Guilty
pleasure songs.
Oh,
come on. Admit it. We all have them.
In
fact, I'll be admitting what one of mine is a little bit later in
this blog, and maybe if you see me doing it, you'll work up the
courage to post some of yours. At least, that's my intention,
anyway.
I
guess I should probably define what a “guilty pleasure” song is
first. I believe it to be a song that a person absolutely can't get
enough of, but can't really admit to liking it in public for fear of
taunts and teasing from those closest to you because it's “uncool”
to like it. There's lots of examples of this in the world of pop
culture. Take a look at the novelty hit “Macarena”, which
dominated the top of the charts for a huge chunk of 1996. Many
people loved the song (and still do), but many more seem to despise
it. Another artist that gets a lot of flak is Justin Bieber. I'll
admit that while I don't really care for his music, I do respect him
as a person, and I won't readily insult or talk badly about him just
because others do. Besides, Justin Bieber has already won the hearts
of just about every girl under the age of 14 globally, so clearly he
must be doing something right.
I
guess the point that I'm trying to make is that there are songs that
are released in which people seem to feel that it's more fun to make
fun of than actually listen to it while keeping an open mind. And
for whatever reason, I don't really agree with that logic. In fact,
I bet that I can take every artist that has ever recorded a song
within the last 50 years, and find one song that I absolutely love of
theirs. When I run off the names Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, Lady
Gaga, and yes, even Justin Bieber...I can list off at least one song
I like from each of these artists. Those songs, respectively, are
“Sometimes”, “Stranger”, “Bad Romance”, and...well...I
don't mind “Baby” as much. The last one isn't really a
favourite, but I do find it tolerable.
Hey,
at least give me credit for trying here.
And,
for today's blog topic, I thought that I would post another song that
I consider to be a “guilty pleasure” song of mine. One that I
admittedly still enjoy three years after it was released.
ARTIST:
Miley Cyrus
SONG:
Party In The U.S.A.
ALBUM:
The Time Of Our Lives
DATE
RELEASED: July 29, 2009
PEAK
POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:
#2
Yes,
I know what you're saying. I'm doing a blog topic on Miley Cyrus.
Some of you might be staring at me in disbelief and confusion. But,
you know, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I love “Party In The
U.S.A.” because it's happy, carefree, you can dance to it...it's
probably one of the better songs that came out of the decade known as
the noughties.
I
imagine that most of you who are at least sixteen years of age or
younger may remember Miley Cyrus best from the Disney Channel show
“Hannah Montana”, which ran from March 2006 until January 2011.
(On
a side note, who knew that it ran for five years? I didn't think it
was that popular until I read that in 2008, over 200 million people
all over the world watched the program.)
Oh,
and Miley's father was this guy.
I
STILL can't believe that it was a #1 hit on the charts twenty years
ago.
Anyways,
there's very little to tell about the life history of Miley Cyrus.
Her autobiography only spans nineteen and a half years. But she was
born on November 23, 1992 with the given name of Destiny Hope Cyrus.
The reason behind her original name was because her parents believed
that she would accomplish great things with her life.
So,
how did the Miley come into play? Well, according to Billy Ray
Cyrus, she always used to smile a lot when she was a baby, and he had
given her the nickname “Smiley”. At some point, it was shortened
to Miley, and the name stuck. A few years later, she would legally
change her name to Miley Ray Cyrus, which she did in memory of her
grandfather Ronald Ray Cyrus, who passed away in 2006.
Miley
got her first taste of show business when she was quite young, making
a cameo appearance in the show “Doc”, which starred Billy Ray
Cyrus. She's also done a couple of films in addition to her work on
“Hannah Montana” (including a Hannah Montana movie), has released
several singles that have charted on both the mainstream and country
charts (yes, “The Climb” has been played on some country music
stations), and her godmother is country singer Dolly Parton!
Mind
you, she's been making headlines recently for some not-so-nice
publicity shots...but I don't really want to talk about those. My
goal for this blog is to make it as positive as it can be. I want
people to walk away with warm fuzzies, not anger and bitterness.
