When we think about 2013 as a whole, something that stands out pretty prominently in all of our minds is the one and only Miley Cyrus. Some may call this streak of wild behavior her "going off the deep end" but for me and probably the minority of the public sees this as a sort of transition into something greater for her. Yes, no one can argue that the old "7 Things I Hate About You" Miley isn't a guilty pleasure for us all but once she hopped off that plane at LAX with that crop top and short shorts, we should've known something was up. I still laugh at how much people basically freaked out when she was some sort of skimpy mystical birdlike creature in "I Can't Be Tamed." We obviously underestimated how far she was willing to go to make a statement. That statement of course ultimately being something along the lines of "I've grown up so stop asking yourself why Hannah Montana would be acting this way." Even though this Miley Cyrus craze only started in late August of 2013, it is something that defines a lot of aspects of 2013 pop culture simply because NO ONE COULD STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. Speaking of the VMAs a.k.a. the start of all this madness, personally for me (which is probably quite an unpopular opinion but one I'm going to make anyway), her performance was justified. Well, if a performance can be "justified." I mean it is after all called artistic expression. The VMAs are predominantly about celebrating music videos and how the artists behind the most popular videos of the year go about expressing themselves through their music.
Let's change gears a bit and look at Lady GaGa. She opened the VMAs with a powerful performance in the most expected and GaGa-esque way anyone could hope for. She did also do this while wearing a thong. I mean, I don't know about you but that seems like a GaGa thing to do because, well first off she is known for pushing the boundaries in the name of artistic freedom, but also it perfectly represented her music video for "Applause" which was being honored through this performance. That is simply what the VMAs are. GaGa wore a thong because it represented an aspect of her video and if one was familiar with the video would have praised her for doing it.
Back to Miley...of course there was an uproar when the "We Can't Stop" video surfaced but knowing that Miley was performing this song at the VMAs and knowing what goes on in the video and what the song is about, what were we expecting? Not even mentioning that part of her performance was a duet with Robin Thicke who's "Blurred Lines" video was no more controversial or risque than Miley's. Artists' performances at the VMAs are meant to honor their videos and when you mix "Blurred Lines" and "We Can't Stop," the uproar was a bit unnecessary if you ask me. People can say that they were upset because the performance was inappropriate and obnoxious blah blah blah but ultimately the majority of people were upset because Miley is a Disney girl and they will never get over that fact. The sad fact is that she will be held to that standard the rest of her career. That puts a lot of stress on a young star. She's bound to act out even more than she may intend to at times. Above all, Miley does what she wants and does a good job letting people know that she wants to leave the preteen pop life behind and move in a more....mature....direction.....and boy has she shown us.
THE MILEY CYRUS PHENOMENON~AS TOLD BY MADS
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