I hate pop music. I absolutely hate pop music. I think it’s generic, poorly written, and devoid of any musicianship. Arguably one of the top selling pop artists today is Miley Cyrus and boy has she created a stir. Her incredibly risqué performance at the MTV Video Music Awards with Robin Thicke raised a few eyebrows and virtually blew up on social media. I could go on for hours about the twerking, her messed up hair, those weird hot pants, and the ungodly amount of tongue going on. Don’t even get me started on how she violated that foam finger. Anyway, her performance became a bit of a controversy and certainly got everyone talking. I watched her performance days after the VMAs aired to see what everyone was talking about. I’ll admit, I thought it was garbage when I first saw it. I remember saying to my friend watching with me, “And that is why you don’t do cocaine.” Recently though, I had a bit of a revelation.
I was watching some Marilyn Manson music videos. He’s one of my favorite artists and one of the things I love about him is his live performance. Since the late 1990’s, Manson has been the shock rock extraordinaire. Following in the steps of the legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper, Manson cultivated an image that was built to shock and scare parents and the establishment. He has come on stage in everything from full out goth gear, a priest outfit, women’s lingerie, and even a female body suit (I’m not kidding about that last one). The thing about Manson was that he wanted people to hate him. He wanted people to think he was perverse. He wanted people to call him the Antichrist and protest his shows.
Marilyn Manson performing at the 1997 VMAs.
So what does a shock rocker like Marilyn Manson have to do with me changing my views on Miley Cyrus? Shouldn’t those artists be completely in opposition? Actually, I came to realize that, in her own way, Miley Cyrus is doing the same thing now that Marilyn Manson was doing in the late ‘90s: creating controversy. Artists know that one way to sell records is to create a controversy. If parents and the establishment hate you, kids are more likely to buy your music. It’s the age old idea of kids rebelling against what society says is “okay.”
Now, does this mean you’ll see me walking through Oakland singing “Wrecking Ball” any time soon? No. I love rock ‘n roll and heavy metal. Pop music will never be my thing. That being said, I can understand and at least respect what Miley was doing with her VMA performance. It is really hypocritical for me to praise Marilyn Manson for his controversial stage performance while bad mouthing Miley simply because I don’t like her music. In the end, every artist wants to sell records and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sure Miley managed to sell a couple albums because of her VMA performance. So I have to give credit where credit is due and applaud Miley for being gutsy in her performance and stirring up controversy.