Instead,
I thought I would choose this particular song, not just because of
the fact that it's a guilty pleasure song...but because it also
happens to be her most successful song. It managed to reach #2 on
the Billboard Charts in late 2009. I'd call that a success.
But
did you know that “Party In The U.S.A.” wasn't originally written
for Miley?
The
song was originally written by British singer Jessie J, who had a hit
a few months ago with the song “Domino”. She worked on the song
along with collaborators Claude Kelly and Dr. Luke. It was intended
to be released on her debut album, but before she made it to the
recording studio, she had changed her mind about the song. She opted
not to record it because she felt that it wasn't edgy enough for her.
Flash
forward a few months later when Miley herself was working on an album
with Dr. Luke. The song “Party In The U.S.A.” resurfaced, and
was re-written by a writing team. They felt that somehow they could
use the song as a method of promotion, as Miley was working on a
clothing line with Max Azria at the time. The song was rewritten by
Jessie J, Dr. Luke, and Claude Kelly with Miley as the subject, and
the lyrics were fine-tuned to tell the story of how Miley and her
family relocated from Tennessee to Hollywood, California.
Here's
the kicker, though. When the song was completed, Miley Cyrus did
like it enough to record it, and add it onto the album “The Time Of
Our Lives”, but she didn't exactly fall in love with it right away.
Miley believed that the song didn't really reflect the kind of music
she liked to perform. Ironically enough, the main complaint that she
had with the song was the fact that she had felt that the song wasn't
edgy enough for her...the very reason why Jessie J refused to record
the song herself! And, on top of all that, the song lyrics make a
reference to her listening to a Jay-Z song on the radio. But in
2009, when the song was released, Cyrus admitted that she had never
heard a Jay-Z song prior to the song's release.
But
somehow, record producers seemed to believe in the song a little bit
more than Cyrus. When the album was released, “Party In The
U.S.A.” ended up being the lead single of the whole album,
something that surprised Cyrus, as she didn't feel that the song was
strong enough to become commercially successful. The single was
leaked on radio stations the last week of July, 2009, and within two
weeks had taken over the country by storm.
The
song itself was also performed live for the first time on August 10,
2009. That performance was at the Teen Choice Awards, and was the
subject of some mixed reactions. Everyone agreed that the song was
quite good, and it had garnered a lot of critical praise. The
performance, on the other hand, was more mixed. You see, Miley
decided to perform the song wearing a rather revealing outfit, and
part of the choreography of the performance involved an ice cream
cart and a pole that she shimmied down. Although that portion of the
performance lasted less than a minute, it was thirty-nine seconds too
long for some. A lot of people launched complaints over the
appropriateness of a sixteen year old girl showing children that it
was okay to pole dance at an awards show for teenagers. But, at the
same time, others remarked that the focus should have been on the
fact that Miley won six awards that night, and not for the sexuality
exhibited during her performance.
(I'm
curious to know...what do you all think? I'll post a link to the
performance HERE. Watch it and weigh in. What do you think? Did
she go too far?)
At
any rate, while there may have been some controversy linked with this
song, it still doesn't take away from the fact that by itself, I kind
of like it.
And,
here's one final footnote to add onto this. Would you believe that
the death of Osama bin Laden was a key ingredient in the re-emergence
of this song's popularity? When Osama bin Laden's death was
announced in America in the late night hours of May 1, 2011, people
flocked onto YouTube, and posted all sorts of pro-America and
anti-Osama comments underneath Miley's video! It suddenly became an
anthem for the day. I must say that while my first reaction to
hearing about the death of a known terrorist would not be to watch a
Miley Cyrus video, I get the feeling that for some people, it was a
source of comfort.
But
for me, it's just a great song. One that I make no apologies in
liking.
We celebrate together for America, these are songs cut as ringtones and I want to share it with you https://freeringtonesmobile.net
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