Musings on 'Wrecking Ball'

[tabouli]

There are times when the hype about an examples of popular culture gets to the point where I decide I need to get me a first-hand opinion. Thus it was with Harry Potter (leading to the existence of this very LJ, ultimately), and thus it has just been with the video for Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Ball', which I just watched on YouTube

Comments

[yiskah]

I actually love the song (your mention of it has caused me to listen to it RIGHT NOW) - like you, I infinitely prefer the verses to the chorus (and I'm not a fan of the bridge); I really like the '90s allusion of the instrumentation in the verses (though the old-record-crackling sound that it has going on is a bit of a weird juxtaposition) - particularly noticeable towards the end of the second verse. I think a huge part of the outcry about her sexualisation is related to her transformation from child star to beige-pant-wearing sledgehammer-licking young adult - and I agree that the controversy has probably only helped her in terms of sales (I probably would never have downloaded the song had there not been so much buzz around it). I do agree with the racist critiques of her MTV Music Awards critique, though that's less her fault (I suspect) than whoever's marketing her.

[iosef]

May I add, as you have pointed out that she didn't write the song: she also neither choreographs nor does video direction. I doubt she has much input into wardrobe either. She is only the paid singer/dancer who performs as directed.

[tabouli]

Well, yeah, obviously, but I don't think people ascribe the dancing and video direction to her in the same way. A few might speculate that she choreographed the sequence to show Liam what he's missing, but to most that would seem far-fetched, whereas the "The lyrics are about their break-up" is the subject of wide and confident speculation, from all I've seen. Besides, if people are tutting about how "slutty" she's being in it, they could reasonably legitimately argue that whether or not she chose her outfits (and lack of) and dance moves, she did *agree* to them when directed to by that creepy Terry Richardson guy

[iosef]

Sorry, I failed to be clear. I was thinking of both the fuss over this and the MTV awards. She is copping a lot of flak for things she has no control over. She is a performer doing her job, just like a film/TV/Stage actor (which is where her roots are). She get booked by her agent. She turns up and does her job (and seems to do it fairly well). If she chucked a hissy and refused to do it, I don't think that the press would be any kinder to her.

Can you imagine a stage actress refusing the choreography the director and Choreographer have agreed on, or a TV "star" refusing a scene because they don't like the costume?

As for the other: very few performers have the pull to control their own career directions and have a veto. I don't think that this makes them any less credible than an actor (to maintain the analogy) who doesn't write, direct, produce, and act as his own agent. Most fine actors have boon booked by their agents for dogs of movies after all.

[biascut]

There was a great speech by Charlotte Church* a few weeks ago in which she talked about being a young woman going from "adorable tween" to "adult woman" in the public eye and the pressures she got to be "sexy", wear fewer clothes and so on, and the misogynist backlash against young female singers from the public. It vanished without trace, because unlike the whole Miley/Sinead O'Connor thing, she only criticised middle-aged men in significant roles in the music industry and not other women. Like, who's interested in that? Booooring!!!

*do you have her? if not, here're the essentials: chorister of the year as young teen, tabloids allegedly did a countdown to when she'd be "legal", got drunk and mouthy in her mid-late teens, released some great pop singles, married a rugby player, had kids, semi-retired from public life to raise kids, now in her late twenty and pops up occasionally, often to say genuinely interesting things.

[tabouli]

I do vaguely know about Charlotte Church, in the way Australians often vaguely know about somewhat but not globally famous people in the US and UK. I think I may even have read something she wrote on this subject, though that may have been something else.

Sigh. The whole woman-as-sex-toy (to graduate to breeding vessel/self-effacing childcare and domestic service robot upon first fading of HOTNESS) business is so terribly ubiquitous and depressing. And while I'm inclined to agree with most of Amanda Palmer's retort to Sinead - who was a tad patronising, let's face it - that isn't to say that Sinead didn't make some fair points.