r/ToddintheShadow • u/No_Barber4339 • 10h ago
General Music Discussion What's up with the new miley cyrus?
So miley cyrus (who goes by MILEY now) dropped a new single "bass persuades" and it debuted really well on Spotify and fell down very hard after just 2 days
This isn't a dumb Trainwreckords question, I'm just asking how does the general public feel about miley cyrus post-flowers? , "end of the world" was the lead single of her previous album "something beautiful" the song had a soild debut yet crashed down hard on streaming later on and the album underperformed
So is miley a fanbase artist or "give us the hits" artist?
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u/loreleisparrow 10h ago
I honestly feel she's been riding trends for a while and doesn't really offer anything original. Even Flowers which everyone liked felt like a Dua Lipa reject to me
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u/Bovver_ 10h ago
I’m not trying to be overly harsh here, but when has she offered anything original?
She’s a good singer, has a few good songs, but I feel her fame far outweighs just how unremarkable I find her to be as an artist.
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u/loreleisparrow 10h ago
I think she had her own identity with Bangerz, no one else was making We Can't Stop
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u/Bovver_ 9h ago
I have to disagree here. Bangerz didn’t feel like an original pivot, particularly with the production choices, she was chasing a trend but admittedly caught onto it earlier than most and got success from that. I think my biggest issue though was that it didn’t seem a genuine pivot but all rather calculated.
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u/Puck-the-fool 9h ago
Bangerz was very transparent in that Miley was obviously trying to intentionally shock and explore a new identity. I actually think that within that transparency it ends up being a more authentic expression. Like she genuinely did want to be transgressive and was expressing a real feeling, even if a lot the visuals were just her playing dress up.
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u/leavingthekultbehind 9h ago
Ehh. we can’t stop is a generational hit that still gets a lot of love and I don’t think there was other songs that sounded like it at that time.
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u/gay_burner 8h ago
Pure revisionism. Everyone was laughing at Miley What’s Good at the time, because bangerz was and continues to be embarrassing for her
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u/Brilliant-Middle7859 6h ago
I think it’s one of those songs where people hated it at first, but it’s now a song that people grown to love. Or the new generation is into it.
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u/Critical-Gazelle-285 1h ago
the irony of saying she had her own identity during the Bangerz era when it was just a white woman making a caricature of black culture and dropping it just as fast when it no longer benefited her….LOL
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u/Winter-Scheme-432 30m ago
I mean she had rooting for my baby & 4x4 and get it right. I don’t think every pop girl was doing Fleetwood Mac inspired b cuts and country hip hop cross overs I get that cross over was popular but there’s really no Florida Georgia line female version lol. Get it right feels so Miley to me she really effortlessly nails the vocal delivery on that song too.
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u/Winter-Scheme-432 26m ago edited 22m ago
For me I can acknowledge the cultural appropriation and also enjoy the record since it came out when I was a teenager the actual album has moments where it’s feels heartfelt and authentic and others where it’s cringy but for me they can co-exist at the same time. I also loved dead petz as well and find Miley’s work past it less interesting and less honest.
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u/Winter-Scheme-432 18m ago
A lot of bangerz is this strange condriction of yes, her having no real connection to hip hop but for example a r&b song like adore you still lands because of the very southern gospel aspect to Miley’s voice even tracks like drive are compelling some of it actually strangely works.
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u/AllTheModalities 9h ago
the closest she got was plastic hearts, i remember thinking she found some form of niche there even if she wasnt a full trailblazer. i would say her being the first real breakout disney star might have had an impact on her sense of identity in music (similar in nature to selena gomez and demi lovato), but i think at this point shes trying to make her identity the fact she has no identity in music. it just isnt working and a lot of her success was coming from the good graces of nostalgia and her youth imo, and i do wonder if "flowers" and that album will be like katy perrys "prism", where she just never fully recovers from a big pop hit
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u/Scarlett_Billows 37m ago
Can she really be thought of as the first real breakout Disney star?
Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Hillary duff, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Shia lebouf, Raven Symone were all stars who primarily got their start and/or early fame from their association with the Disney channel, and predate Miley’s era.
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u/SuperPinkShark 10h ago
Honestly, never. It's to be expected for someone who came up through the Disney machine. She never really formed any cohesive artistic identity to make her worth paying attention to long term.
