Controversial icon Destiny Hope Cyrus was born November 23, 1992 in Franklin, Tennessee (“Miley Cyrus Biography”). Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, was a ‘90s country music star mostly known for the song Achy Breaky Heart. Destiny later changed her name to Miley due to the nickname she was “given as a baby for often smiling” (“Miley Cyrus Biography”). Miley was raised with two siblings and three half-siblings on a family farm near Nashville (“Miley Cyrus Biography”). Due to her passion to be an actress from her exposure to her father’s career, Miley appeared on his television shows. Her skills landed her a starring role in the Disney show Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds (“Miley Cyrus Biography”). This role allowed Miley to launch her vocal …show more content…
She was unable to portray her true identity then, so it is logical for her to attempt to become herself now. Throughout her youth, Cyrus was able to grasp the idea of public image. She “loves being naked” and has been able to show that throughout her performances and TV screenings (“Miley Cyrus: Her Plans”). Cyrus has talked about her nudity with many television hosts including Jimmy Kimmel. She described her experience at a nudist beach, especially how she was able to see the different types of confident people (“Miley Cyrus: Her Plans”). Cyrus believes in self-expression and the ability to be who you are. This claim has allowed Miley to sell by exploiting her body. She loves being an exhibitionist, often seen in her public appearances. These acts have allowed Miley to move from one end of the spectrum to the other, from traditional to non-traditional values. She is able to rid herself of her childhood filters and now portrays herself in a more personal and scandalous light. She uses her new image as a technique to sell herself and stay relevant in pop culture. Her rebellious attitude, most probably from her life experiences as a child actress, provides her the ability to be profitable by being …show more content…
The ideas her fans receive from her performances is to be themselves. She went to the extreme to send this message to her audience by naming her own dance move called “The Twerk,”, a wiggling of her gluts in the air (Lynch). Twerking was beyond most American’s sexual norm for the public forum, especially when it was televised during prime time. Not only did she become a subject of discussion with both positive and negative commentary, her actions changed pop culture with the word "twerk" landing in the Urban Dictionary. The ability to have such an impact throughout our society demonstrates the influence of her successful branding as a pop icon. Although media frequently depicts her in a negative fashion, Miley rises above it all as she continues to sell the message to be oneself. This tactic of “blockin’ out the haters,” helps Miley sell her music. Consumers embrace the messaging to be true to oneself further providing Miley the opportunity to sell more of her brand image and
Celebrities hold a strong power to influence the lifestyle trends of an audience. As members of the entertainment industry, celebrities are looked up to as role models by a large general public. With such high exposure, celebrities essentially hold the power to positively or negatively influence their followers, from fashion trends to behavioral tendencies, the attitudes and lifestyle habits of celebrities influence cultural qualities and the way in which many people function within society. Mindy Kaling’s career started when she became an intern on the popular show “Late Night with Conan O’ Brien”. Mindy was a 19-year-old sophomore at Dartmouth College when she first started her internship.
Queen Latifah played a big role in the hip hop industry as a female MC, and still is relevant to this day. She influenced millions of people especially in the black community for equality between women and men. She’s an American song-writer, actress, fashion producer, model, female MC, feminist, television producer, record producer, and talk show hostess. The Hip-hop culture began around the 1970’s in Bronx, New York and it was mostly amongst the Black and Latino community at that time. Hip Hop emerged out of an atmosphere of disappointment, anger, hate, discrimination, and disillusionment which; made it easy for the audience to comprehend and enjoy the music not as a song, but as a public personal message for each person to understand. Hip-hop was born in numerous places: in the neighborhoods, in the parks, playgrounds, bedrooms, bathrooms, a broken home, and even on the street corners. MC-ing and DJ-ing were at the center of this emerging culture, but hip-hop was always bigger than just the music, it was also break dancing and graffiti. The hip-hop fashion was very popular back then and some materials are coming back in today’s fashion as well: kangol hats, big bright jackets, gold jewelry chains, brand name sneakers like Adidas, established sportswear, tracksuits, large eyeglasses, big waist belts, jumpsuits, and any kind of over-sized clothing. The graffiti was a new form of expression that employed spray paint as a story on walls as the canvas. The police called that vandalism; but the people of hip hop called it art: a form of self-expression. Hip hop has been largely dominated by male artists, but there have been some notable exceptions. Queen Latifah was one of the few early female exponents of the styl...
