Miley Cyrus, if you haven’t heard of her, is a grammy-winning, American song-writer and actress. Born in Franklin, Tennessee she started her career following in her father (Billy Ray Cyrus) footsteps in the entertainment business. Her first notable role being Hannah Montana, in the hit TV Disney series Hannah Montana that featured a soundtrack that sold more than 3 million copies. Despite originally being told she was too young (only thirteen at the time) and naive to be in the series, she continued to push to be considered for the role. But by the time Cyrus was turning eighteen she knew her time on the show was coming to an end.
In 2013 is where Cyrus really steps into her role as a creative in the music industry, she moves away from Disney and into a more mature musical genre. “The Meet Miley Cyrus” her debut album is what started to shift her identity away from “disney mascot” Hannah Montana, and towards her new identity Miley Cyrus. Cyrus claims this is when she really started to write her own songs as a solo artist, and where she says her song-writing career started.
Miley Cyrus claims that in her house she has four shelves dedicated to old journals filled with songs her and her dad have written. These journals are filled with probably around 100 songs and other imaginative ideas to be used as fuel for songs in the future. This is part of Cyrus’ creative process, and embodies the idea that creativity is an infinite resource within each individual waiting to be tapped into and expressed. This is shown in Cyrus despite having multiple grammy nominated albums, has pages and pages of creativity that she has yet to fully tap into. In a Vanity fair interview she explains more about how these journals relate to her song-writing. These journals help to explain how she believes that “When people hear my music they hear a fragment of time, something I feel or felt right then” suggesting that her creativity for that song came from a moment in her own life where she experienced some sort of personal struggle. That “By the time it gets to your ears I may have grown past it, but I am truest to who I am at that very second”, explaining that she uses her personal struggles and issues to fuel and drive her creativity. And that by working through her issues she is also able to use song-writing as a creative outlet to work through her struggles
This connects to my focus book because in The Creative Spark by Agustín Fuentes, he talks about creativity through an evolutionary lense and talks about how progress happened sporadically. That when the first humans roamed the earth they went existent and had to try several different times and areas of the world before they were able to survive and eventually produce what we now know as our ancestors. This can be related to Miley Cyrus because she claims she can get really ahead of herself and get super anxious and just writing in a journal even a stream of consciousness can help her and later she will even find things that inspire her songs. But sometimes she feels so much and it's hard for her to manage and process all of her feelings and she describes the way she feels “can be so drastic moment to moment”, that sometimes it’s helpful to take a step back and realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Proving that what she writes is just for herself and doesn’t always make it into lyrics or songs and sometimes what she writes is gold and becomes a grammy-winning song and other times it never sees the light of day. Like our lineage some early humans took the wrong path and didn’t survive and others were able to thrive and produce offspring. That her creative progress (in the form of songwriting) happens sporadically not all at once, just like human evolution, sometimes it takes multiple tries to get things right. That perspective for her is everything and the time and place and the idea of living in the now is her key to success.
Another connection is the idea of teamwork. That sometimes creativity thrives in the presence of others and can be the key to finding success. Micheal Pollack helped Cyrus write her record-breaking song Flowers. This exemplifies Fuentes’ point of creativity thriving in the environment of many. When humans first started to hunt and create tools they needed the help of others to successfully hunt and gather food in order to be successful and stay alive. That line of thinking can help explain why even talented singer/songwriters like Miley Cyrus call on others like Pollack to help with the creative process and song-writing. That sometimes even just having someone to bounce ideas off of and tell you you're getting warmer can be helpful. Although Pollack did more than that, he claims the original chores was less empowering and sexy, then the final “Yeah, I can love me better than you can” that he and Cyrus flipped from the original “But I could never love me like you can”. Pollack claims it is much easier to write songs when there is “genuine emotion to tap into and an authentic muse” and that he struggles when no one in the room can tap into that emotion and truth. Showing that having other people to connect to and use their emotion is what leads to the creative processes that led to great songs.
Here's some of the articles I used if you want to check them out:
Very interesting read! I will say she had quite a large career shift from her Disney acting days to music. I know she had quite some difficulty and faced scrutiny from the media as she became more "provocative" but really she was just growing up and exploring her identity. I found it interesting how much influence her dad has in her creative process and I wonder how it has been affected since I believe they are not on speaking terms at the moment given her parents recent divorce. It is very interesting to see teamwork in the song-writing process and how it can be the difference between a song and a hit-song.
ReplyDeleteAfter the Grammys, my friends and I all talked about Miley's performance and how much she's grown in her career, that we think of Miley Cyrus and her Hannah Montana Disney phase as two completely separate people. I never knew about the lyric change in "Flowers" it's interesting how being open to other creatives in the process of making a song in this case can really impact the outcome of what you're trying to make. The song would definitely have a different vibe if it was Miley's original thought, super fun read!
ReplyDeleteI was a huge fan of Miley during her Hannah Montana era as a kid. I feel like though her style has changed over the years, she still manages to be a huge success. It is amazing just how much she writes, even though it doesn't all end up being published.
ReplyDeleteI think it is so interesting how she believes that creativity is within each individual that it is waiting to be tapped into. I think it really touches on the idea of potential, which I think is important and inspirational. Just like how some people thought that Miley had already peaked in her career as Hannah Montana and would not be able to separate herself from that Disney Channel image, but she broke the mold and tapped into her differing musical potential. I believe that genuine emotion is an important aspect of songwriting just like her collaborator, Michael Pollack. I feel that using real emotion makes songs more relatable to listeners. And seeing how she has multiple eras of her life I do not doubt that she has a range of genuine emotions to tap into.
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