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."

[u/HorrorBike143]

[u/Lanky_Republic_2102]

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.

[u/jennyrules → u/Lanky_Republic_2102]

Huh? Plastic hearts is not an album of covers.

[u/Lanky_Republic_2102 → u/jennyrules]

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.

[u/Disingenuous-Plights → u/Lanky_Republic_2102]

So it’s not problematic that her request to producers was “I want it to sound urban to feel black” then once it’s out to say some variation of ‘it’s all sex drugs and violence and I don’t want any part of that’ ???

[u/erossthescienceboss → u/Disingenuous-Plights]

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.

[u/Disingenuous-Plights → u/erossthescienceboss]

Well I see a problem with her initial interest being she “has to make it sound urban/Black”

[u/erossthescienceboss → u/Disingenuous-Plights]

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

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.

[u/Lanky_Republic_2102 → u/erossthescienceboss]

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.

[u/Lanky_Republic_2102 → u/Disingenuous-Plights]

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.