YMMV / Miley Cyrus

• Awesome Music:
  • "Midnight Sky", a beautiful and passionate song that could apply to people leaving unfulfilling romantic relationships or children separating themselves from deadbeat/abusive parents.
  • Her cover of "Head Like A Hole" for Black Mirror wasn't half bad. She's surprisingly good at industrial rock/punk.
  • "Can't Be Tamed" is an extremely cathartic song of empowerment where, rather than in an Award Baity way, Miley declares through music that her true self is going to come exploding out and freely so.
  • "Night Crawling" is one hell of a party song featuring Billy Idol. On the drums is the late, great Taylor Hawkins.
  • "Flowers". A funky, disco-tinged number, which acts as a musical middle finger to a toxic ex. Not only did it become her best-selling single but it also gave her first two Grammys in 2024.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Although the music video for "We Can't Stop" is already bizarre, the one moment unlike the rest is the poor CGI face mechanically mouthing to the pitched-down "it's our party, we can do what we want" verse. There's little explaining how it relates to the crazy party happening in the video.
  • To a somewhat lesser extent, her self-described "twerking" video to J. Dash's "WOP", compared to the rest of her output. It's shot in grainy black and white in an empty photo set and features her dancing provocatively in a unicorn costume for two minutes. Supposedly, she did it on a whim after she had a few minutes alone after a photoshoot, but the video quickly got picked up by the tabloids after she posted it to her Twitter account.
• Broken Base: She has fans of her Hannah Montana era, her pre-Bangerz era, and her comeback with her album Bangerz in America. To non-members of her fanbase, she is to regular Base Breakers what atomic weapons are to conventional ones.
• Covered Up: "These Four Walls" is an old Cheyenne Kimball song.
  • "East Northumberland High" and "Start All Over" from Meet Miley Cyrus were written and recorded by Samantha Jo Moore and Fefe Dobson, respectively.
  • "Kicking And Screaming" from her EP The Time Of Our Lives is a cover of an international bonus track from Ashlee Simpson's I Am Me album. The EP doesn't credit Simpson for co-writing it, for unknown reasons.
  • "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go", from a Bob Dylan charity tribute album.
  • The covers of songs in her online Backyard Sessions videos count. She has so far covered "Lilac Wine", a Nina Simone cover popularized by Jeff Buckley on Grace, "Look What They've Done To My Song Ma" by Melanie, and "Jolene" by her godmother Dolly Parton.
  • Her cover of 'Delicious' by Shampoo for this Gucci commercial.
• Common Knowledge: She did not invent twerking. The media also failed to recognize that twerking is an English place-name term.
• Dancing Bear: And one that quickly became dated, too, as the gimmick relied on Cyrus being recognised first and foremost as Hanna Montana. Back when the music videos "Wrecking Ball" and "We Can't Stop" were released, they caused such outrage because the material was heavily frowned upon in media, and such an stark contrast to the Hannah Montana image everyone was used to. Nowadays, there're music artists like Cardi B and Katy Perry everywhere doing similar content, and many people even commented that Miley's music videos looks normal.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Her fans and Selena Gomez fans don't really get along. Ironic because the two girls get along great.
  • After her record label's executives got so defensive of her that they started deleting YouTube videos for simply criticizing her, fans of the React series by the Fine Brothers now hate her (which is now Hilarious in Hindsight seeing as the Fine Brothers lost a lot of fans after they themselves started aggressively taking down other "React" videos themselves and then trying and failing to trademark the term "react").
  • Cher fans and Miley fans have gone to war over who sang Miley's song "I Hope You Find It" better. Both Miley and Cher do follow each other on Twitter, though.
• Fetish Retardant:
  • Few people find her performance in the 2013 VMAs sexy. Even Rihanna, who is well-known for dressing in kinky outfits, looked uncomfortable◊ watching it.
  • Similarly, few find the "Wrecking Ball" music video sexy in any way. Word of God says there was little or no attempt to be "sexy" in the video, that it was an emotional song about a breakup, but the media merely focused on the Naked!Miley aspect and drew the conclusion it was meant to be "sexy". Which people would take seriously if she wasn't seductively licking a sledgehammer.
