How a star's image develops over time through music video

Born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992, in Franklin, Tennessee, Miley Cyrus is the daughter of '90s country star Billy Ray Cyrus. She was passionate about acting at a young age, appearing on her father's television series, Doc, and in Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003). She then went on to landing the starring role on Disney's hit show Hannah Montana in 2004. Cyrus went on to release several successful albums, including Breakout (2008) and Can't Be Tamed (2010), while becoming increasingly known for her wild behaviour. Her 2013 single "Wrecking Ball," backed by a controversial video, became her first U.S. No. 1 hit. Cyrus first started working in country and pop music while starring as Hannah Montana and soon after the show ended, she went on to making music with a rockier edge. For example, her first songs included “Hoedown Throwdown” and “Party in the USA” whereas her newest, most recent songs include “SMS (Bangerz)” and “Wrecking Ball”.

In the earliest videos, her image was portrayed as a ‘pop princess’ and ‘country girl’. For example, in her Hannah Montana music videos, Miley is shown performing on stage while dancing, singing in her blonde wig, accompanied by her two back up dancers, and is singing about a boy. Additionally, in her music video of “Hoedown Throwdown”, Miley performs country dancing in a barn in Tennessee with others from the town. Once Miley started her own music away from Hannah Montana, her image remained vaguely the same as in her music video of “Party in the USA”, she travels around the USA in a limousine, fascinated by everything she sees. However, as the years went on, her image developed into a wild, edgy pop/rock star and her music videos changed from being mainly narrative driven and performance based, to very abstract. Miley cut her hair short and dyed it blonde, getting more piercings and creating a whole new style for herself, becoming more sexual. For example, in her music video for “We Can’t Stop” she lays on the floor half naked, grinds her body against a bed, smacks other women’s behinds, and uses drugs whilst singing about them.

In her music videos nowadays, Cyrus is sold as an empowering and wild woman who is not afraid to show herself. Her image has morphed and is now extremely “out there”. Her outfits are very revealing and her hair is styled very uniquely. her reason for primarily changing is because her target audience of age has grown up so as they have changed, she has needed to change, thus appealing to this older audience. As Richard Dyer states, "There are many different aspect to a star" and Miley embodies a number of these, such as, using her sexuality, rebelliousness, youthfulness, a disregard for social norms, and a disregard for rules as her decision to be known by the pronoun, "they" rather than "he" or "she" as she has become gender neutral.