Given that Miley Cyrus has spent the past few months twerking in onesies, posing for photo shoots that include fashion credits like “briefs (worn as top)” and performing alongside topless dancers at something called “Christmas Creampies,” one couldn’t help but wonder what she’d do for an encore.
Well, on Wednesday (June 19), we found out, as Cyrus unveiled her music video … and, well, it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a former ‘tween queen attempting to shed her good-girl image: Scandalous, sexualized and strident, full of party-hearty sentiments and barely-there sartorial flair, it’s the kind of clip most folks would describe as “shocking,” if a) said folks had never seen something like Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty;” and b) Miley hadn’t been telegraphing this transformation since at least 2012.
So, yes, Miley pops in some grills, mean-mugs for the camera, sprawls out on the floor and shakes it all over the place. Of course, she twerks — she is endlessly proud of her twerking abilities, after all — and drags around dead animals and hangs out with a bunch of skuzzy partygoers, each of whom probably have modeling contracts. She makes naughty hand gestures and wrestles with her pals and, at one point, appears to get kicked in the head. Oh, and then, she passes out atop some skinny dude’s torso, because that’s how these wild nights always seem to end in music videos. If any of this seems remotely jaw-dropping, you are either still watching “Hannah Montana,” or are Miley Cyrus.
In short, “We Can’t Stop” is a very calculated thing, a self-designed Declaration of Independence that Madonna first inked back in the 1980s, and various pop stars have been adding their signatures to ever since. It’s entirely possible Cyrus is not aware of that fact, at least based on the amount of time she spends defiantly sneering and striking anti-role model stances in her new video, but it probably should be mentioned here.
Unless, of course, “We Can’t Stop” is actually a brilliant bit of self-parody, a clip where Miley pokes holes in her newly minted status as both a party girl and a sex symbol. If that’s the case, that would explain some of its thoroughly WTF moments — Miley’s oversized Teddy Bear backpack, a skull made entirely of French fries, a scene where fake fingers are amputated and pink paint comes gloriously gushing forth. That notion might also explain with it recalls classic videos like “Dirrty” and Fiona Apple’s “Criminal,” not to mention the candy-colored excess of filmmakers like Harmony Korine and Gregg Araki.
I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s at least a working theory. With “We Can’t Stop,” Miley’s clearly saying something; exactly what is up to your interpretation. Unless she’s actually saying nothing, which, I suppose, could also be the case. Growing up is hard to do, especially when others have been doing it for so long.
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