• Fridge Brilliance: When she hosted SNL in season 39, she told the audience that she wasn't going to do a Hannah Montana parody, but she was going to give them an update about what she's been doing: she was murdered. It seems like a Take That! to the show, but it could easily be one at people who didn't watch the show because anyone who did would know that Hannah ceased to be once her secret identity was revealed.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Her fame only slightly decreased since changing to a more "adult" image, but she still felt that foreign audiences would be more welcoming of her than in America. As a result, she performed exclusively overseas for her 2011 "Gypsy Heart Tour", earning over in countries like South and Central America, Australia, the Philippines, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.
• Harsher in Hindsight: A write-up of Miley penned by Former Child Star Donny Osmond when she was listed in the Time Top 100 of 2008 carried these prophetic lines:
  Within three to five years, Miley will have to face adulthood. Fans grow up, and their youthful interests quickly dissolve. Her challenge will be overcoming the Hannah Montana stereotype. Miley's fans are not thinking about the fact that she will grow up too. As she does, she'll want to change her image, and that change will be met with adversity. It's next to impossible to fight, embrace, use or love your image. Trust me. I've seen this all play out before; it's the same ball game, just different players in a different time.
  • On her Bangerz tour, which began in February 2014, a giant statue of her dog Floyd is wheeled in for Miley's performance of "Can't Be Tamed". This staging lends some unintended poignancy/discomfort by March/April 2014, after the sad news of Floyd's unexpected death; Miley herself broke down in tears upon seeing the giant Floyd statue onstage.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: "Goodbye" is about a couple who realize they want to get back together. Considering that Miley's parents reconciled after announcing their divorce twice, it comes off as very touching.
  • Even more so with Miley's own reconciliation with Liam Hemsworth.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In one episode of Hannah Montana, Miley quips that at some point she'll have to dance around in her underwear. Fast forward to her 2013 VMAs performance...
  • "See You Again" features the lyrics "I have a heart that will never be tamed". Two years later she would release a single called "Can't Be Tamed".
  • A Hannah Montana episode has Miley Stewart experimenting with her image to bring edginess to her act, after observing a Madonna-like musical hero of hers change her image regularly. One of the image makeovers is a very Gothic/punk-like look with spiky hair, freaky make-up, and leather. In more recent years, Miley Cyrus herself has experimented with a similar look◊ in Real Life.
  • An ABC News interview with Miley during her Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds Tour, which Cyrus and her fans posted links to on Twitter, featured Miley showing Barbara Walters a photo of 1960s fashion icon Twiggy and her spiky, short haircut, remarking that someday, Miley would like to have her hair cut similarly. Fast forward a few years, and she's finally done so.
  • Any joking comments in pop culture, from Saturday Night Live to Two and a Half Men to the "Bob Miley" incident on her 20th birthday alluding to her as a secret stoner due to her New Orleans salvia incident come across this way now, now that she's admitted to be an actual marijuana user in 2013.
  • The fourth episode of Hannah Montana is titled "It's My Party and I'll Lie If I Want To" In 2013, she made "We Can't Stop" with the lyrics "It's my party and I'll do what I want to."
  • Miley Stewart tries to get a reaction from her father Robbie Ray, who is sarcastically indifferent to her after she defiantly sneaks Jesse past him in her house against his wishes and is discovered with him, in the Hannah Montana episode "He Could Be The One", by mentioning she doesn't know what clothes to wear to a TV performance, so she'll decide to perform in her birthday suit. Cue 2013 and Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" video.
  • Go on any music/lyric video for "Can't Be Tamed" and you'll find at least one, if not several, recent comments saying something to the effect of "She warned us." There are also likely to be several comments musing over when that song caused controversy; compared to "Wrecking Ball", it looks extremely mild.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: She has a significant fanbase in South America and Australia.
• Growing the Beard: Plastic Hearts is her most critically acclaimed album to date, both by professional critics and her fans, the general consensus is that rock music is what best fits her voice and style.
• Les Yay: Lots of it, as she is very close with her female friends both on and offscreen. She also kissed Katy Perry during her Bangerz tour, and her video for "Prisoner" with Dua Lipa is pretty much as blatant as possible.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL!!!