...ing audience to say “no” to various social dysfunctions such as illiteracy. She then distracted everyone, and subsequently undermined her own message, by punctuating it with a Vegas flash courtesy of Mr. Timberlake. That should have told America something about how seriously to take Janet Jackson. If you need to drive home your social commentary with a starburst nipple accessory, perhaps your rhetoric needs some work.
Taylor continues to maintain her clean appearance by making wise attire decisions. Her consciousness of being a role model and inspiring young girls is a decision that she chooses to permanently tattoo into her mind. On a special for 60 Minutes, she tells Leslie Stahl that when she gets dressed in the morning, she thinks of the opinions of the millions of fans that have confided in her (Swift). She is aware that something as simple as a wardrobe choice is something that makes young women look up to her. A single provocative piece of clothing she chooses to wear has the ability to alter the dressing styles for girls, but she does not try to experiment with risqué choices. Taylor knows that her clothing choices are being monitored from such a young audience, and she does not find this a challenging task. In an older interview for Glamour Magazine she states that it is easy for her to keep her clothes on and refuses to take them off (Swift). Swift expresses no intent to exposes flesh because she wants to ...
Hadley Freeman 's article, “Miley Cyrus’s twerking routine was cultural appropriation at its worst” ,was also published on August 27, 2013, on theguardian.com in the opinion
Miley Cyrus has been a household name since the success of her hit show Hannah Montana. Long gone is the thirteen-year old girl who played America’s sweetheart on Disney Channel. Today the media portrays her as an out of control twenty-two year old superstar. The recent confrontation on the 2015 Video Music Awards with Nicki Minaj is a prime example of how Hannah Montana has turned herself into a thing of the past. The transformation from Hannah Montana to Miley Cyrus has caused her to change her appearance, morals, and music.
"Music is what I breathe, what I love to do. It keeps me alive, " Miley Cyrus once said. Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, knew even as a baby, Miley could sing (Miley Cyrus Quotes). She has an extraordinary story. One day Miley was just a normal girl and what seemed like the next day, a pop star. She was introduced to fame at a very young age and is now still growing up in front of the world. She was born Destiny Hope Cyrus because her parents believed she would achieve greatness (Miley Cyrus Biography). They had a lot of hope and promise for their young daughter. Miley is one of the most successful kids from Disney and now she is rising to fame all on her own. It is hard having everyone watch your every move and being constantly photographed, but she deals with it because she loves what she does. Miley Cyrus has led a very unique life both through her childhood and teen life.
Lena Horne was born on June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Teddy and Edna Scottron Horne. After her father left her at the age of two in order to pursue his gambling career; her mother leaving soon after that to pursue her acting career; she went to live with her grandparents. Through her grandparents influence she became involved with organizations like the NAACP, at an early age.
Etta James, originally “JamesEtta” Hawkins,was born on January 25th 1938 in Los Angeles California. Her mother’s name was Dorothy Hawkins. She was an African American. (Rolling Stone Magazine.) Etta James was raised by her mother. She grew up not knowing who her father was. It was said at one time that Rudolf Walter Wanderon Jr. also known as “Minnesota Fats” an American professional billiards player, was said to be her father. Throughout some of her childhood. Etta was mostly raised by some of her friends, and relatives, that lived close to her in the nearby neighborhood. Everyone loved Etta. Etta started performing at the young age of five. At this age, Etta known as a gospel prodigy. She grew up attending church. The first time she had ever sung was actually in the choir of the church she attended. When she was twelve, she began singing in a trio. When Etta was fifteen years old she was what some might call a rebel child. She began ditching school just to hang out with friends and drink because she thought that she could be independent.
