Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Consistently wrong since 2002

So very ready.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

He really is that stupid.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

You are here: Home / Music / Open Thread: Pandering to the Popular Taste

Open Thread: Pandering to the Popular Taste

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And, onna cover of the Rolling Stone:

In the backroom of a tattoo parlor on North La Brea Avenue in L.A., Miley Cyrus is about to get some new ink. “All right, face down,” says the tattoo artist, a bald guy named Mojo. Miley flips onto her stomach and sticks her ass in the air. On the bottom of her dirty feet, in ballpoint pen, are written the words ROLLING (right foot) and $TONE (left)…

These are the 20-year-old pop star’s first tattoos on her feet, but she has lots of others: a peace sign, an equal sign, a heart and a cross (all on her fingers); the words love inside her right ear and just breathe over her rib cage; a Leonardo da Vinci sketch on her right forearm, and above it, the Roman numerals VIIXCI, for 7/91, the month and year her parents first met. And on the inside of her left forearm, the words SO THAT HIS PLACE SHALL NEVER BE WITH THOSE COLD AND TIMID SOULS WHO NEITHER KNOW VICTORY NOR DEFEAT. “It’s from a Teddy Roosevelt speech,” she says. “It’s about how people judge who wins and who loses, but they’re not the ones in there fighting.” In other words, “It’s about critics.”

Four days earlier, Miley performed at the VMAs. Maybe you heard about it. A lot of people got mad. Miley did things with a foam finger that made the inventor of the foam finger accuse her of having “degraded” an “icon.” Most people thought it was Miley’s fault, but Miley didn’t care. That’s what the Teddy Roosevelt quote is about. Haters gonna hate…

FSM bless her, kid’s gonna be okay.

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    PsiFighter37

    I don’t give two shits about Miley Cyrus, good or bad. We pay way too much attention to what celebrities may or may not be doing/thinking/twerking, etc.

    On another note, GENO! is killing the Jets today – making Mark Sanchez look like a paragon of protecting the football.

    Also, too, fuck the GOP.

    Now I’m going to go make dinner for Sunday night fun night (mushroom risotto, sauteed corn with fennel and tarragon, and zucchini bread).

  2. 2.

    Felonius Monk

    Miley Cyrus – cute kid. But whogivesafuck what she does?

    @PsiFighter37: You got me with the sauteed corn and the zucchini bread. Give me an address — I’ll fire up the ‘copter and bring the wine. :)

  5. 5.

    gogol's wife

    Everyone should watch the posted video — she is a fantastic singer but also very funny here. I love Letterman asking if she needs an intermission. She’s used to doing this for hours on end.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    @PsiFighter37: Sounds tasty. I just finished my round of cooking for today, baking a sachertorte to bring in to work tomorrow. OK, I still have to make the whipped cream, but that’s fast and I’ll do it tomorrow morning.

  7. 7.

    elftx

    Find it funny everyone expects her real life continue as Hannah Montana so fk ’em if they can’t take a joke.

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    @elftx: I’d like it if her real life continued as a well-adjusted psychologically healthy adult. I ain’t seeing that.

  17. 17.

    WereBear

    It is amazingly instructive to look back and discover what was popular, back in the day.

    Heard of Eddie Cantor? Well, few have, unless you are a classic movie buff or watch Boardwalk Empire. Once upon a time, he dominated Broadway, radio, movies, early television, and was a best-selling author.

    He made “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” into a holiday classic. He coined the phrase, The March of Dimes, and helped it develop as a charity. He was one of the few actual people ever depicted as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

    He was HUGE. And now… no one remembers.

    I don’t have any feelings, pro or con, for Ms. Cyrus. But she should take MC Hammer as a cautionary tale, and make sure she has a financial advisor.

    Fame is by-gum fleeting.

  18. 18.

    fuckwit

    MIley Cyrus is now apparently a troll. She’s trolling the whole pop culture at the moment. Yawn. Ignore.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    “Without promotion, something terrible happens… nothing!”
         - P. T. Barnum

    “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”
         - H. L. Mencken

  24. 24.

    Cassidy

    @WereBear: Everyone from that era does, but as a cautionary tale, he’s doing okay. Alchemist Management has some well known mid-tier fighters.

    I like MC. I also like Ke$ha, fwiw. I like it when pop stars ruin the playlist.

  25. 25.

