She’s still the same person. It’s not a transition, but a movement; an evolution into the person she knows she was born to be. Miley Cyrus will stop at nothing to fulfill her vision.
In the one-hour documentary aired on MTV Wednesday night Cyrus describes her movement: Bigger than a record, it’s about something that represents taking over the world. She wants to be on the same page with all of her fans, assembled like an army. Smilers that twerk together, stay together.
Now that she’s broken free of Hannah Montana, she finally has control over her image. She warns that you won’t be seeing her face on anything that isn’t “dope.” That’s not part of the movement or her master plan. She doesn’t wish to throw shame on anything that she did as a kid. Cyrus acknowledges that the younger generation looks up to her as a role model. For some, she may have even been their first concert or CD purchase, just as our generation looked up to Britney Spears.
Now, what about the haircut? Cyrus was working in Philly, perfecting her album; a time she described as “the best of her life.” She was living in a small apartment, living like a real human. She could clean up her dog’s poop, go for a walk and get lunch without being stopped for a picture or harassed by paparazzi. Caught up in the positive change, she decided to take it a step further. She wanted to see change, develop a new attitude. Cyrus hopped on a plane to New York to see her stylist, cut off all her hair and bleached it blonde. Despite the negative feedback, Cyrus is loving the person that she has become. She said the new look allows her “to be the bad b*tch” she really is.
Throughout the documentary, we see Cyrus’ hard work and determination working toward releasing her first album in two years, Bangerz. She wants to shock people, evoke a “what was that” reaction from every song on the record, and collaborates with artists such as Britney Spears, Big Sean and French Montana. She only wants “one b-” on her record, she said, “and that’s Britney, b-.” Having put her record as the first priority in her life, she worries about the outcome. If the album doesn’t become a success, she would have sacrificed a lot for nothing. As she looks at it, “If you’re not first, you’re last.”
Noticeably absent from the documentary are her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, and ex-fiancé, Liam Hemsworth. However, she did mention how her father blossomed her love for music. They used to record songs on cassette tapes, and she has not stopped since. The program also emphasizes Cyrus’ bond with her mother, Tish. Her mother is a constant presence in her life because she says that Cyrus was forced to grow up so quickly. She sold her childhood to the entertainment industry and was never able to lead a normal life. She grew up in a sort of entertainment boot camp.
“I feel like she, Miley, is a different person in real life than how she is portrayed in the music videos,” freshman International Studies major, Michelle Konik said.
After an estimated 10.1 million people tuned in to watch the 2013 VMA’s, the media went into a frenzy. “Miley Cyrus Twerks, Gives Robin Thicke Some Tongue” and “Miley Cyrus child ruining VMA performance” are just few of the many headlines appearing after her controversial performance. How does Cyrus deal with the negative publicity? With laughter.
“You’re always going to make people talk, you might as well make them talk two weeks, rather than two seconds,” Cyrus said in the documentary.
That she did. The documentary ends with various media clips covering the performance. More than two weeks after the VMAs, people still want to know what people close to the star thought of her performance, about her twerking and why she always feels the need to stick her tongue out. To Cyrus, the performance was not raunchy. She thinks people take what she does too seriously. Plus, she said, if she wanted to put on a raunchy sex show, she wouldn’t have chosen to dress like a bear.
Brianna Kwasnik can be reached at brianna.kwasnik@spartans.ut.edu