Miley Cyrus is quickly traveling down that Britney Spears road to fame, fortune and ultimately self-destruction.It seems like it was overnight that Miley Cyrus went from being the cute, funny kid on Hannah Montana to a sex symbol – albeit an underage sex symbol. Miley took another step down the Britney Spears path to stardom today with the release of the video for her new song “Who Owns My Heart.”
I mention Britney Spears because the similarities to she and Cyrus are starting to be uncanny. While Miley Cyrus was a much bigger child star than Britney Spears, they both have a history of being in the limelight at a young age. Britney’s debut album was teen/tween pop ear candy. Her target audience of teen girls ate it up and shot her to stardom instantly. It wasn’t until a few years later that she found herself struggling to show that she was more than just a teen pop idol. Miley Cyrus has already had a handful of albums and now, at age 17, is struggling to grow up and take her audience (who is getting older and broadening their musical horizons) with her or hopefully attracting a whole new audience that doesn’t know her as Hannah Montana. It is within this struggle to go from behind a kid star or teen pop idol to being taken as a more grown-up, sex symbol and all around pop star that Spears’ and Cyrus’ paths look very similar.
Britney Spears teased the audience. She sang coyly sexual lyric whispered in throaty tones over often throbbing, guttural beats. She played the game on the sly, making references to sex or professing her desires to be a sexual person without actually saying it out loud. Hint, when Britney purrs, “Hit me baby . . .one more time.” She isn’t talking about being punched. It was these lyrics and songs that made Britney Spears the nation’s Lolita. But when she was asked she always professed that she was a virgin and was waiting. Of course, we now all know the truth, but at the time it was part of the game. She was being sexy, but simultaneously telling us she was pure and she had the entire nation lusting for her while also feeling a little dirty about it.
Miley Cyrus is now playing that game. Her recent album finds her being sexy, flirty and at times very suggestive. This new video features Miley in her panties on her bed or sitting on the edge of a tub. She gets dressed up in a short skirt and barely there top and ends up on a crowded dance floor where she writhes around and grinds on guys and girls. Lyrics that suggest when she is in the dark she can’t tell if she and the person she is with are a masterpiece/work of art or not. Of course she could simply mean the darkness of the club makes it hard for her to tell if this is a real connection, but it could also mean in the dark it is impossible to tell if it is love or just lust. It is Britney 101. Look hot, dance provocatively and sing lyrics that can be taken a few different ways. All the while you are doing this, profess that you are innocent, pure and just a kid.
Miley rarely if ever talks about her sex life and I respect her for that. It is nobody’s business but her own what she is doing with the people she is dating. That said, she wears very sexy outfits and now has made a couple of provocative videos, yet still plays it down and says she is just 17 and she is just doing a performance. It is clearly very sexual, but she blows it off as just fun and good times playing dress up. The next step on the Britney Spears path is for her to perform on a live show like the VMA’s and do a wild, over the top and very sexually charged performance then just tell people she was having fun with the music.
Britney played the game to perfection and it looks like Miley Cyrus has studied the playbook and is now putting it to use. Her defenders will say that it isn’t a big deal and her detractors will say that she is not acting in a way that a good christian girl should. She will play it all down and smile to herself because she has done her job and has the world talking about her. In her new video she may wonder if her relationship is a work of art. While Miley Cyrus may never find that out she can rest assured that the marketing campaign surrounding her is quickly becoming one.
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