but where is the cheese?
Pop culture is fascinating.I don't mean this in the teenage-girl-like manner of "Oh my god! Did you see what Lady Gaga wore at the VMAs last night?" or "I can not believe Brad Pitt betrayed Jennifer Aniston like that?!" I mean this in almost an academic sense. That is, I am interested in why and how popular culture is so popular.
I should back up for a moment and mention that one of my interests is cultures and subcultures. My interest in cultures stems from my desire to understand society and life in general. Cultures, in a broad manner, are how people live/think/act/whatever. Thus, in understanding how cultures evolve or work, I think we can (better) understand society at large. And in comprehending society, a big-picture feel of what people do can be observed, with the remaining gaps invariably somehow piecing together to form some semblance of why life is.
Anyway, a big chunk of pop culture is driven by teen pop. Arguably, the single artist who I think best embodies current teen pop is Miley Cyrus. She has somehow been in four albums that have peaked in the top 3 of the U.S. Billboard 200. Her two solo albums debuted at number fucking 1. Her song "Party in the U.S.A." is currently number 3 on the U.S. Hot 100; it was number 2 (its peak position ... so far) last week. She was in this show called Hannah Montana, which was a hit or something. She's been in big movies, probably.
Oh, and she was born in 1992. 1992! That means she turns 17 this year. (That's right, she's still 16!)
When I was 16 ... Shit, I don't even remember if I anything worthy at 16. I was probably involved in a bunch of clubs in high school. I made pretty good grades.... I definitely did not rank in Forbes's "Celebrity 100" list, let alone as high as Miley Cyrus's 2009 rank of #29.
Yeah, so she has all this celebrity hoopla going for her. She probably has legions of millions of teenage girls (and boys?) talking about her across the U.S., seeing as she graces tween girl magazine covers every so often.
So why the fascination with her? I'm not actually sure, but she definitely knows how to garner a mass audience (or at the very least, people like to talk about her for some reason, despite whatever her intentions are). I propose that she (and attention-whore celebs like Paris Hilton or humanitarian-like celebs like Angelina Jolie) have mastered some type of ... gossipy/fame entrepreneurial ability.
Some people just know how to build up an empire of fame/attention. Or they at least have a natural knack (possibly unbeknown to them?). I endeavor to crack this code.
Unrelated, but I'm currently listening to Ivri Lider.
He's a top-selling Israeli singer. This song is called "Jesse."
Just to think, a couple years a ago, she was a NOBODY. A couple years ago, she was flying NOT on her private jet, but on a regular plane, ECONOMY class. All because my family and I missed a flight out of Austin and had to be re-routed to Nashville for a stop, I got the wonderful honor of sitting across the aisle from the diva. Yay.
ReplyDeleteShe has childish handwriting, by the way.
Anyways, I just thought I'd share my little piece of Miley.
Thanks for the comment, Tiffany!
ReplyDeleteI have to ask you though: How did you know it was Miley Cyrus then? However, even then, you still remember the incident two years later. Did you become friends with her? :-P I think it's interesting the things that stick out in our memories....
Oh, also, I don't think I even addressed the title of this entry. I'm a fan of Miley Cyrus in the sense that I'm enthralled by pop culture. But also, I can't help but not admit that some of her pop songs are catchy and that I know the words to them.
I taught 16 six year old girls art this past summer. One day one of the girls started singing the hoedown throwdown, (from hannah montana)and every single girl at camp stopped what they were doing and started singing and dancing. This dance had like 15 different moves. I couldn't believe it... so I went home and googled it. I couldn't get that song out of my head for like 2 weeks. I love pop culture but High school Musical is unjustifiable.
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