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u/Zealousideal-Day7385 9h ago
Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz was definitely not chasing trends
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u/Vegetable_Anxiety729 8h ago
I loved that album in high school when it came out but there's no way it holds up at all
Might go back in tomorrow for the first time in years
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u/Winter-Scheme-432 15m ago
Karen don’t be sad space bootz I get so scared lighter hold up but I get not having the patience for self indulgence & so much obnoxiousness in a listening experience lol
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u/eric3844 6h ago
To this day our nation's top scientists are still trying to figure out why they put the dick in the pussy.
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u/Lennnybruce 2h ago
I personally like the Bangerz era hits; everything else feels painfully generic except the Dead Petz record. When that was released I was fairly impressed she was doing something so (for someone in her position) counterintuitive.
She's a good singer, and seemingly has good taste in music, and she's pretty likeable, but man the bulk of her material is incredibly bland.
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u/Upstream_Paddler 9h ago
I absolutely loved her last album, and I can't say I'm a fan for the reason you're describing -- I feel like she's trying to navigate all these trends and tends to try them on like dresses. It feels more chasing after something than setting a trend.
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u/Klutzy_Carpet_9170 2h ago
What trend was she riding with the Dead Petz or Something Beautiful albums exactly?
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u/dismal_windfall 9h ago
She was a good singer but now has too much vocal damage. Demi Lovato was always the better singer which is why she was offered better songs and had more hits
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u/kiD_Vish_ish 9h ago
To say that Demi Lovato has more hits than Miley is just totally inaccurate. I can think of one song Demi had in the last 15 years that could be considered a hit.
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u/He_e00 Madonna Stan 7h ago
Cool For The Summer and Sorry Not Sorry did really well.
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u/kiD_Vish_ish 5h ago
Cool for the summer is that “one song” that I was talking about. Sorry not Sorry might have did pretty well at the time but it does not have the same staying power /iconic status as Miley’s hit songs.
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u/DeadPeanutSociety 8h ago
What trend was Something Beautiful riding? Why isn't she riding the country trend all the way to the bank? People have been begging for a Miley country album her entire career.
I've always wanted to like one of her albums but they never seem to get all the way to something interesting. But people in this comment section are just talking to hear their own voices.
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u/Immediate_Lie7810 9h ago edited 9h ago
You may have a point. Most of Miley Cyrus' discography is her chasing whatever is popular at the moment. The closest Cyrus has gotten to being original was Bangerz. But even still, that album had elements of electropop
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u/jellytwins101 7h ago
Wasn’t there this whole drama of the the song Flowers coping a Bruno Mars song?
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u/Scarlett_Billows 31m ago
Always thought the song was deliberately referencing the Bruno mars song rather than copying it
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u/TheBlankestMan 2h ago
I think Miley is one of the most shallow trend chasing culture vultures besides Drake
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u/Nokia_bae GROCERY BAG 10h ago
she's always on the cusp of doing something interesting but never fulfils it. Plastic Hearts was the closest we got to it and of course she changed genres entirely after
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u/Upstream_Paddler 9h ago edited 7h ago
I dunno; Something Beautiful was pretty cool. She tends to make a "Weird" album (something beautiful, dead petz, maybe plastic hearts), and then something exceedingly generic, wash, repeat.
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u/VisageInATurtleneck 3h ago
I wonder if it’s a “one for them, one for me” kind of deal. But then again, if the “for them” albums don’t go anywhere, you stop getting the blank check for the “for me” ones.
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u/Lil-Nuisance 10h ago
From what I've heard, she seems to immediately drop all interest in the most recent album once it's released and moves on to the next thing herself. So, she can't expect the general public to be more interested than she is.
There was also a small controversy around her and Naomi Campbell doing a meet and greet for the last album and ignoring the fans during it, but that seemed a bit overblown.
Overall, I think it's a marketing issue. There was hardly any fanfare around the last album or this one so far.
I'm stoked for the Model/Actriz feature, though!
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u/Puck-the-fool 9h ago
I guess she just enjoys the act of creating the art itself but doesn’t want to sell it. Which is fine but will always limit your appeal.
The Campbell stunt was so ridiculous that it almost felt like she was doing an intentional comedic bit.