Hip-hop and rap music are commonly criticized for its anti-feminist lyrics and degrading exploitation of women in music and music videos. (Sharpley-Whiting ) Many feminists have taken action against the music industry, which produces these messages in the music they release. However, in the hip-hop genre there are plenty of successful female rappers promoting feminist views, artist such as Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige have made the choice to condemn the derogatory culture towards women. (Oliver, 382–384) However others female hip-hop artist, such as Lil Kim or Rihanna, have decided to provide no resistance towards the deleterious depictions of women in their music and in turn sometimes exploit themselves. Due to her extreme fame, success, and controversial image, at the front of this discussion is female rapper Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj is challenging the common view of women in hip-hop by proclaiming feminist ideologies through the art of reclaiming the genres negative undertones towards women and by providing an opportunity for women to be seen as equals rather than objects.
Britney Spears was born on December 2, 1981. She lived in Kentwood, Louisiana and was constantly performing in front of people and always wanted to be on 'Star Search'. Britney tried out for the New Mickey Mouse Club at age 8 and then again at 11 and made it. Then she went solo because her talent was evident and she wanted more (A & E Television Networks, 2011).
However, just this year a song by Miley Cyrus sparked a “twerking” outbreak, and there simply is no denying the impact it had on teenagers throughout the entire country. The problem, though, is that hip-hop music promotes things far worse than the provocative dancing that was advocated in Cyrus’s song. Others argue that culture is not actually being affected by the music, and it is actually the opposite. They claim that the lyrics in hip-hop music are poetry of the streets, and it embodies black victimhood in the ghetto. However, if we accept this, we are accepting the fact that the “ghetto life” is so hopeless that an explosion of violence is justified. By encouraging rappers that promote this type of behavior we are deeming the behavior acceptable just because the “ghetto life” is tough. However, rape and murder should never be seen as acceptable, and nor should the advocacy of it
Taylor Swift was born on December thirteenth, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania. At five years of age, Swift had begun writing songs and performing for her family. But it wasn’t until about 4th grade that she really discovered her passion and talent for music, after winning an award for her poem, “Monster in my Closet”. “I think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals, and fairs, and karaoke contests, and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.” Swift said. “I was the girl who didn’t get invited to parties. My friends turned into the girls who stood in the corner and talked about me. But as soon as I picked up a guitar…I literally played until my fingers bled. My mom had to tape them up, and you can imagine how popular that made me: “Look at her fingers. So weird”. But for the first time in my life, those girls could say anything they wanted about me, because I was just going to go home after school and write a song about it.“ Swift, as said in the quote, wasn’t exactly the most popular girl in school, but she sure showed her “friends”. Who would want to settle with knowing that in school they talked about a girl behind her back, and she just so happens to now be a pop-country sensation? Swift’s childhood is really what began...
Mariah Carey was born March 27, 1970 in Huntington, Long Island, New York. Her parents are Alfred Roy Carey and Patricia Carey who was a voice coach and opera singer. Mariah Carey shocked her family when she inherited her mother's vocals so she began singing lessons at age four. Today she is one of the most known artist but is also a film actress, music producer, songwriter, and she has won many awards. The day after she graduated high school she moved to New York City to pursue her music career. She started her career as a backing vocalist for Brenda K. Starr who gave columbia records Mariah’s demo tape at a party thrown by CBS records. The goal was to give the demo to a man named Jimmy Greenberg but it ended up in the hands of the president of Columbia records, after that her career took off.
Taylor Swift was born Taylor Alison Swift (Rawson). She was born on December 13, 1989 (Higgins). She was born in Reading, Pennsylvania (http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Swift__Taylor.html). “ She grew up in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania”(Rawson). Her mom’s name is Andrea Swift . She is a successful businesswoman. Her dad’s name is Scott Swift. He is a stockbroker. They named her Taylor because her parents did not want discriminated by her gender before anybody met her (Spencer). “ She grew up on a Christmas-tree farm” (http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Swift__Taylor.html). On the farm, there were” several cats and 7 horses” (Spencer). She rode horses competitively (Spencer). She has a brother, Austin, who is 2 years younger than her (Schartwtz ). Her grandmother was an opera singer (Spencer). That is where Taylor got her talent (Spencer).