  • This image, taken at the 2008 Grammy Awards, has been an exploitable meme fodder due to her unintentionally creepy smile.
• Narm:
  • Her performance of "Wrecking Ball" at the American Music Awards featured her singing in front of a giant kitten that was lipsynched to her song. It's already goofy to pair that up with a somber song to begin with, but at one point it starts crying in the goofiest way possible. It has to be seen to be believed.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Do NOT watch the video for Dooo It! before eating. You'll thank us later.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • Despite being marketed to young girls. Apparently, she's popular with Hell's Angels (well, the type who give to hospitals, etc.) and with boy-racers, unbelievably. She also has a significant gay male fanbase.
  • Also she, her music, and her show do have a young adult fan base.
• Retroactive Recognition: She had a very brief role in Big Fish when she was 11, playing one of Edward Bloom's childhood friends who accompanies him to the local Witch's house. So yes, that means that Tim Burton fans can truthfully say that they were following Miley Cyrus' career before Hannah Montana fans were.
  • Members of Miley's regular backing band (which has stayed unusually stable since 2006) include members of early-2000's Pop Punk band American Hi-Fi ("Flavor Of The Weak"). Drummer Stacy Jones (who sings lead and plays guitar in American Hi-Fi) began as the drummer with Boston-based, 1990s One-Hit Wonder Alternative Rock band Letters To Cleo ("Here And Now"); LTC singer Kay Hanley had for one tour worked as a live background singer for Miley.
• She Really Can Act:
  • Although she is still weighed down by her status as a Disney star, Miley is capable of delivering genuinely good performances, such as Bolt and The Last Song. Even Hannah Montana was filled with these moments (namely that, despite her age, she showed some pretty sharp comedic timing.)
  • Also her role on Two and a Half Men was praised for her comedic ability.
  • Her appearances on Saturday Night Live in recent years, either as the host or in cameos, are great ratings draws, and are often considered highlights of the seasons she appears in. Even when the episodes themselves are criticized, it's usually not due to Miley's performances.
  • Her performances during the Bangerz tour and with recent cover versions such as Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" (for a 2011 charity tribute album) and a live, raw performance of Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (released on Soundcloud in 2014) have received praise for her vocals.
  • Her roles in Black Mirror.
• Signature Song: "Party in the U.S.A." Disney-era, "We Can't Stop" or "Wrecking Ball" post-Disney era.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • AWOLNATION fans immediately took notice of "Wrecking Ball" sounding a lot like "Sail". Todd in the Shadows also points out that it bears resemblance to Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" (not helping that the music videos for both songs feature the singer(s) naked).
  • Before that, there was "Fly on the Wall" which sounds eerily similar to "Megalomaniac" by Incubus.
  • "See You Again" is a blatant soundalike of "Sunglasses At Night" by Corey Hart
  • "Old Blue Jeans" sounds a lot like "Livin' After Midnight" by Judas Priest
  • The chorus of "Wrecking Ball" is similar to "I Could Have Been a Dreamer" by Ronnie James Dio
  • "Rockstar" sounds so much like "Scotty Doesn't Know" by Lustra that Lustra openly accused her of ripping the song off- to which Disney admitted that she only sang what her songwriters handed her.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Add the Reality Subtext behind "7 Things" to its music video, with random teenage girls, often in tears and anger, emoting to Miley's lyrics as if singing to their own exes, and it can be tearjerking too.
• Values Dissonance: In the UK, where Hannah Montana was less of a phenomenon, her changes in the image have been a good deal less divisive. In the Midlands, there's even the "Midland Miley", slang for any girl or woman who dresses or has a haircut like Miley Cyrus, but speaks with a Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Black Country, or Birmingham accent.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Miley has become a crowning example of this - to the point her "Hotter and Sexier lead single" has right in the intro "It’s our party we can love who we want, we can kiss who we want, we can screw who we want". Pretty disturbing for the person who used to be the lead cast member in Disney Channel original series, Hannah Montana (although Younger Now slightly toned down the sexual aspect of her bad girl image).