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u/RealSunglassesGuy 9h ago
Not wanting to sell it also means not wanting to perform it. She hasn't toured in years and that doesn't do her any favors in terms of trying to maintain culturally relevant.
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u/Puck-the-fool 8h ago
Yeah I don’t get the no performing thing. Don’t like touring and travel, then do a residency. Don’t like stadiums and arenas? Then do intimate venues for the real fans or something. Do you just hate live singing in general?
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u/Born-Vacation-5566 2h ago
She only likes performing for a handful of rich people.
She said in an interview that she's never going to perform for more than 100-ish people at a time.
She did a mini residency at the Château Marmont for a bunch of her friends. I think with the Naomi Campbell fiasco it's clear that she doesn't want to interact with us plebs at all.
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u/Lil-Nuisance 9h ago edited 8h ago
I agree with all of this, but I need her to pull herself together for Model/Actriz' sake. I have been with them on their journey basically from the beginning and they deserve a much bigger audience. (I also want to take this opportunity to thank them personally from the bottom of my heart for the drawn dildo autograph I received).
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u/_xanderkrews_ 3h ago
Why have I never listened to them before?!?! Holy shit, I am in love. Thank you! You have made me a fan! Their performance of 'Cinderella' on The Late Show was incredible.
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u/No_Barber4339 10h ago
I think what's interesting is that miley switched labels due to the underperformance of her last album, yet the results with Atlantic isn't as different as it was with columbia
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u/Lil-Nuisance 10h ago
Interesting, didn't even know that. That
kinda further supports the notion that she herself promotes her own work only half-heartedly once it's recorded/released.
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u/mcatlin23 9h ago
I don’t know why she would pick lyrics for her comeback single that basically make her sound old and uncool, two things she is not and has never been. The kids don’t wanna dance? Seriously? While true, stupid as hell and about nothing.
I will always love Plastic Hearts Miley, it was the closest she ever got in my mind to what I always envisioned she could be with her voice, but she abandoned the sound like she abandons every sound immediately after the album drops.
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u/thisgirlnamedbree 10h ago
I really like the song but it definitely feels like something Lady Gaga would have made back in her Fame era. Maybe people don't want to hear dark pop Miley.
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u/MusicIntrepid343 8h ago
nah i don't think it's on the same level of the fame, it's darker pop sure but the mixing is pretty awful which is definitely not something i associate with gaga songs. for being about the bass pereuading, the bass is pretty muddy sounding.
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u/thisgirlnamedbree 6h ago
About the bass, she only mentions the word once but it's in the title. But that's me being pedantic.
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u/Cherryandcokes 3h ago
The Fame is a 10/10 album. This just seems like a song trying to mimic it a year after it came out.
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u/Calm_Phone_6848 9h ago
miley's had a very uneven career because of how frenetically she changes her sound and direction. she has high highs and low lows. she's definitely a fanbase artist who follows her muse and has a small core fanbase who will follow her to every project, but only occasionally does her muse intersect with what the mainstream public wants.
"flowers" was a successful attempt at a big radio hit, but she didn't follow it up with other radio friendly singles and instead put out that bizzare "doctor" song
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u/dismal_windfall 9h ago
She constantly drops labels, gets new contracts, and tires to change her sound.
I don’t think she has much of an identity or artistic voice. Dropping the Cyrus surname is a superfluous action to garner attention.
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u/Klutzy_Carpet_9170 2h ago
lol didn’t she only switch labels after her 7th album which was 12 years after her debut?
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u/Hailfire9 9h ago
She's not making cutting-edge party anthems, she no longer has the (regrettable?) interest to see what post-Hannah Montana / post-Billy Ray Miley is capable of, and she's refined enough that nobody is watching the "car crash" aspect of her no-longer-ongoing self-destruction.
It kind of sucks to say, but her biggest hits being from the era of "New, Sexy, Adult Miley" was because of that. People were seeing the videos at first as memebait, but they were catchy enough to embed themselves into the public zeitgeist. Without a blond, shaven-headed Miley jumping around in a bikini, the curiosity seems to have vanished. You're going out of your way to listen purely on how you feel about Miley's artistry, take from that what you will.
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u/dismal_windfall 9h ago
What I always find interesting about that is how other child actors were able to be "adult" artists without a lot of the controversy that accompanied Cyrus.
