the squeaky clean main character of the Disney show Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus has undergone a colossal change, shedding her Disney image in favor of a provocative Madonna-type figure. The twerking and tongue-twirling singer has undoubtedly transformed her star image drastically. Her debatable actions have become an integral aspect of her star text, including everything affiliated with her up until this point. Even if people disapprove of the new Miley, she is still popular within the music industry today. But what was the purpose of undergoing such a drastic transformation? Has this made her more or less popular amongst music
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The purpose behind change always has an element of attracting the paparazzi and catching people’s attention. Miley’s change was a descending process that was “creative” (Carmanica) and stimulating to the general public that did not see it coming. Miley’s change from good girl to bad girl was carefully crafted: from the initial shock of the transformation to the continuous scandals that penetrate the media, Miley has created and recreated her star text. First, Miley started off as an innocent popstar idol that sang about boys and crushes and breakups. Next, through promotion, Miley’s team worked on changing her sound and lyrical content to become sexual and free. After heavy publicity via media outlets, Miley’s new gaudy image was presented to shocked audiences with wide-ranging reactions. It was a combination of all of these elements, especially the debatable nature of her change that makes Miley a standout icon in the music
Objectification of women and misogyny is a common trend in song lyrics, but it is often socially accepted and further perpetuated. Finding a song in which the roles are reversed and a woman depicts a man as a sex object is incredibly difficult because when women try to break norms in the music industry, they are often criticized. In “Blah Blah Blah” by Kesha, she reverses the typical gender roles in song lyrics by objectifying men. Kesha has her own struggles within the male-dominated music industry because her producer sexually abused her and trapped her into a record deal. However, Kesha lost her court case, which illuminates gender issues within the music industry and the larger society. In 2010 when Kesha’s songs were popular, people weren’t aware of her battle with her producer. Instead, her lyrics classified her as more of a party figure and people even saw her as “trashy.” This song
“Wrecking Ball” is pop ballad sung by the American recoding artist Miley Cyrus. Once known and adored by many as “Hannah Montana”, Cyrus shed her childish shell and adopted a sexualized and edgy persona for her fourth album, Bangerz, which “Wrecking Ball” is the album’s second single. The song starts with a quiet and minimalist synthesized keyboard instrumentation which is immediately met with the anguished vocals of Cyrus. Even in the first 30 seconds where only 26 words were sung, the topic of the song is quite evident: a failing relationship. Cyrus starts by crooning “We clawed, we chained our hearts in vain, we jumped never asking why, we kissed, I fell under your spell. A love no one could deny” which could be interpreted as two lovers fought to be together and succeeded in doing so but it was ultimately useless as denoted by “we chained our hearts in vain”. As the song progresses the minimalist keyboard continues creating an open environment in which Cyrus’ emotive vocals can shine. When the refrain is introduced Cyrus’ vocals and the keyboard instrumentation briefly disappear and when they reemerge they are joined with booming percussion that hits sharply, then slowly dissipates. Cyrus’ vocal delivery also changes from the softer, anguished sound to a powerful, almost vindictive roar which quickly returns to the soft delivery with a quiver as Cyrus sings “Yeah, you, yo...
The pressure of trying to look like celebrities can cause someone to do drastic, unnecessary things to themselves just to please the social critics. In the story, “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” the main character, Philadelphia Burke, was what society considered ugly. After a failed suicide attempt she becomes a candidate to become a celebrity. Philadelphia wanted to finally be what society thought as perfect. To become a celebrity Philadelphia must go through several modifications and electronic implants. Nobody really want to have these things done to them bu...
To add to that she has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. She has done well for herself, and plans to write, sing, and choreograph for as long as she can. Paula’s dance “nasty” a song by Janet Jackson was created in an interesting way Abdul says “I'm very grateful, because this was really the big start to my career. When I was introduced to Janet, I was told by A&M Records that Control was going to be an important album for her, and when I started hearing demos, I was really, really excited to work with her. I felt like I had a chance here to really create something big for her. It was so inspiring. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wrote genius music, and Janet had a really important voice in it. You don't hear 'Nasty' and go, 'Oh, this is a dance jam.' It was a very different kind of song, kind of like how 'Straight Up' was for me: This could define an artist completely, and I wanted to create something that would be signature moves but also define her as being in charge. This video was nerve-wracking for her, because she had never danced with just all guys. But I picked the best in the business, and everything came into place perfectly. I choreographed 'Nasty' —
“If you want change, you have to make it. If we want progress we have to drive It.” - Susan Rice. The author of this quotation had it right because the only way that anything in life becomes better or worthwhile is through change. When we talk about change in reference to music, Michael Jackson definitely comes to mind. Michael Jackson changed a lot of things starting with the change of pop music and how it was presented and gave it a “new sound”. The same holds true for the music industry. ” For starters, the record industry as a whole was in a bad slump, with shipments industry-wide down by 50 million units between 1980 and 1982. CBS Records' own profits were down 50% and sales were down over 15% for the year. As a result, major company-wide layoffs occurred in mid-August, on a day the company would remember as "Black Friday." CBS desperately needed Jackson's album to be a hit, but market conditions appeared daunting.” - Steve Greenberg. Michael Jackson brought the youth back in to buying albums and started to get the youth back into listening to good music instead spending all of their money on video games and going to arcades, which in fact was the thing for the youth to do around the 1980’s.
