This past Saturday marked Cyrus' 21st birthday, so I figured I'd update this thread. She performed "Wrecking Ball" with a giant lip-synching cat on the background screen (though she herself didn't lip synch) at the American Music Awards this past Sunday, and her father got her a Can-Am Spyder ATV, which cost $24,000. (It's definitely a splurge, though it could have been a whole lot worse if he instead bought a Lamborghini, which costs $100,000+ or more.) Now that she's legal, I can see her getting drunk and then crashing her ATV, at the rate she's going.
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Originally Posted by
Jinx
I don't know if I would say they should be grateful, but I'm sure there are other dancers who would've been. Again: if it goes against your morals and is something you don't agree with, yet you do it anyways to further your career, you're certainly in no position to feel sorry for yourself. You did what you did to get ahead.
SuperMillionaire--the thing you don't seem to be acknowledging is that it doesn't matter if Miley Cyrus' current actions 'smear' the Disney or Hannah Montana brand. She's no longer affiliated with or in contract with Disney, therefore any sort of behaviors she exhibits has nothing to do with Disney's image. If it does reflect negatively on them, it's stupid to blame her, as she's no longer an employee. If she was still contracted with them, then I could see why people we be upset on her behavior impacting children or the brand negatively.
And again: if you don't think she's a good role model, then you as the parent on responsible for the media your child consumes.
It may not ruin the Disney brand as a whole, but her antics have definitely ruined the Hannah Montana franchise brand, because she was the main character. Think about it: all of the Hannah Montana merchandise still out there now has the face of a fallen Disney princess on it. All the parents who bought their children any Hannah Montana merchandise now have their childhoods ruined by the actress-singer who portrayed the character; I've seen comments by people who watched the show on the Disney Channel stating that their childhoods were ruined. Some parents out there have also stated that they will never again buy any Miley Cyrus-related music and merchandise, including her Hannah Montana-related music and merchandise. She may not be affiliated with Disney anymore (Hollywood Records is owned by Disney, and she left them for RCA Records, whereas Billy Ray stayed with them), but her antics have definitely ruined the Hannah Montana brand.
Hannah Montana Franchise Kills Off All Miley Cyrus Connections
However, it should be noted that according to the Oh No, They Didn't! website, linking from the Huffington Post article above, the Hannah Montana franchise, to some degree, has severed ties with Miley Cyrus, because iTunes now lists all of the Hannah Montana music as attributed to "Hannah Montana," aka "Miley Stewart," a fictional character, instead of Miley Cyrus; when searching for Miley Cyrus, it will only show her albums Breakout, Can't Be Tamed, and Bangerz, and her EP The Time of Our Lives. Furthermore, Hannah Montana: The Movie now stars "Hannah Montana" in the credits (though I think they should have replaced it with "Miley Stewart"). On IMDB, however, Cyrus is still listed as credited for all of her Hannah Montana appearances.
EXCLUSIVE: Miley Cyrus? Mom Tish Cyrus On VMA Performance: ?I?m So Proud Of Her?I?m In Awe Of Who She Has Become As A Performer? - Miley Cyrus - Zimbio
What really disturbs me, though (and others, too, as I've talked with some friends at my school about this, and I've seen other articles and message boards where others also share my opinions), is that her mother, Tish Cyrus, who is also her manager, actually supports and applauds her daughter's antics; she was proud of Miley's VMAs performance, and Miley stated that "[her] mom is [her] 'homie.'" Really?! As for Billy Ray and the rest of the Cyrus family, well, they may not be quite as adamant about being proud of Miley as Tish is, but they still support her, with Billy Ray stating that "[she] will always be [his] little girl," and seemed to tolerate her "Wrecking Ball" music video, in which she went nude. Both parents are at fault, but between the two of them, I think her mother is more at fault for managing her daughter to be the train wreck that she is now.
The Miley Cyrus Conundrum: Condemned If You're "Sexy", Ignored If You're Not - Forbes
Unfortunately, as noted in the article above, today's pornographic pop culture and society has created a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" conundrum, in which you're criticized by many (including myself) if you strip down to your underwear (or worse, go completely nude), but if you don't, you end up fading away. Our society today tends to denote the beginning of adulthood when young stars start stripping down; girls become women by stripping. As stated in one of my earlier posts, Hilary Duff was never able to properly transition from Disney Girl to sexy woman, even though she did have a few racy roles, and as a result, she ended up fading away.