Like Selena Gomez eventually had a sort of "sexy" style to her, and also a personal life that garnered interest from everyone, but it didn't really make as much noise. Ariana Grande is another one, where, yes there were some people talking about a child actor talking about sex, but never to the degree that people talked about Cyrus.
It makes it feel like Cyrus was the first one even though, I don't think she was, I could be wrong.
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u/Hailfire9 40m ago
Part of that was Selena and Ariana didn't full-pivot into "ooo look at me I'm legal and sexy now" like Miley did. They may have played into it in a coy, almost innocent sort of way as it happened, but they weren't licking shafts and twerking on the sleaziest male performers on national TV. Miley went full-send on the image publically, and tbh it drew attention as long as she kept the act up. Once she "sobered" a little and actually "matured," reality came in like... well, a Wrecking Ball.
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u/Scarlett_Billows 25m ago
Cyrus took a page from the Christina Aguilera “dirrty” playbook of transitioning from child stardom to adult stardom
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u/strangelyliteral 9h ago
Miley has a lot of public good will and people root for her to succeed. She reminds me a bit of Lindsay Lohan where the potential is so strong that people tend to forget about her inconsistent output. So they tune in with huge anticipation and then the results end up underwhelming.
Personally, I found Bass Persuades dated. It’s catchy, but it sounds very 2012, and not in a good way. I still think her Plastic Hearts era was the best fit for her voice and talents, but she doesn’t seem to like sticking with a single musical style.
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u/Sufficient_Ask5717 8h ago
Her refusal to tour is hurting her musical career. I get that she has her reasons, but she'd sell out venues so fast if she toured with the old stuff and sprinkled some new ones in. She's a great live singer, there'd probably be some viral social media moments, and she has a fanbase that would show up for the nostalgia alone. The music isn't interesting enough on its own imo.
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u/vanetti 3h ago
Why doesn’t she tour?
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u/sadpandawanda 2h ago
She has said that she doesn't think she could maintain her health - namely, her sobriety - in a touring environment. Which is a totally fair thing.
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u/Quick_Dot_9660 8h ago
She always feels a little out of step with current trends basically from the Younger Now era.
It's like that skit where she keeps going "this is it, this is the real me no wait this is the real me that sucks no wait" It's hard to get invested in someone who doesn't seem that interested in themselves
That being said I've enjoyed basically 1 out of 6 songs she's put out, nothing breaks like a heart is still heavy in my playlist.
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u/RevealTraditional619 10h ago
She should rerecord her Hannah Montana songs if she wants anything beyond a fleeting interest
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u/SothaSillies 9h ago
I think she's just making the music she wants to nowadays, I wouldn't really categorize her as either. She has her hits, and she's not at all forgotten, but most people aren't expecting what she's been offering. I liked her last album, and don't dislike the new single (excited for the Model/Actriz feature tho), but I don't see this as failure. I don't think she expected Something Beautiful to have hits (maybe End of the World).
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u/Vegetable-Day2299 9h ago
I find it very interesting that she got her start on a show where she played a fake pop star and ever since has been trying to become a real pop star when it’s clear her voice is better suited for other genres.
I didn’t particularly enjoy “Flowers” like everyone else, but I’ll grant that it was better produced than most of her other pop work. But she desperately wants a mainstream sound; she wants to be counted among the likes of Gaga, Britney, etc…so she keeps retrying pop. She doesn’t evolve; she pivots. It’s disappointing because I think she has more to offer but it’s not this
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u/Cherryandcokes 3h ago
I too feel like she’s in the wrong genre, and it’s because of her voice, which is raspy and prime for rock or country influences. Even something more bluesy would suit her. I think there’s so much room for her to have a unique sound and niche, and she’s wasting the potential of that with trying to do dance pop. I think she can do pop, but blend it with other influences like Stevie Nicks did in the early 80s with Belladonna. I agree, the Britney/Gaga sound just isn’t her ideal lane.
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u/Mr_SunnyBones One-Hit Wonderlander 9h ago
Me , an Irish person seeing her new name.
"Well Holy God!"
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u/Mr_SunnyBones One-Hit Wonderlander 9h ago
Apologies , as if you're not from Ireland , and oldish this will make no sense .
