Miley Cyrus is known for one genre - Pop, although if we study her work carefully, we discover that she plays and experiments with genre in different and interesting ways.
* When Cyrus started out her career as Hannah Montana, she could be clearly categorised under the teen pop genre. When performing, her and her backing musicians had smiling faces and the upbeat music would have been a culturally acceptable image to offer young people.
* The music video for Best of Both Worlds featured a focus on the ‘star’ performer and choreographed dance movies that clearly placed the song in the teen pop category. New, emerging artists are often pigeonholed into clear, identifiable genres as these are safer to sell to audiences (who can recognise the genre codes to match with their preferences). Record labels are less likely to back more experimental artists as they are more of a commercial risk.
* Cyrus remained fixed in this genre for a while (e.g. with 7 Things, before branching out to appeal to more adult audiences.
* Before she was 18, it was not appropriate for her to adorn the image that marks her current career. Therefore, she appealed to a more adult audience through her use of country influences. She accentuated the ‘twang’ in her singing (taking after her father) and the video for The Climb features lots of country iconography, from the style of her guitar and the shot of her on a horse alongside a man in a cowboy hat. Her appearance had shorn the ‘Barbie’ look and she now appeared more worn and ‘lived in’ – again attempting to fit into the country scene.
* Up to this point, Cyrus was signed to Hollywood Records (a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation – for whom she had a television contract for performing as Hannah Montana). It was important, therefore, that she have a ‘wholesome’ image that were in line with Disney’s core values. However, when she turned 18, she was able to be marketed as a more adult version of pop.
* The single Can’t Be Tamed appeared to feature more dance-beats and the video was more akin to a Beyonce release (including bondage clothing and sexualised dance moves – including pole-dancing on the bars of her cage) than an episode from Hannah Montana. The lyrics were also more adult (“I go through guys like money flyin’ out the hands”. Although, still identifiable as pop music (with its
choreographed dance moves and emphasis on the ‘star’ persona), here Montana was more brooding and intense – a clear move into the adult pop genre.
* Cyrus then took a few years out of the music scene. When she re-emerged, she was keen to shed the Disney image that had dominated her previous career. She signed to RCA records (a subsidiary of Sony) and the genre changed too.
* Although Cyrus has never performed anything other than pop, we see in her album Bangerz a blending of genres (what Cyrus has been quoted as saying is a “new” genre – a mix of her country “twang” and “hip-hop beats”). Is this pretentious, or does she have a point?
* Her image in videos such as We Can’t Stop and Wrecking Ball show a change in direction for Cyrus’s image. Perhaps because, by this point, she already had an established fan-base, she was able to play with genre codes.
* For instance, her videos became controversially sexualised – both with her lack of clothing and highly suggestive dance moves and actions (e.g. licking the head of a sledgehammer in Wrecking Ball). They also started to lose the choreographed dance moves and replaced them with images of rebellion (e.g. outrageous parties in We Can’t Stop and the punk hairstyle that dominated the cover images on the Bangerz album).
* In some ways, her experiments with genre represent what is in vogue at the time and are a form of identifying with rapidly changing fads and styles. "It is critical to each record company to continuously find new talents since the life of a 'hit' record is only from 60 to 120 days. 'Replacements are needed for these items currently on the "charts". The unknown artist and the companies each share a vital interest in his discovery and success, for the hit record industry is based on the fads of the moment. The styles in vogue change rapidly and unpredictably.' (Hirsch, 1970)" (p. 55)" (Wikistrom, 2011)
* Her move to the image of a more ‘soulful’ musician came complete with an intertextual reference to Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2U music video, where she is shown crying in a close-up (referenced in Wrecking Ball).
* This change in image is evident in the evolution of her album covers, which start off with Cyrus fully clothed and smiling (with uncontroversial styling of her hair) to wearing fewer clothes (appearing topless on one album cover for Bangerz) with a more punky, rebellious hairstyle. The typography for the album also has more unsavoury connotations (as well as the name itself) with its neon-glow reminiscent of a city’s red-light district. This is clearly someone who is trying to break out of her teen pop image.
