Unit 29: Music Video Production (Star Image)

Brief Biography
Miley Cyrus is an American Singer, songwriter and actress who was born in 1992, her father is well known American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Miley started her career young as a child actor landing roles in some minor TV shows. However it wasn't until 2006 that Miley rose to fame when she landed the leading role in a Disney show named Hannah Montana. This made her an idol for teenage girls all over the world as she played the role of Miley Stewart and her secret alter ego (pop star) Hannah Montana. She quickly became a role model for young girls as the show portrayed her and her charterer as a goody two shoes Disney sweetheart who never put a foot wrong, as well as this the show helped her further her music career as she released many successful albums as both Miley Cryus and her adopted alter ego Hannah Montana. She singed a recording contract with Hollywood Records in 2007 and released her first album 'meet Miley Cyrus' which was certified quadruple platinum. After her TV career ended, Miley veered toward producing more country music than pop music. However in 2010 her latest album 'cant be tamed' made little commercial impact and became her lowest selling album, Miley would then go onto shed her Disney image and reinvent her self as a rebellious 'bad girl' to gain media attention and become relevant again, she did this through her 'wrecking ball' music video which got the whole world talking about her again, making her more popular than ever.

Early Career.
Miley started her music career with her debut double album 'Meet Miley Cyrus', all 20 tracks are from Miley however the first disc is credited to her alter ego Hannah Montana and is the sound track for the second season of the show. Miley used her alter ego Hannah Montana to created an image for herself. For example she realised hit song 'best of both worlds' (2006) under her alter ego. The music video established her early image. The video shows her performing at a concert in front of lots of screaming teenage girls, it portrays her as an idol and role model. In the video she is modestly dressed to appeal to a young female audience, this helps her gain a child friendly image and make her some one you would want your kid to look up too. (which contrasts with her later music videos but we'll get on to that later.) The music video is basic and doesn't portray the lyrics or a story, instead it builds her image of pop star as it is her performing on stage with a band in front of lots of people, it uses lots of close up shots of instruments and herself singer to establish that she is an entertainer. Overall in her early career her goal was to convey her self as a role model toward little girls and act as a good example to children. This was all well and good but once her TV show ended Miley fell under the radar for a good while and had to make some drastic changes to gain media attention.

Recent Career.
After her hit TV show Hannah Montana came to a close back in 2011 Miley stopped producing music under the name of her alter ego and started making her own type of music. Obviously influenced by her father Miley released some very average, very dull country songs which didn't have the same appeal to her young audience as her previous pop songs. Miley had almost fallen from fame entirely until all that Disney finally got to her head an she went insane. Well that or it was an excellent play from her marketing team who managed to get the whole world talking about Miley Cyrus again. They say any publicity is good publicity and Miley proved that with her 2013 hit 'Wrecking Ball' and the music video that showed off her new image. Miley was no longer portraying her self as a role model for little girls, she shaved her head, bleached her her and removed most of her clothes, for the new video. In the video Miley rides around naked on a wrecking ball and plays with a sledge hammer, pretty odd yes. But it got everyone talking about her and listening to her new song, the proofs in the numbers as at this point wrecking ball has almost 800 million views on Youtube. Its pretty tasteless, some would call it an obvious cry for attention but it made Miley famous again. But that was just the begging, after this she gained more attention by causing controversy at the VMA's with a raunchy performance with Robin Thick, and then realising a second music video to the single 'we cant stop' from the 2013 album Bangers. The video opens with Miley using a giant pair of pink scissors to free her self from a shackle, portraying she is breaking free from her old persona and being who she wants to be. The song is a complete contrast to her old child friendly stuff, she talks about doing 'molly' (MDMA) and other 'inappropriate' things. As well as this in the video Miley trys (far to hard) to sell her self as a sex icon with failed attempts at twerking, she also dances in a very sexual manner, smacks other girls bottoms and then makes out with a doll that reassembles her self, there's a message there some where i'm just not sure I want to find it. So yeah she's about a hundred million miles away from the performer she used to be and the polar opposite of a role model, but hey who needs morals when your more popular than ever?
To Conclude.
All of a sudden Miley has become popular with an entirely new audiences, her lyrics are aimed toward young adults with constant references to alcohol and drugs, shes also opened herself up to a new male audiences and tried to use herself as a sex icon through raunchy music videos and live performances, her 'twerking' at the VMA's was so bad that I'm ashamed to be white. The reason why Miley's new image is so extreme is that she is trying to shed her original Disney star image so that she can have her own personality and not be restricted to living the life of Hannah Montana, shes now free to do what she wants. That or she's really really clever and understands how to manipulate her image to gain fame and thus gain fortune. She's gone from Innocent teen idol to someone you want to be hiding your kids from. Love her or hate her she must be doing something right or at least someone in her management team is...