Here are some interesting videos I've found on YouTube:
Bad Hannah Montana :D LoL - YouTube
In this video, taken from the Hannah Montana episode "Yet Another Side of Me," from Season 2, Miley Stewart, who is initially insecure about her current image, decides to change her image and experiment, with a "techno Hannah" (electronic dance music), "Half-Dolla Hannah" (hip hop, which Miley Cyrus has gone to now), and "Anti-Hannah" (heavy metal/goth/emo/hardcore punk), and after deciding on "Anti-Hannah," she has a nightmare in which Hannah Montana, after being awarded for being the role model of the year, comes out as a bad girl and sings this new untitled song:
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Well I used to be a nice girl
Always doing what I'm told
Well, I'm here to tell ya baby
That it's gettin' kinda old!
Say goodbye to all the sparkles
And the pretty girly lace
I'm gonna tear your little heart out
And then I'll spit it in your face!
I don't like nobody
Parents, teachers, or the schools
Gonna ditch what I want to
Gonna break all the rules!
Gonna break all the rules now
I'm gonna break all the rules
Gonna stick it to those fools!
During her performance, she does various antics that cause the children to go wild, causing all chaos to break loose. She tries to get them to stop, telling them that "it's just a song," but to no avail; the children start throwing things, breaking glasses, and tying their parents up.
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Hannah: PUT YOUR PARENTS DOWN!!!!!
She tries to get the children to stop by singing "True Friend," her old hit song, which played at the introduction to her performance, but it doesn't work.
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Hannah: Remember the old Hannah? [sings] "You're a true friend, oh yeah," now, sing with me! [one of the children throws a donut at her, which lands right over her mouth]
She continues, in vain, to get the children to stop misbehaving, because "someone is gonna get hurt," but one of the children swings from the chandelier and picks Hannah up by her hands and swings her around, while her father, Robbie Ray Stewart (Billy Ray Cyrus) is tied up by the children, watches her.
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Robbie: I'm a little tied up right now! Great song, though, great song.
After pleading with the chandelier-swinging child to put her down, the child does so by dropping her down to the floor, and with that, Miley Stewart wakes up from her nightmare, which the video cuts off at, after which her father comes in with a raccoon flashlight/night stand, and they have a talk.
Hannah Montana - She Can't Stop [ORIGINAL] - YouTube
This video replaces the performance in the episode with footage from the music video for "We Can't Stop," and after Miley wakes up from her nightmare, she and her father have the following conversation:
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Robbie: Well, I'll tell you the truth, honey, if you wanna talk about it; if you're still mad at me, Buster's a heck of a listener.
Miley: You're right. I don't wanna be a hard-edged Hannah. That's not the kind of message I want to send to my fans.
Robbie: What about keeping your audience interested?
Miley: There's gotta be a way to keep them interested and still be me. I'm sure Isis can change who she is all the time, but I like who I am, and I'm not gonna change just to hold onto an audience that hasn't even left me yet.
Robbie: Well, as long as you're true to yourself, your fans will always be there.
Miley: I hope you're right.
The moral of the story is that when a celebrity does bad things, it drags us all down as a society. Not only does it give all celebrities a bad name, but some of the people who look up to a certain celebrity will want to emulate their bad behavior after being sent a message stating that this kind of behavior is good, though others will disagree and become haters, as I and several others did. Miley should have learned from this episode, but she didn't, and as a result, she's become the current scantily-clad, rapping, twerking train wreck that she is now.
Let me also state that I still think it's possible to bring Hannah Montana back from the dead for a 10th anniversary special in 2016 (it premiered in 2006). The concept would involve a combination of photo-realistic computer-generated imagery, a voice actress that can imitate Miley Cyrus, and if they plan to do a show akin to Legends in Concert, which features impersonators of various performers of the past and present, it could also include a number of Hannah Montana impersonators and impressionists. The story would probably deal with how Miley Stewart rejects Miley Cyrus' wild ways.
