In #TheMusicThatMadeUs, senior journalist Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri chronicles the impact that musicians and their art have on our lives, how they mould the industry by rewriting its rules and how they shape us into the people we become: their greatest legacies
Miley Cyrus is the youngest person to have made the cut in this column. Considering the entire premise of The Music That Made Us has been to journal the music that has left a deep impression on us and our musical preferences, Miley’s has been a comparatively shorter career for us to trace convincingly. At least on paper.
But it is her voice and what she can do with it that demands an exception. She has rewritten many rules of musicianship and stage presence, of popstar conduct and rockstar songwriting. Given that Miley’s first brush with fame was as teeny bopper as it got, we’ve actually had a chance to witness her physical and emotional growth through her songwriting, her singing and the evolution of her musical persona. A more closed-minded listener of music might be quick to slot her as another blonde-tressed pop star, even frowning at some of her musical choices.
Yet, she stands out among her contemporaries thanks to her natural voice and her ability to optimise it despite the physical struggles she’s had with her vocal cords. A natural mezzo-soprano, Miley completely owns her lower register and retains its feminine timbre most robustly.
What works for Miley over her peers is how she refuses to typecast that voice as she traverses from the chirpy pop of her debut through the rustic nature of country and her later years love for rock.
Her musical influences show profoundly in her work as she draws from Elvis Presley, her father and country legend Billy Ray Cyrus, Madonna and even Metallica. Never shying from finding authentic expression, it is in Miley’s ingenuity and genuineness that we find the singer’s most honest avatar. How many singers who started out as pop stars have successfully transformed themselves into buddies of heavy metal?
Very few. Miley’s command over her vocal range and the various stages of metamorphosis she as a singer and her voice have undergone, have made us curious for what she has to offer every time.
If her last studio album Plastic Hearts was rock-inspired, then her recently released a first-of-its-kind live album titled Attention: Miley Live, is Miley’s way of reaching out to her own loyal audience and a much larger one beyond that listens to noisier, heavier stuff. It is also her way of grabbing our attention and forcing us to have this very fundamental conversation about her: What kind of singer is Miley?
Is she pop? Is she rock? Is she grunge? Is she a wannabe pop icon masquerading as a prog rock personality? Or is she all of the above?
For every Jolene she covers, Miley balances it with a heavier version of Like a Prayer. If her country-sounding 4x4 from the album Bangerz is earthy, then she takes her pop 'We Can’t Stop' and blends it with alt rock classic 'Where is my Mind?' The way she fuses the two songs and holds the attention of the audience in the process is the very reason why it has become hard to pinpoint her vocal personality.
There have been many raspy-voiced pop singers with rockstar vibes like Kim Carnes, P!nk or even Amy Winehouse whose husky vocals have made it easy to straddle genres. She can combine the rawness of a Janis Joplin with the spunk of a Stevie Nicks, making it a sound that is truly her own.
It hasn’t always been easy for her. Back in the day when she was fresh from the success of Disney’s Hannah Montana, she first covered Cyndi Lauper’s 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'. The Miley of today would’ve embodied both Lauper’s voice and spirit to perfection but in 2008, this version was still quite Disney-like: saccharine and devoid all the naughtiness that Lauper infused in it to make it the timeless song that it is.
Over the years, Miley and her engineers/arrangers have mastered the art of genre crossovers, making the transitions so seamless that they sound sublime. In Attention: Miley Live itself there are so many examples that substantiate the idea of Miley being the voice of fusion in its truest sense. How she transitions from the chorus of 'Wrecking Ball' to 'Nothing Compares 2 U' is an ode to her own prowess while unabashedly showing her love for Sinead O’Connor.
Even in The Metallica Blacklist session of Nothing Else Matters with Elton John, WATT, Yo-Yo Ma, Chad Smith, and Robert Trujillo, Miley holds her own so decisively that it’s nothing short of admirable. During the 2019 Chris Cornell tribute concert, Miley’s inclusion seemed a surprising choice among the setlist of rock royalty that had gathered to honour the late grunge icon. If Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard looked unsure of her presence while announcing her name on stage, the audience was eating out of her hands as she authoritatively ended supergroup (Pearl Jam + Soundgarden) Temple of the Dog’s 'Say Hello 2 Heaven'.
A Pearl Jam fan, she has covered the band’s breakout ballad 'Just Breathe' for her MTV Unplugged session with The Social Distancers in 2020, leaving little room for complaint as she matched Eddie Vedder’s tone and depth. Combining low-pitched vulnerability with her typical growls, Miley reiterates why she is the perfect candidate to carry forward the alt rock baton for a generation that is far removed from its grunge beginnings
Even her cover of a pitch perfect song like The Cranberries’ 'Zombie' takes a straightforward rock number and roughhouses it to create something much heavier and more noir than the original. When Miley covered Blondie’s most famous song Heart of Glass, she took what was essentially a punk-meets-disco classic, stripped it off its disco roots and repackaged it to exude her badass rockstar vibe backed by a throbbing bassline.
In a short span of time, Miley has grown in front of our eyes and truly come into her own voice. Having carved a niche for herself among the most celebrated of names across pop, punk, rock and country genres, she continues to remind us that she simply can’t be tamed.
We wouldn’t have it any other way, honestly.
Senior journalist Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri has spent a good part of two decades chronicling the arts, culture and lifestyles.
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