Miley, Whats Good?

Miley Cyrus was recently the host of the MTV Video Music Awards. The fact that she was able to host such a well-known event solo in her own style signifies her current place at the top of the pop world.

                                                               

Part of what makes Miley’s story resonate with fans is what Robin James calls the neoliberal feminist idea of “Look I Overcame”[1], Miley’s background has allowed her to overcome. Currently ideas of marketable feminism require that perceived strong females survive. A strong woman is not like other girls: she is unique and has over come the patriarchal system on her own.  In doing this, however, the strong woman enforces the system they seek to overcome. Miley’s narrative is a standard version of this story.

Miley started off young in the entertainment business as the star of a popular television show controlled by Disney.  Miley had to conform to the ideas of young femininity that Disney wanted to promote. Her break away from that image is forever tied with it. Mileys current persona is dependent on that beginning.  No one would care that she is now someone who rides giant hotdogs on stage, sticks her tongue out, wears provocative clothing and dances with drag queens if they didn’t have the image of her starting out as a young country singer.

Without the knowledge of her past she would just be another singer trying to be wacky to get talked about, instead of someone that people genuinely do talk about.

The Miley that existed since Hannah Montana first went on the air in 2006 has overcome Disney’s hold on her and “broken out “of a system which she says caused her to suffer from body dysmorphia and emotional trauma[2]. She has accepted that she is damaged by the system and now profits from it (like other Disney Stars have also done, for example Demi Lovato).

The self-realization is according to James nothing new, it is part of the traditional overcoming narrative. First there is the whole undamaged person, then something negative happens, then suffering and finally self-awareness and growth[3].  This idea is always about improvement and in this modern western neoliberal society betterment equals money and the accumulation of it.  

To overcome and be this new “strong” version of herself, Miley needed the system to tell her what she needed to overcome, that same system informs her now that she is strong. She is still dependent on and plays to the system that she acts like she broke out of.  The wording is just different. It used to tell her to be like the other girls and now it says “don’t be like the other girls”. Both ideals of femininity depend on the system’s idea of the “other girls”.

Now she has moved on and can control her own image. This would not have been possible to do unless her Disney career had provided her with the economic capital to move on.  Getting past a crisis instead of slipping further in is not free, as James states it requires money and privilege to break out[4].   

Miley can afford to act a certain way because she still relies on the system to keep her relevant. She presents herself the way she wants because she comes from the right narrative whereas others have not “earned” their way into dressing or behaving as she does.  Other artists may act or dress similarly to her get criticised because they do not fit into the narrative that has promoted Miley.  There are differences in class and race that prevent others from benefiting from this system of success. They may have “overcome their damage” but not in the way that the current music and media industry has decided they want to story to play out. Miley’s freedom of expression is bound by narrative and not open to everyone.

The resources she has gained from this have allowed her to now work relatively independently and produce and release her latest album (Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz)  for free.

However, Miley’s free album might not be as free as its seems

The music is indeed available immediately through free streaming[5] via the website Soundcloud. This is in direct contrast to other artists like Taylor Swift, who have recently been increasingly regulating and monetizing their content.  However, Miley’s free access comes with a catch, there is no other (official) way to access this music.

In this current musical climate as talked about in Raphael Nowak’s article Understating Everyday Uses of Music Technologies in the Digital Age, music is no longer experienced through a single channel but interacted with across multiple platforms for multiple reasons[6].

The attempt to be accessible to everyone through free streaming cuts off access to it. She assumes that the way that she would want to access that music is the same way as listener would and doesn’t give them a chance to interact with music in a way that they would choose to.  There are so many options now in regards to the music experience this singular access is restrictive. She takes away the agency of the listener and tells them how to interact with the music.

There are no obvious download links and the album is only available via streaming services which require the listener to be connected to the internet. A listener must always be connected to the digital world. They cannot take the music out of that world the way you could with a CD or Mp3 download.  The music is accessible but not mobile. This limits the places the music can be listened to and cuts off fans who may not have access or only have limited access to internet services. The album is free but it is not free at all times for all people.

Nowak states that in the digital age many people still interact with the physical objects even in music. CD sales may be declining but artists have been putting out special editions of CDs or vinyl records for those fans who like to own physical objects[7]. The fact that they can get an album for free is great but fans are aware of the fact that the artist doesn’t get paid when this happens. When people want to really support an artist they want to be able to buy something from them. There is a ritual here. It may be a commercial ritual but it also allows fans to clearly tell an artist what they like (album sells well) or what they don’t (album bombs) and to be part of the music process in their own way.  By limiting Her Dead Petz release to a singular free digital platform Miley ignores the fans importance as part of the music industry and further denies them agency.

She doesn’t need them anymore. She doesn’t care if people buy her album or not, her album is for her. The free access is not about her listeners; its about her. Its about her being better than other artists because she can afford to release this album for free where other artists still need to sell their albums.

 Miley’s current success doesn’t benefit others like she may claim it does. She may not have made money off Her Dead Petz but the constant mentions of her in the press and the way she announced her album (on stage at the VMAs during her time as host), have allowed her to continue to be in the public eye, perform and profit from things other than her album sales.  Miley’s resilience as a pop artist with the ability to put out a free album, relies on the fact that she is part of the neoliberal conception of a strong woman.  

The album is free but the image continues to sell.

Thesis: Resilience 'feminism' is just another form of oppression

FM, LB, BBB, MM, YB

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[1] James, Robin. "Look I Overcame ." In Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism, by Robin James, 78-124. John Hunt Publishing , 2015. Pg. 79

[2] Glock, Allison. "Miley Cyrus Marie Claire September 2015 Cover Interview." Marie Claire.com. August 7, 2015. http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/a15323/miley-cyrus-september-2015 (accessed Septmber 25, 2015).

[3] James 2015 Pg. 83

[4] James 2015 Pg. 86

[5]  Streaming in this case is the continuous transmission of data over the internet

[6] Nowak 2014 Pg. 149

[7] Nowak 2014 pg. 150