what to make of miley

Oh, Disney. Disney, Disney, Disney.

Such a track record you have with the tween stars. Britney… Christina… Hillary…Lindsay… Miley. You find them, you make them superstars. Of course you own half the world, so that helps. In Making New Mileys, we learn about the magic behind the Magic™, and how, with the tween consumer market being what it is, you don’t have plans to stop anytime soon.

So. Fine. Except…well, except that these are children being influenced here. Not only the children who consume these stars’ movies, TV shows, music, concerts, clothing, etc., but the children who are made into stars, and held to impossible double standards. The girls especially (Jonas Brothers, I’m not so worried about you). It is curious to me how so many of these stars, who start out with wholesome roles on the Mickey Mouse Club or some other Disney show, evolve their persona (with the help of marketing teams, we assume) into something decidedly unwholesome, and perhaps not appropriate for their original audience. How do 8 year olds understand Miley Cyrus, who they’ve come to know and love as wholesome Hannah Montana, wearing next to nothing and dancing on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards? What does it mean that Miley is 17 and adults are telling her that short shorts and stripper poles are good ideas? Not just good, but marketable?

Why does this seem to be the formula for female tween success? How do companies like Disney, who are in the business of marketing these starts to tweens, handle this balancing act? There is a times a tacit acknowledgment that some of this stuff isn’t for kids. When Christina Aguilera, a Mickey Mouse Club alum, gained popularity with the song Genie in a Bottle, Disney promoted her through airing the song and video on Disney TV and radio—with the lyrics altered. It’s as if Disney was saying, yes, this song about being rubbed the right way is probably not appropriate for our audience, but we’re going to find a way to sell it—and Christina—anyway. Presumably Disney viewers were left to fend for themselves when Aguilera’s next album—full of leather underwear and not much else—premiered.

Britney Spears’ first video, Baby One More Time, featured the singer in a provocative schoolgirl outfit. An interview with the video’s director, Nigel Dick, shed some light about the wardrobe choice. “Dick gives full credit to Spears for that idea. ‘My idea originally was just jeans and T-shirts, and we were at the wardrobe fitting and Britney holds up the jeans and T-shirts and says, “Wouldn't I wear a schoolgirl outfit?”’ he said (Vena, 2009). So who is to blame? The male, adult director who passes the buck in order to make one, or the teenage girl, who may or may not know that her outfit presents a certain message? How do we sort this out with, and for, the tweens we work with?

Is this why Disney needs a perpetual queue of up and coming talent? So Selena can replace Miley who can replace Lindsay? Is that an inevitability of marketing media to tweens? Is there a point at which Disney has to part ways with starts whose sexy antics don’t fit the Disney image anymore? Or are these stars just growing up and therefore become less relateable? Where is that line? Miley Cyrus and the stripper pole is okay; Miley Cyrus in Vanity Fair isn’t. If I were Miley Cyrus, I’d be confused. If I were Disney, I’d feel responsible.

Making New Mileys
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1930657,00.html

Britney Spears ' ... Baby One More Time' Video Director Looks Back
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1626312/20091113/spears_britney.jhtml