    Warren Terra

    I could care less about Miley Cyrus in general, or sexualized displays by adults in general. My main response to what I saw of her VMA appearance was that I couldn’t recognize the music as being in any way melodic, lyric, or interestingly rhythmic, and that she was grimacing horribly and really didn’t seem to be enjoying herself. What’s the point of her demonstrating her independence, if she’s not enjoying herself?

  26. 26.

    Anne Laurie

    @Warren Terra:

    What’s the point of her demonstrating her independence, if she’s not enjoying herself?

    From what I’ve seen since that performance — including the interview linked above — it was & is quite enjoyable for Ms. Cyrus to give a big foam middle finger to all the “grownups” who’ve been using her as a stage prop since her second birthday. Her current hits are not to my taste, but then, I’m not her audience!

  28. 28.

    Redshift

    Ugh. I heard Dana Rohrabacher in a short interview on BBC World Service, and I’m very disappointed in them, since they frequently are much tougher than American journalists. He kept talking about how the original House bill was a “compromise,” and they never once asked him what Republicans are offering for their side of the compromise.

    I’m guessing he believes that they want Obamacare repealed entirely, but they’re offering to just delay it by a year, so that’s “compromise.” “Give us half of what we want in exchange for nothing. Look how reasonable we are!”

    But they didn’t ask, so it was never revealed how ludicrous his use of the word is.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    @Anne Laurie:

    From what I’ve seen since that performance — including the interview linked above — it was & is quite enjoyable for Ms. Cyrus to give a big foam middle finger to all the “grownups” who’ve been using her as a stage prop since her second birthday.

    Sure. Then what?

  30. 30.

    Keith G

    Miley’s performance on her single, Wrecking Ball, is quite good. Its a strong vocal without a bunch of post production help. I clicked on it prepared not to like it, but….

    The video for the song is an amazing bit of cinematography and Miley is stunning. Right now at age twenty, she seems as if she may have the full package as a singer/performer. I hope she can be centered and thoughtful and somehow avoid becoming just another TMZ commodity.

  31. 31.

    Redshift

    @Warren Terra: I think it’s a mistake to judge whether a performer is enjoying him/herself based on facial expressions and such. Do most classical musicians look like they’re enjoying themselves while performing? Do most actors? Yeah, a lot of pop musicians do, but that’s a choice, you can choose to make your performance different than that.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @Redshift:

    Yeah, it’s dumb. The whole point of the CR is to fund the government for 3 months to give them time to compromise on the budget. Media is really pushing GOP spin right now.

  35. 35.

    geg6

    @Anne Laurie:

    Gotta say that I agree with you completely. And I can honestly say that, had I had the life she’s already had at age 20, I would have been even more forceful with that finger. I’m not much into pop music (though I like some), but I like her attitude. And her smarts. She doesn’t strike me as anywhere the dim bulb that Britney or Lindsay do. Now, that Thicke dude, though. Ick.

  36. 36.

    techno

    I am not much of an opera fan, but my mother was. When I was growing up, we had to have all our Saturday chores done in time so she could listen to the Met in peace and QUIET! (Radio really did change rural life—I knew quite a few opera lovers growing up on the prairies.)

    But what I did learn was that opera isn’t about the goofy stories, it is about the singing and those gorgeous voices. We once took my mother to a restaurant in St. Paul run by the Minnesota Opera company as a fund-raiser. Because it was her birthday, a trio came out to sing Happy Birthday. The stupidest song ever written became so beautiful it could make a grown man weep—I mean, have you ever heard a lyric soprano from five feet away? It sure worked on my mother.

    So thank you Ms. Fleming for reminding us it isn’t what you are singing, it how it sounds. Good lord, what a voice, huh?

  38. 38.

    PaulW

    Sci Fi literary topic: Anyone else here read John Scalzi before? Just found out a month ago he’d won the Hugo Award for Redshirts, and I realized I’d seen his name before: he’s the guy who wrote the famous “I Hate Your Politics” article back in 2002. Finally read some of his books: pretty funny stuff.

  41. 41.

    dmsilev

    @techno:

    But what I did learn was that opera isn’t about the goofy stories, it is about the singing and those gorgeous voices.

    Definitely. Many operas have absolutely absurd stories (just try making sense of the plot of say The Magic Flute for instance), but with a good cast the singing can be absolutely glorious.

  43. 43.

