Weeks have passed since Miley Cyrus’s racy performance at the MTV Video Music Awards and I bet the 20-year-old couldn’t be more pleased. While reactions to a sexed-up belt-out of her recent hit We Can’t Stop has largely been negative the Hollywood Reporter says it was “reminiscent of a bad acid trip†it only goes to show that the former Disney Channel mainstay is playing the fame game better than most artists. “Others who have been on kids shows try to act like their characters, but I’m not like that,†she told New York Daily News.
Like other teen comets before her especially her idol Britney Spears, with whom she shares a manager ‘ Cyrus seems to be merely following the post-child star rulebook. Signs that she would bump and grind her way into adulthood were palpable even before this latest spectacle.
She was prematurely sexualized at 15 when she posed for Vanity Fair wrapped only in a bed sheet. The video for her 2010 single Can’t Be Tamed suggested that she, daddy issues and all, was determined to kill off her fresh-faced alter ego; Hannah Montana may have had the best of both worlds, but not Miley Cyrus, at least not anymore. I agree than a bubblegum image can be a death sentence to a performer who’s trying to court an older audience, but with careful calibration, one can go from appealing to kids to appealing to their parents without overcompensating or resorting to vulgarity.
From the outset
For those growing up in the public eye, I guess it’s best to be both nice and naughty from the outset. “I don’t think we’ve ever tried to be squeaky-clean. Nobody’s perfect,†One Direction’s Liam Payne said in Glamour magazine’s August cover story.
One Direction: This Is Us, the documentary by Super Size Me’s Morgan Spurlock, offers a glimpse of the five lads when they were recruited by Simon Cowell on Britain’s X-Factor talent show in 2010: They looked like a bunch of 12-year-olds.
The last three years have been a whirlwind for the exhausted quintet. It’s fascinating that the older they get, with every new album and corresponding world tour, the more tattoos mostly ill-advised they manage to collect. But more remarkable than the accumulation of ink on their skin is the clothing on their backs.
Their collective style has evolved gradually, breaking out of the neat and accessible Topman and Asos looks that first defined them and crossing over into edgy designer territory. Niall Horan wore a Saint Laurent baseball jacket to the London premiere of This Is Us, while Zayn Malik was in Lee Roach, available at Dover Street Market. Their stylist Caroline Watson told i-D that the One Direction boys favor brands and labels such as “A.P.C., Kooples, Burberry, Mulberry, Acne and Sandro.†The selection is appropriate for 19- to 21-year-old young men definitely not Hollister and nothing too zany or drastic.
Cautionary tales
According to Miley Cyrus, in the same New York Daily News article: “I’ve never been able to hide anything, a bit like Justin Bieber.†It’s funny she said that since the transition into adulthood hasn’t been smooth for Bieber either. Once angelic and suburban during the Baby phase of his career, the 19-year-old Canadian idol now all gold chains, tattoos and contrived gangsta poses has been caught peeing in buckets, walking around shirtless and cursing at photographers. Whether it’s standard youthful rebellion or a symptom of deeper psychological issues, both Cyrus and Bieber seem to share the desperation to be perceived as bad.
Of course, for every teen chart-topper eager to ditch his or her sanitized persona, there are those who don’t mind being wholesome. Austin Mahone and Ariana Grande, 17 and 20, respectively, are at that juncture where they are still seen as paragons of pop virtue.
Mahone, a Texas native, has been on the rise lately, opening for Taylor Swift on select dates of her “Red†tour and bagging the “Artist to Watch†prize at the MTV Video Music Awards. Grande, best known for her role in Nickelodeon’s Victorious, recently released her debut album, “Yours Trulyâ€. Her impressive vocal range, mixed with a ’90s R&B throwback vibe, evokes Mariah Carey’s, which is no mean feat. We’ll see if these newbies learn from the mistakes of their forebears and mature gracefully or turn into jaded cautionary tales.
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