Pop Bubblegum

It's Saturday, time for some lighter fare: Miley Cyrus.
Normally, I would absolutely not care about who she was or what she's been doing, but it's getting to the point where you can't just ignore it anymore.  As much as I would love not to know what twerking is or what YOLO means, I know, and I can't unlearn what I have learned.
Apparently Ms. Cyrus is creating a stir because she is acting like what church ladies used to refer to as a "loose woman."  But as far as I can tell, Miley in't really doing anything that Madonna hasn't been doing for 30 freaking years.  Maybe I'm just old, maybe I'm just cynical, but I really don't think that this little girl deserves the attention (or the criticism she's getting).  But I think, unlike what a lot of people think, that she knows exactly what she's doing.
This isn't a Lindsey Lohan or a Drew Barrymore situation, she's not getting arrested and turning up in rehab, she's performing, she's being DELIBERATELY controversial.  If you listen too much to the internet trolls and the trumpets of "moral" outrage, you would think that the whole VMA performance was some horrible accident that no one had any idea about ahead of time, but it was rather obviously choreographed.  She totally meant to do that.  She totally intended for a video of her swinging naked on a wrecking ball to be the stuff of viral video infamy.
Cheap publicity is in her DNA.  Her Dad is the definition of a one hit wonder, and his one hit is one of the single most vile, yet catchy, pieces of pop-country ever made.
But some people seem to be treating this whole personality change as some sort of personal tragedy, like she's going off the rails, like she's a genuinely troubled young woman.  If she is truly troubled, I apologize for what I'm about to say, but I offer the following as an alternative scenario to the all too common fall from grace of a child star.
She is doing this on purpose.
And she knows exactly what she's doing.
She has been playing a pop-star since she was a little girl, she was known, until a couple years ago, as Hannah Montana.  Hannah was the superstar alter-ego, a construction that was meant to shield a simple girl from all the hazards and dangers of astounding fame.  Does anyone not remember that?  She spent years of her life on a show that had, as it's PRIMARY FREAKING PREMISE, that being famous could be difficult, and that you needed to "keep it real" or else be eaten up by the world of stardom.
Hannah Montana was a pretty squeaky clean kids show, but Miley is now a grown up, and probably would like to be considered as a serious artist, rather than a shill for Disney merchandise.  But how do you get there from here?
You "go off the rails."  You stop being the nice little girl and you get a little crazy, you cut off your hair, you bump and grind in your gold underwear, you basically try to shock people.  All the little girls that have grown up with you are going to love it, because they're doing the exact same thing right now, except they're at college and not on TV all the time, but they're your fan base, they're the ones that really matter, they're the ones that are going to "get" your whole heartbroken, naked wrecking ball thing.
You WANT to offend the old people and the internet haters, you can handle that.  Hannah Montana made you freaking rich, you have the resources you need to insulate yourself from the trolls, no worries.  The trick to the whole thing is, you go crazy, and you let everyone know you're not Hannah Montana anymore, and then you get to become a grown up pop star.
Her partner in crime at the VMAs, Robin Thicke is doing a similar act, trying to get out of the shadow of his Dad, Alan Thicke, who played the squeaky clean, super nice, Dad on the show Growing Pains.  Let's show the world that we're not that nice, let's get the message out that we can be a little crazy and that we're not afraid to sex it up a bit.
I'm old enough to remember that this can work. Someone of my generation pulled the whole kid-tv-personality to legitimate musician rather well: Alanis Morrisette.  Alanis was a Nickolodean kid, and while I will probably always resent the song Ironic for not actually having any irony in it, I have to give Alanis her props for shedding the You Can't do that on Television (Google it, it was a thing) stigma and becoming a grown up artist.  She did it by being angry and dirty and shocking, which kept her fan base happy while making their parents a little nervous, well played Alanis. I think Miley was paying attention.
I suspect that Miley is going to follow a similar arc, and I think it's a well calculated plan.  She has a singular understanding of how "the machine" works and I don't think she's really as troubled as she wants us to think she is.  I think that she's trying to shake off the stereotypes, get a bit of an edge and leave Hannah Montana in the dust.
I'm pretty sure we would all want the same thing, if we had worn her blonde wig.