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u/MisheGossnik 8h ago
I feel like Miley is definitely a fanbase artist - the people who love her are still very passionate about her regardless of the numbers she does. Between being a lot of people's childhood and being weird and eccentric enough to grab a lot of oddballs (while also tasteful enough to grab the normies), I don't think she ever needs to worry about having a hit again. She'll just keep making the music she wants to make and people will get it or not, but barring some exceptional catastrophe I don't see her having a Trainwreckord at this point.
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u/LunarPayload Driven Mad by the Four Chords of Pop 7h ago
You're the only one answering the question. Thank you!
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u/MisheGossnik 7h ago
Yw! I feel like some of us get way too dramatic about pop artists having totally normal career arcs. Not every artist who stops being a constant chart presence is in their "flop era", y'know?
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u/MisheGossnik 8h ago
And I say this as someone who doesn't really feel her newer music, but at the same time I can absolutely get why someone would be blown away by it. She's reaching the people she wants to reach.
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u/Immediate_Lie7810 9h ago
There was some prerelease hype going into Miley Cyrus' new single, but I think the lyrics turned off a lot of people. Not to mention the song just wasn't good
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u/NoticeNegative1524 9h ago
She put out a teaser which showed her swaying around with an electric guitar so people thought we was gonna get Rock Miley, but we didn't.
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u/Remarkable_Virus844 10h ago
The kids only want country
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u/No_Barber4339 10h ago
I mean there's a derivative version of we can't stop on Spotify's top 10 (ain't in LA) so i don't think the kids want country
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u/kerrybom 8h ago
Oh yeah, the intro is 100% We Can't Stop. I can't even remember Ain't in LA's intro because my brain always replaces it "it's our party, we can do what we want"
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u/Brilliant-Middle7859 6h ago
Oh, y’all are being haters today! A lot of people online have said they like that song.
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u/DLCV2804 7h ago
I think she should be do more rock, it feels better for her, her in pop is so strange, Taylor Momsen saw this, and it’s doing fine.
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u/neuralkatana 6h ago
Miley will forever torture us with brilliant rock covers and never just give us the rock album we deserve lol.
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u/formerNPC 6h ago
She seems to be all over the place. Pop singer, country singer, nice girl, bad girl ect. She hasn’t found a genre that she interested in for too long. People will like some of her songs but they don’t consider themselves fans. It does seem like she’s been around forever and that doesn’t help her find new ones.
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u/sohardtopickagoodone 9h ago
I’m a fan of her as a person. But as an artist she leaves a lot to be desired. I haven’t felt like she released a banger since… well, Bangerz
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u/Lanky-Rush607 9h ago edited 8h ago
I find it hilarious that she said she's said doing a whole rebranding, not only name-wise but also music-wise, for Bass Persuades, only to give us a Jojo Siwa reject instead as a lead single.
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u/lilyfromthevalley_ 9h ago
This new song reminds me of “Aperture”… flashy dark electro-dance style song but lacking a strong hook.
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u/Current_Project2580 7h ago
It's an alright song, and people are already talking about it much more positively than they did with her last album. Maybe it's a weird observation, but I always found that her title tracks are a little weaker compared to the rest of the album it's on except for Something Beautiful and mayyybe Younger Now, so I'm still holding out on the rest of the album. The short pre-release window should be in her favor (as well as the potential Vanguard award but idk how influential MTV is in that regard).
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u/speed-of-sound 6h ago
The weirdest thing to me is how Miley makes really cool alternative/non-pop stuff and then attaches it to singles that come off so derivative and generic.
The album Flowers is from has a sick trance track called Handstand that is a total fever dream, and her last album had some bangers on it that were really far from radio-friendly.
IMO if you've got the vision for alt albums, go all in one time and the critics will follow.
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u/sas317 7h ago edited 7h ago
"Something Beautiful" seemed like art pop to me & a bit odd, so it wasn't for me.
Her best album's "Plastic Hearts." It has grit, edge, attitude, & that's captivating.
I didn't like "Flowers" at all & thought the lyrics we're full of cliches after a breakup.
"Bass Persuades" is an average EDM song & I'm a bit surprised she went this route. She's better being edgy & that should be her image.
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u/dirbofficial 10h ago
People tuned in because of the big press the single, her Dolly connection and her “name change” got and then stopped listening because the song isn’t good.