A substantial influence in preserving this notion of culture as a trend comes in part from the impact of celebrity and popular culture. When discussing celebrity influence in her interview, hooks primarily discusses Madonna’s use of black culture to reproduce her image. Currently, this idea of appropriating culture to redefine a celebrity’s stardom is most associated with Miley Cyrus. In a recent interview with Vibe magazine, Timothy and Theron Thomas, the writers and producers behind Miley Cyrus’s hit single “We Can’t Stop,” discussed her new music. They stated that Cyrus had wanted something “that was urban, something that felt black (Platon),” an arguably good business move because she is now more famous than she has ever been. However, Cyrus’s new level of fame does not solely generate from hooks’ belief in America’s obsession with blackness. It also correlates with hooks’ discussion of the black woman’s experience in Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Black women are presumably the lowest ranking in the social system of hierarchy. Thus American consumers, who are primari...
This is exactly what the media does to celebrities. Most celebrities that we have become to know have all changed in a lot of way from before they started their career and when they actually became famous. There are many artists, actors, musicians that were once people you would not even believe. A story that really inspires me is the musical journey of Stefani Germanotta. A small recording artist, not very well know, that is why I choose to discuss her because she has been through this with the media. She went to a small all girls catholic school in New York City. Paris Hilton was in her school. Look where she got, where did she go. She was made fun of everyday for her appearance. She was musically inclined to no extent, she had the talent. She knew how to play the piano by herself by the age of four years old (4).By 13 she wrote her first ballad; by 19 she was writing songs for the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears. Obviously she had the talent so when she went to go get a record deal, she went to...
The Hollywood music industry has a tendency to emulate the idea that musical bands or artists express “their” individual thoughts and beliefs through the music they produce and more importantly the lyrics they preform. From gangster rappers portraying a tough or thug lifestyle in their dress, actions, and lyrics, to various boy bands constantly being portrayed as sensitive heart throbs singing countless love ballads. However, when it comes to these “individual identities” they are often nothing more than carefully constructed “characters,” that have their lyrics crafted and perfected in order to appeal to certain groups of people. What is interesting about the modern idea identity, is that one can observe clear changes in the “identities” of targeted demographics based on the types of things that massively successful artists sing about. Specifically one is able to see a link between certain behaviors of adolescents, and popular music subject matter.
Hip hop music has gone through many changes since the 1980’s and continues to change today with new artists, styles, and sounds. Over the past forty years hip hop music has been a way for fans to relate to artist through their songs because many hip hop artist lived and experience the same things that their fans did. Hip hop has changed over the years because of changes and improvement of the average American. Hip hop music reflects on the current situation in American life and over the past forty years hip hop changes with the current times and views of hip hop fans in America. The improvement of more Americans since the 1980’s has help grow the access to hip hop music as well as the popularity of hip hop music and artists.
Media is forcing today’s youth to grow up faster and faster. Miley Cyrus was unfortunately used as the poster child for young girls trying to be older. After the shoot, which was obviously not initiated by her, she had to come out and publically apologize. On top of that, Disney also threatened to void her contract if adult like behaviors continued (Toomey 1). With it being well known that only a few companies control most of the media we see, does it not appear ironic that Miley Cyrus was exemplified in such a negative light? From the time her publicist was con...
Nicki’s apparent feminist agenda through her music and identity is being distributed to her wide audience, which covers a massive array of hip-hop and pop music fans. Her wide reach and continual influence has the potential to lastingly correct the anti-feminist, misogynistic tone of the male-dominated genre and culture. Despite her hyper sexualized image and defamatory lyrics, she is arguably a positive, albeit controversial, feminist role model, which is evident in her motivation for success, lyrical discourse, and use of and meanings behind her alter egos.
Britney was very successful from 1998 to 2000. During these years, things were changing for her. Britney was telling people about her “remaining a virgin until marriage” yet she was posing in pictures that convinced people to think otherwise. Her albums still continued to sell in the United States as well as in Europe. She embarked on many successful roads through 2003 (Wikipedia, 2011). Her public finally saw her as a woman not a girl.
In her songs, she is often changing between hip-hop and pop that no other rapper is capable of, or
...s herself and her true identity. She realizes that she isn't always going to be the girl that everyone wants her to be but as long as she is true to herself that all that really matters (MTV, 2011).
In Robert Palmer's article “What pop lyrics say to us today”, he explains that music has been much the same for many years.