Class work - Music Video

Nobody's perfect


A stars’ image can change dramatically. One wrong photo can change everything, they go from being sweet and innocent and loved by most to a 'bad influence' and loved by very few. Some stars' development is very clear in the music they create and the videos that go along with them.

 I am looking at the dramatic development of Miley Cyrus. The once Disney girl who was looked upon by thousands of tweens and teens developed into a negative influencing, destructive, rebellious, shameless, sexualising young woman.

After becoming a world icon with her role in Hannah Montana and showed her musical talent with numerous albums associated with the TV show when she decided to move on to most of us teen girls had high expectations. At first Miley lived up to the expectations with her famous hit The Climb which was a very moving and inspirational and later her single Party in the USA. In 2009 she even performed for the Queen! If only Queen Lizzie knew how wrong Miley’s life would turn. In 2013 she released Bangerz – the album that changed everything. The album contained hits such as We Can’t Stop and the unforgettable song Wrecking Ball.
 

Cyrus’ early music videos were much focussed on her TV character Hannah Montana, who was a teen pop star with a wardrobe that made every girl jealous. Her music videos often featured her performing in front of fans at a concert, she had a choreographed dance that she and dancers performed on a stage with the accompany of her band. She would high-five fans who were watching her and showed actual fun when performing. Her outfits would be a perfect mix of glam and practicality.

 

 

Her music video image has changed dramatically during her development with her losing those stylish (at the time) wardrobe-envy clothing to wearing almost nothing? She cut off her brown curly locks and went for a shaved-head bleached-hair look, making her look a lot tougher and scarier. Award-winning Wrecking Ball featured Miley swinging on a wrecking ball (funnily enough?) but completely naked. And if performing naked/minimal clothing wasn’t bad enough We Can’t Stop featured Miley trying and failing to twerk as well as other sexual actions along with the mention of drugs in the lyrics. Which isn’t surprising since Cyrus has stated that she smoked cannabis and that she loves “getting stoned”. Instead of high-fiving her fans, when on tour in Mexico she spat on her fans. Her image has clearly changed from positive to negative.

  

 

 

Cyrus’ first albums were released under Walt Disney Records as she was performing as Hannah Montana, she released 26 singles and 23 music videos. Her image was very much controlled by Disney who wanted her to be a pop icon to young girls. Her styling was very simple: she wore a blonde wig and all of her outfits included sequins and extravagant clothing. Her first album as Miley Cyrus title Meet Miley Cyrus was released by Hollywood Records and Walt Disney Records. The album was a double release with the album Hannah Montana 2. The album featured 10 songs sung by Miley as Miley. Her image for this album was very much girl next door, simple, lovable and normal. Her next 2 albums Breakout and Can’t be Tamed were also released by Hollywood Records therefore her image was kept quite similar only showing how she had grown out of Disney in her style and song choice. But in 2013 Miley signed onto RCA Records which is where everything changed. She has only released one physical album with them – Bangerz with her most recent album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz being available for online streaming only. When she signed onto the new recording label she reinvented herself, style and music. In both video she wear very bright red lipstick which further sexualised the videos, as well as the clothing choice in both – very little.

 Also the close ups used in this video emphasise the red lipstick as it is the only strong colour shown. The Wrecking Ball is very simple with a mix of close ups of her face and wide shots of her on the wrecking ball and smashing the walls. The camerawork is very steady and still apart from when the camera is attached to the wrecking ball therefore captures the movement. Toward the end of the video when the tempo picks up the editing matched this with more cuts between the different scenes.
In We Can’t Stop there is product placement of Beats (speaker) and Eos (lip balm). The camerawork is very fluent in scenes with the editing reasonable fast alternating between the different scenes not staying on one shot or scene for too long. This creates a reasonably fast-paced video to fit the style of song.

This star was the most iconic and relatable artist for teens and tweens, singing about things they relate to on a daily basis – Nobody’s Perfect which has 12 million viewers on YouTube she has now grown up and has an acquired fan base. People either love her or hate her, like lots of music artists today. She was obviously very popular during her years on Hannah Montana because Disney promoted her to their heart’s content. Today, Disney Channel is known for making pop icons with lots of shows feature music – whether the star just sings the theme song or is shown singing every episode before Hannah there were very few. The show was very popular because it filled a void in the audience for tweens and gave girls confidence. Now, Miley promotes the right for people to do what they please – which may not include the right or lawful decisions. She is possibly still trying to promote confidence in body issues by performing naked/nearly naked.

Overall, Miley Cyrus has gone from singing about relatable issues for tweens and performing in clothing to singing about doing whatever she pleases, including drugs, whilst naked. Her image was very positive to the whole world and now, it's very much negative. There are fans of Miley out there, people who love Miley and not the Disney girl she used to be but the only positive thing Miley is doing is promoting self confidence by showing everyone her body.