In defense of Miley Cyrus
I never thought I'd listen to pop radio in the Obama era, as a 40 something, but I have, and I really like it for the most part, but like most likes, or loves, it's tinged with a certain remorse at times, because a lot of the songs are just awful, but when they hit, they hit hard, and they make a real impact. I respect if my peers choose not to listen to the mix on Seattle's 92.5 Movin,' but I'd also argue that if you're not, you really don't know what's happening in pop music, which may be fine, but I fear it's not, and that even if the music is bad, it makes for critical poseurs, that don't even know what they are criticizing. I should add that I doubt I would have ever started listening to Movin' except that they played it a lot at my work, and I decided to give it a shot while I drove pizzas. I liked the sincerity of the love songs, actually, and the desperate romanticism.
I can honestly say to every friend of mine that has ever lived that I really immersed in Movin' and have seen the mix through several waves. The mix itself is worth talking about but it should be said that they play the same twenty songs or so, over and over, and the same artists for the most part, so that I'm incredibly familiar with Lady Gaga's hit songs, or Justin Timberlakes, or Katie Perry's, or Rhianna's, or all of the biggies of our day, love them or hate them, and I certainly have my favorites. I also like the mix because it gives me the feeling of listening to a record, or a playlist, over and over, kind of like I listen to records in my free time, over and over, and it's fun getting familiar with the songs, but like records, sometimes the mix is better than other times, and lately I've been struggling with 92.5, listening to Mariners games and deciding to absorb in them, even listening to the post game talk shows, because I like being immersed in whatever I'm into. I say all of this as a disclaimer and confession, so that the reader can honestly assess my point of view.
I like two Miley Cyrus songs very much, and one enough to give an honorable mention, because that's all I've really heard on Movin', and yet I've heard them so much that I know all the lyrics and vision of the song, and have really studied it, like Brian Wilson or Phil Spector would have, so I'm not kidding around when I talk about this. "Wrecking Ball," and "We Can't Stop," are absolutely great songs, but more than that, Miley Cyrus sings the fuck out of them, and she's got an amazing amount of natural talent, I'm not kidding. The way she sings "Wrecking Ball," is a rock n' roll classic, I think, though I hate to put it in a genre, but it's just a great beautiful to the death rendition, that lights me up every time it comes into the mix, and that's without seeing the scandalous video that drove Sinead O'Connor crazy, because it homaged her classic video of "Nothing Compares 2 U." I guess this gave her the right to give Miley an older generation feminist chastizing, and true to the spirit of youth (and rock n' roll), MIley didn't care, and thought Sinead sounded crazy, which she did, but left it at that. Miley said she respected Sinead as an artist, but didn't agree with her.
Recently, Daniel Siwek posted a kind of put-down post on Miley's antics, that about 20 people predictably jumped on, without really ever thinking of her music, or her talent, or that her antics were driving them crazy, just like they drove Sinead crazy, just like Elvis was considered a pervert by much of America for shaking his hips. Well, Miley twerks instead with midgets, and I think it's kind of funny, to be honest with you, and that the humor is being lost for the most part, thinking she's a porn queen, but I don't really see her this way, even if she is, I see her as doing something artistic. That said, I really don't care about her antics that much, because I think the songs I hear on the mix will go down as the great pop songs of an era, and will be the ones to be remembered twenty years from now, and her antics will be reimagined, for better or worse. But I don't think it's smart to underestimate her
I can honestly say to every friend of mine that has ever lived that I really immersed in Movin' and have seen the mix through several waves. The mix itself is worth talking about but it should be said that they play the same twenty songs or so, over and over, and the same artists for the most part, so that I'm incredibly familiar with Lady Gaga's hit songs, or Justin Timberlakes, or Katie Perry's, or Rhianna's, or all of the biggies of our day, love them or hate them, and I certainly have my favorites. I also like the mix because it gives me the feeling of listening to a record, or a playlist, over and over, kind of like I listen to records in my free time, over and over, and it's fun getting familiar with the songs, but like records, sometimes the mix is better than other times, and lately I've been struggling with 92.5, listening to Mariners games and deciding to absorb in them, even listening to the post game talk shows, because I like being immersed in whatever I'm into. I say all of this as a disclaimer and confession, so that the reader can honestly assess my point of view.
I like two Miley Cyrus songs very much, and one enough to give an honorable mention, because that's all I've really heard on Movin', and yet I've heard them so much that I know all the lyrics and vision of the song, and have really studied it, like Brian Wilson or Phil Spector would have, so I'm not kidding around when I talk about this. "Wrecking Ball," and "We Can't Stop," are absolutely great songs, but more than that, Miley Cyrus sings the fuck out of them, and she's got an amazing amount of natural talent, I'm not kidding. The way she sings "Wrecking Ball," is a rock n' roll classic, I think, though I hate to put it in a genre, but it's just a great beautiful to the death rendition, that lights me up every time it comes into the mix, and that's without seeing the scandalous video that drove Sinead O'Connor crazy, because it homaged her classic video of "Nothing Compares 2 U." I guess this gave her the right to give Miley an older generation feminist chastizing, and true to the spirit of youth (and rock n' roll), MIley didn't care, and thought Sinead sounded crazy, which she did, but left it at that. Miley said she respected Sinead as an artist, but didn't agree with her.
Recently, Daniel Siwek posted a kind of put-down post on Miley's antics, that about 20 people predictably jumped on, without really ever thinking of her music, or her talent, or that her antics were driving them crazy, just like they drove Sinead crazy, just like Elvis was considered a pervert by much of America for shaking his hips. Well, Miley twerks instead with midgets, and I think it's kind of funny, to be honest with you, and that the humor is being lost for the most part, thinking she's a porn queen, but I don't really see her this way, even if she is, I see her as doing something artistic. That said, I really don't care about her antics that much, because I think the songs I hear on the mix will go down as the great pop songs of an era, and will be the ones to be remembered twenty years from now, and her antics will be reimagined, for better or worse. But I don't think it's smart to underestimate her
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I don't have a problem with her shock and antics, there's a long tradition of it, and I admitted that she sounded good on wrecking ball, I just think that for someone so groomed as a performer (her Disney pedigree) that she wouldn't be so amateurish when performing. She's very sloppy. More like a teenager having a thrill at being naughty at a house party she's throwing while her parents away than a studied professional performer, who can execute dance moves on a big with the best of em…instead she's twerking like a drunk high schooler with some real talented dancers used as props.
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What I don’t get is much of the experimental music made which I used to enjoy in my twenties before moving out here. In fact, what I have heard is not very interesting to many anymore: it seems discordant, self indulgent and generally out of touch with the real world. I think I have simply joined the human race (which adolescents, even in the latest stage of their 20s, still find hard to do).
All musical credentials/pedigrees are the same to me now. Rihanna, for instance: “Are you going to stand there and watch me cry?” How poignant; what a voice. It’s not my choice of listening at home, whenever I do listen to music at home, but I would be inhuman not to feel it, even hum it sometimes myself.
Celebrities will also do cockamamie things, so I don’t have to worry about these persons’ personal life or views after the first millions.
In any event, there are other songs designed in this world specifically for raising your spiritual awareness and I don’t think humans will ever stop making that either. So people should just chill out and have a good time wherever they find themselves. That’s better than misanthropy in the name of art.