Of all people, I was drawn to Miley Cyrus as a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast this morning. He releases a few a week and usually I only listen to them if either I know the person or they sound interesting enough to give a chance to. Miley Cyrus would not traditionally catch my eye as someone I would want to devote two hours of my time to but then sometimes we need to step out of our norms to create new ones. You’re immediately struck with how distinct and surprising her voice is. She sounds gravely. Apparently it has really come into it’s own like this in the last year and I’m sure she said having surgery on her throat affected it. She admits too that having smoked a lot and sung a lot it has also played a part.
I wasn’t sure what to expect although I doubted I would listen to more than twenty minutes. In the end I found myself almost captivated by someone who has clearly grown into quite a likeable person despite how she has been represented in the media for years. Joe Rogan is quite good at this though and it wouldn’t be the first guest he has had on that has managed to improve their public image from it. There are also some who, in my eyes at least, have walked away with no credibility at all, so it can’t just be Rogan and to think otherwise must do a disservice to Cyrus.
She comes from a world apart from ninety-nine percent of the worlds population. The daughter of the country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and the goddaughter of the almost mythical Dolly Parton, she was thrust into the spotlight herself at about twelve years old when she became the star of Disney’s Hannah Montana. She talks of struggling to connect with people and of the affects of growing up in and only knowing such a life. This is where Rogan can expose his own distance from the average listener though and it’s not the first time I’ve felt like I’m listening to two aliens discussing a disconnected unknown world. He has an ability to reach both his listener and his guest but there are moments in which he doesn’t feel like one of us despite attempting to portray himself as such. He is just being honest though and that too is part of his appeal.
The plan for this piece had been to discuss our understanding of freedom and how it is at it’s base entirely in our mind. Some thoughts came to me while listening to this podcasts and mentioning Cyrus was supposed to be my leading into it. Evidently I got a little caught up in what appears to be some kind of new found fandom. I still won’t listen to her music but I will view her in a different light. Miley Cyrus, in my blog. Life truly is all about the unexpected.
Observations and Misunderstandings 