MILEY CYRUS
* The music video for Best of Both Worlds featured a focus on the ‘star’ performer and choreographed dance movies that clearly placed the song in the teen pop category. New, emerging artists are often pigeonholed into clear, identifiable genres as these are safer to sell to audiences (who can recognise the genre codes to match with their preferences). Record labels are less likely to back more experimental artists as they are more of a commercial risk.
* Cyrus remained fixed in this genre for a while (e.g. with 7 Things, before branching out to appeal to more adult audiences.
* Before she was 18, it was not appropriate for her to adorn the image that marks her current career. Therefore, she appealed to a more adult audience through her use of country influences. She accentuated the ‘twang’ in her singing (taking after her father) and the video for The Climb features lots of country iconography, from the style of her guitar and the shot of her on a horse alongside a man in a cowboy hat. Her appearance had shorn the ‘Barbie’ look and she now appeared more worn and ‘lived in’ – again attempting to fit into the country scene.
* Up to this point, Cyrus was signed to Hollywood Records (a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation – for whom she had a television contract for performing as Hannah Montana). It was important, therefore, that she have a ‘wholesome’ image that were in line with Disney’s core values. However, when she turned 18, she was able to be marketed as a more adult version of pop.
* The single Can’t Be Tamed appeared to feature more dance-beats and the video was more akin to a Beyonce release (including bondage clothing and sexualised dance moves – including pole-dancing on the bars of her cage) than an episode from Hannah Montana. The lyrics were also more adult (“I go through guys like money flyin’ out the hands”. Although, still identifiable as pop music (with its
choreographed dance moves and emphasis on the ‘star’ persona), here Montana was more brooding and intense – a clear move into the adult pop genre.
* Cyrus then took a few years out of the music scene. When she re-emerged, she was keen to shed the Disney image that had dominated her previous career. She signed to RCA records (a subsidiary of Sony) and the genre changed too.
* Although Cyrus has never performed anything other than pop, we see in her album Bangerz a blending of genres (what Cyrus has been quoted as saying is a “new” genre – a mix of her country “twang” and “hip-hop beats”). Is this pretentious, or does she have a point?
* Her image in videos such as We Can’t Stop and Wrecking Ball show a change in direction for Cyrus’s image. Perhaps because, by this point, she already had an established fan-base, she was able to play with genre codes.
* For instance, her videos became controversially sexualised – both with her lack of clothing and highly suggestive dance moves and actions (e.g. licking the head of a sledgehammer in Wrecking Ball). They also started to lose the choreographed dance moves and replaced them with images of rebellion (e.g. outrageous parties in We Can’t Stop and the punk hairstyle that dominated the cover images on the Bangerz album).
* In some ways, her experiments with genre represent what is in vogue at the time and are a form of identifying with rapidly changing fads and styles. "It is critical to each record company to continuously find new talents since the life of a 'hit' record is only from 60 to 120 days. 'Replacements are needed for these items currently on the "charts". The unknown artist and the companies each share a vital interest in his discovery and success, for the hit record industry is based on the fads of the moment. The styles in vogue change rapidly and unpredictably.' (Hirsch, 1970)" (p. 55)" (Wikistrom, 2011)
* Her move to the image of a more ‘soulful’ musician came complete with an intertextual reference to Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2U music video, where she is shown crying in a close-up (referenced in Wrecking Ball).
* This change in image is evident in the evolution of her album covers, which start off with Cyrus fully clothed and smiling (with uncontroversial styling of her hair) to wearing fewer clothes (appearing topless on one album cover for Bangerz) with a more punky, rebellious hairstyle. The typography for the album also has more unsavoury connotations (as well as the name itself) with its neon-glow reminiscent of a city’s red-light district. This is clearly someone who is trying to break out of her teen pop image.
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