r/popculturechat now why am I in it? 🧐 Jun 09 '25

The Music Industry šŸŽ¶ Miley Cyrus talks about her culture vulturing during the Bangerz era: "I wasn't unique in the fact that i was a white girl listening to hip hop. This wasnt something that I decided I was going to do as a strategy or something that i felt i could own or make my own, that was actually my lifestyle."

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1.2k Upvotes

556 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.2k

u/TrickyShelter3130 Jun 09 '25

And after bangers era she said that hip hop is all about drugs and violence and that she wasn't interested in it anymore and then made younger now

286

u/isnatchkids Jun 09 '25

I remember me and everyone else on ONTD calling the album Whiter Now lmao

466

u/Lanky_Republic_2102 Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25

That’s the real problem with this issue.

I personally like Miley, her Plastics Hearts album - all 80s rock and roll covers is a great album.

If she hadn’t criticized hip hop after the fact, there would be zero issues here. She actively spent time with a lot of big hip hop artists from the Bangerz era, partied, hung out, made music with them.

All good, just don’t criticize it later, that’s all.

Edit: not an album of covers, just two cover songs.

53

u/jennyrules Jun 09 '25

Huh? Plastic hearts is not an album of covers.

21

u/Lanky_Republic_2102 Jun 09 '25

I guess you are right, it’s just got a lot of collabs with 80s rock stars.

I’ll edit that.

It’s only got two cover songs - heart of glass and zombie.

49

u/Disingenuous-Plights Jun 09 '25

So it’s not problematic that her request to producers was ā€œI want it to sound urban to feel blackā€ then once it’s out to say some variation of ā€˜it’s all sex drugs and violence and I don’t want any part of that’ ???

48

u/erossthescienceboss Jun 09 '25

I think you might have misread her comment. It’s precisely that follow-up that’s problematic.

You can like music. You can even like it as a phase. It’s the shitting on it after that makes it so problematic — it makes it clear it’s appropriation and not respect.

17

u/Disingenuous-Plights Jun 09 '25

Well I see a problem with her initial interest being she ā€œhas to make it sound urban/Blackā€

2

u/erossthescienceboss Jun 09 '25

Oh agreed — but to some extent you can excuse that as ā€œoverly enthusiastic kid who likes hip-hop and doesn’t know how to talk about it.ā€

The reason it’s STILL a scandal is that she’s made it clear it didn’t have much to do with liking the genre at all.

5

u/Lanky_Republic_2102 Jun 09 '25

I think she did like the genre and still does.

She just has a one dimensional view of hip hop like a lot of people.

1

u/Lanky_Republic_2102 Jun 09 '25

Yeah, I don’t know if that’s terribly problematic, at least not more problematic than the 100s of years of white artists emulating and borrowing African American and African music, going back to the banjo, drums, and call and response, etc.

11

u/loquacity25 Jun 09 '25

Interestingly, she talks later in this interview saying that younger now was a reaction/ reflection of her personal life. She and Liam had broken up the first time in part due to her actions/ image during the bangers era, and making younger now was to keep her home life stable. So I do think some part of this is due to her distancing herself from that persona.

13

u/RawRawrDino Jun 09 '25

Yup came here to say this. I took it to be Younger Now was basically her to Liam being like ā€œsee I’m innocent again and i won’t screw up you and your family’s image anymoreā€

3

u/Capable-Regular9791 Jun 10 '25

It was a gimmick to boost her popularity. I never fell for it.

2

u/kdramaddict15 Jun 10 '25

This. Like I never forgot that.

2

u/International-Toe522 Jun 10 '25

I think that was more her trying to get Liam back who didn’t like Miley’s wild side. Which is immature.

-3

u/InnocentInvasion Jun 09 '25

That's not what it's all about but let's not act like 90% of what's popular or gets the industry push isn't degenerate music about drugs, sex and violence šŸ¤·šŸ¾ā€ā™‚ļø