From Teen Idol to Twerker – The Story Behind Miley Cyrus

What makes a person strip naked, sit on a gigantic concrete ball and swing around breaking down walls? Especially when that person was once a scrawny, twelve-year-old girl from Nashville with too much lip-gloss, a distinctly pink tee and full of youthful energy.

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll; It’s the vicious circle in the music industry, isn’t it. It’s nothing new, but it is overly scandalous when the person in question is a former Disney star.

And that too when that star is Miley Cyrus.

Miley Cyrus

From the girl who sang teeny-bop songs like ‘Life’s What You Make It’ and ‘Let’s Get Crazy’ which are so essentially uncontroversial, to a twenty-something, who models for nude spreads in “W” and smokes weed onstage at the MTV Europe Music Awards for fun, that’s how Cyrus is defined now.

Legend has it that things started getting wonky when one day Miley ditched a play date with “Hannah Montana” co-star Emily Osment to hang out with one of her back-up dancers, Mandy Jiroux. The world loves to point fingers and the idea that innocent little Smiley Miley was hanging out with someone older – well, the paparazzi had a field day.

One can only imagine, over the years, what really did it for Miley. Was it a simple matter of hormones or the urge to rebel against one’s parents, especially when they have been that closely involved in your life (on-screen and off-screen dad Robby Ray Cyrus, anyone?) Was it the height of fame and fortune or her parents’ rocky relationship?

The twenty-one year old singer and actress’ transition into a more mature role came when she wrapped up her Disney contract and opted for coming-of-age movies like “The Last Song” – where she met her soon-to-be longtime boyfriend Liam Hemsworth – and “LOL”. She dropped a bombshell with a selfie that went viral, debuting her short, blonde crop cut. She then released the video of her first single from her new album ‘We Can’t Stop’, which became the talk of the town. The suggestive themes, her antics throughout the video and the controversial lyrics (Does she say ‘molly’ or ‘miley’?) catapulted the video to 10.7 million views in its first twenty-four hours of release, setting a record. Interestingly enough, she broke her own record with a second single from “Bangerz” – ‘Wrecking Ball’.

No one needs to say much about that video because one has to see it to believe it. The song and video were inspired by her relationship with Liam Hemsworth, which had ended badly a while ago. There was also the extremely entertaining and highly shocking fiasco – her VMA performance with Robin Thicke. Foam fingers, giant teddy-bears, her attempt at dressing up as an ‘adult baby’ and the lewd gestures she pulled as she pranced around Thicke were the highlights of the evening, despite the fact that Lady Gaga had performed in a less-than-conventional outfit herself.

In all of her interviews, after her “Bangerz” success, she has been brutally honest about loving drugs, being aware of exactly what she’s doing and not caring at all what the media says about her because she never Googles herself.

How does she justify what she does? It isn’t the first time anyone in the music industry has pulled stunts like this or gone for a complete image revamp. It isn’t the first time provocative material has gone viral. And no one judges all of that. But she is being judged, simply because of who she was before, and because she grew up right in front our eyes. According to Miley Cyrus, in real life, she doesn’t really twerk on Robin Thicke and dress as a giant teddy-bear; she is simply playing a character. We all hope so!

Image courtesy: By calmdownlove (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Categories: Music

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