Miley Syrus

I am clever, beautiful, nice, and I it I! Last year, she turned 18. In her first interview as a legal adult, the highest-earning teen in America confesses she’s not perfect. I also believe in bodily joy, which is something pop music has always provided me. Miley Cyrus, product of the Disney machine that she is, projects more explosive happiness in her hits than cold Britney or calculated (if admirable) Gaga offer, and she’s more of a tomboy than Taylor, whose princess act I find grating, though I admit that the politic blond is, at this point, a better songwriter than her more uncensored friend. As Cyrus rampaged through “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” the Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb” and Jett’s signature “Bad Reputation,” I couldn’t help but imagine her sitting in a movie theater watching the recent biopic about that teen-age band. How could she not relate to the story of those wild girls, manipulated in ways connected to, though different from, her own youthful stardom, and struggling to find the will to go beyond that psychological serfdom? By embracing the role and the sound of the rock rebel, Cyrus claimed Jett, who was herself 17 in the Runaways, as mentor. And she also showed that she’s still listening to Mom and Dad. One way to see her latest phase is as an attempt to claim the abandon and sense of power that rock offered her parents’ generation. Rock has always celebrated sexual liberation. It seems completely natural that Cyrus would not only present that as part of her act, but actually feel it. As Cyrus rampaged through “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” the Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb” and Jett’s signature “Bad Reputation,” I couldn’t help but imagine her sitting in a movie theater watching the recent biopic about that teen-age band. How could she not relate to the story of those wild girls, manipulated in ways connected to, though different from, her own youthful stardom, and struggling to find the will to go beyond that psychological serfdom? By embracing the role and the sound of the rock rebel, Cyrus claimed Jett, who was herself 17 in the Runaways, as mentor. And she also showed that she’s still listening to Mom and Dad. One way to see her latest phase is as an attempt to claim the abandon and sense of power that rock offered her parents’ generation. Rock has always celebrated sexual liberation. It seems completely natural that Cyrus would not only present that as part of her act, but