Critical Approaches to Gender and 21st Century Pop Music

Similarly to the Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' ban at a Scottish university an American university have removed a sculpture of a wrecking ball due to many parodies of Miley's now infamous 'wrecking ball' music video. Although it is noted that this was because of wear and tear of the structural cords.

Too many people were making Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball parodies, so Grand Valley State University had to take down their sculpture. They are calling it a safety hazard. Do you think it is because they don't want the attention due to Miley's video drawn to their campus?

Here is a compilation of Lady Gaga quotes. Most of them are pretty interesting. Are we supposed to believe any of these quotes? Do they help us understand her, or just confuse us?

This article gives insight into the search for the "real" Lady Gaga, and discusses how she is a manufactured performance artist. The story adds some depth to Paglia's article and discusses Lady Gaga's references to Madonna as well.

This is one of P!nks early video. She's singing about wanting 'real love', which is very different to her more recent music. Her image here is more mainstream and it appears her 'real' image was not presented until she became more popular in the industry. This could perhaps be compared to Miley Cyrus' recent transformation however P!nk was arguably less shocking and more mature.

I found this Facebook page made especially to shoot down lady gaga and show all the ways in that she has 'supposedly' copied other artists images. At face value when looking though the collective photos that people have added to prove so, it is quite astonishing at the resemblances between lady gaga and other artists before her.

We have heard the song, and heard parodies with opposite gender roles. What does everybody think about this cover with a female singing about a male. She does it in a much different way than we have seen with the actual song and the parodies we have looked at.

She talks about twerking with Ryan Seacrest. She says that she can do one thing and she can twerk. Also is doing song with Snoop Dogg. She may be appealing to Ratchet culture like in previous discussions

A youtube news show about what the song "We Can't Stop" is really about. Has quotes from Miley in it from interviews

I found this article really interesting because it gave an insight into Miley Cyrus herself and how she feels about her transformation rather than the hundreds of articles judging her without any context of Cyrus' intention. I liked the quote, where Cyrus stated that changing her hair effected everyone else more than her, I think it put the media fascination in an interesting light.

A video of two Irish guys taking the mick out of Miley Cyrus' video. With this video Miley wanted to be taken seriously but instead has been mocked many times over!

This post includes a file with all 150 of the complaints sent by viewers of MTV's VMAs about Miley Cryus's performance. These complaints focused on the sexuality of the performance and often express being "traumatized." Unfortunately for the complainers, the FCC does not fine or regulate cable television like it does broadcast television.

Lady Gaga's personal assistant is suing her for missed wages after working serious overtime and long hours. Gaga's response is that the luxuries provided make up for pay. (Note: This Mail Online article is more interested in the tit-for-tat and drama of it all rather than the legal issues involved.)

A satirical critique on the news coverage of Miley Cyrus's performance.  It's more about using pop culture as revenue than the actual performance.

I thought this was especially interesting, since we had been talking in class about the similarities between Lady Gaga's performances and Miley Cyrus's at the VMAs.

It's interesting how we had discussed in class what is of value and what is junk. This journalist insisted to report 'real news'.

I also liked this video, i thought it was obviously a story in which the reporter didn't want to cover. But i would love to see her full reasoning behind why she refused to do so.

British Radio One DJ creates a parody of Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. An interesting way of subverting the message of Cyrus' and its use of nudity.

Personally, I think Miley Cyrus' video is very powerful, and this parody reinforces my feelings about that. It's definitely interesting to see a guy in her position, I won't deny it. I understand where everyone is coming from with the complaints about her nudity, but in my opinion, there's a much deeper meaning behind it.

Bastille does a very cool cover of Miley's "We Can't Stop" and change the lyrics up a little bit at the end and include some of "Achy Breaky Heart" into it. One of the comments under the video points out how they are using the intro to "Lose Yourself" by Eminem to suggest Miley is "losing herself". 

I love Bastille and I love this cover! I also liked how they changed up the song and made it a comment about Miley herself.

The article discusses the impact of hyper-sexualisation in music videos and magazines and the negative effect they have on teen girls confidence, education and employment. The article also refers to 'video-vixens' such as Miley Cyrus and Rihanna who can be seen as 'toxic role models' according to writer Liz Jones.

Another take on Miley Cyrus and ratchet culture. Although it's clear Charlamagne's trying to be funny at points, he does raise some interesting issues concerning Miley (though, in my opinion, he's rather ignorant in the way he explains himself). He also mentions Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and Justin Timberlake in this video.