    Suzanne

    @Keith G: YMMV, obviously, but I think her music and dancing are middling at best. I listen to shit-tons of pop music, but I think Rihanna, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Pitbull (the GUY—not in the mood for the debate), Bruno Mars, Beyoncé, and many others outdo Miley all the way and at pretty much every turn.

    She’s trying to hang on to some relevance by being shocking rather than by being good. I think I’ve seen that before. In a bargain bin. Snore.

  45. 45.

    Loneoak

    I bet someone here has good suggestions for this. I want to assign something about Obamacare in a medical ethics class as supplementary material. What’s the best 1000-2000 word journalistic article that summarizes the ACA, especially how it tries to address the uninsured?

  47. 47.

    techno

    @dmsilev:
    Magic Flute, huh? Try Tannhauser. This thing was often considered pornographic in the 19th century and there were x-rated Tannhauser-themed post cards sold in the more exotic neighborhoods. Yet the theme of the Opera is that love is so redemptive, it can make the Pope’s staff sprout leaves.

    They did Tannhauser this year at Beyreuth for Wagner’s 200th birthday. Just sayin’.

  48. 48.

    Anne Laurie

    @floridafrog:

    Renee Fleming is astounding!

    … True! And also pandering! But there’s no sense of superiority in decrying an operatic icon “cheapening her art” for a late-night talkshow host, is there?

    (I’m an old-school cynic, is where I get my laffs.)

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @techno:

    I love opera, and always try to see the Met Live in HD performances throughout the season. This year, one of the operas I am most looking forward to is Dvorak’s Rusalka starring Renée Fleming in the title role. I’ve never seen the opera, and don’t think I’ve ever even heard it all the way through, but I adore Rusalka’s “Song to the Moon.” Just gorgeous. Here is Ms. Fleming singing it in concert.

  53. 53.

    coin operated

    @Anne Laurie:

    This.

    Adding…she is spot-fucking-on when she calls out the critics in that RS article. Very astute observations for someone who is getting painted as a desperate pop harlot because of her VMA performance. There is a brain in that girls head…

  54. 54.

    AnnaN

    I don’t really care for Miley, but it amazes how much press and hatred she got for her faux crudity when everyone just blithely ignored Robin Thicke’s actual crudity of posing for a photo with some anonymous woman and having his finger up her ass/cunt.

    Oh well, I really should expect nothing more and nothing less…

  55. 55.

    different-church-lady

    @AnnaN: Agreed. Double standard is double.

    That being said, for some reason it ain’t Robin’s mental health I’m worried about.

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    @techno:

    My mom was a violinist and I loved it when she had a gig playing in the pit orchestra for an opera company because she would take me with her to rehearsals and performances. My first was la Traviata at age 8 and from then on I was hooked. I celebrated a birthday at one of her rehearsals once so I too have experienced that song transformed. Have you ever been to one of the broadcasts at the movie theater? I was skeptical but they are really good.

  59. 59.

    techno

    @Anne Laurie:
    Fleming did NOT cheapen her art.

    I much dislike people who try to turn opera into something snooty. Go to the opera in Italy where the real fans fans sit in the cheap seats and occasionally boo the tenor—at LaScala! Realize that opera was so popular in mid-19th century USA that their were units that marched into battle during the Civil War singing opera. We had a family friend that farmed 240 acres of black Minnesota dirt. He had a large radio mounted on his John Deere tractor (still rare in early 1960s) and on two occasions, we went out to visit him and could hear him coming above the noise of his tractor as he sang along to the Met.

    Real opera lovers aren’t pretentious.

  60. 60.

    burnspbesq

    Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj,and Taylor Swift, none of whom have any talent to speak of, suck all the air out of the room, and a whole generation of young female musicians with voices and chops and things to say can’t get the attention they deserve. Ugh.

  61. 61.

    PurpleGirl

    @dmsilev: Thank you for this. I book marked it. I once saw Anna Russell as the opening act for P.D.Q. Bach (at Carnegie Hall). She was incredible.

  62. 62.

    different-church-lady

    @dmsilev:

    A form of drama wherein when someone is stabbed, instead of dying they sing.

    When ol’ PAL-YAT-CHEE finds the guy he’s seekin’
    Cheek-to-cheekin’ with his wife he grabs a knife
    And stabs the louse who stole his spouse
    An’ then he stabs the lady and himself.
    Ain’t very sanitary.

    They all collapse but old Pal-Ya-Chee sets up
    then he gets up
    sings, “I am dying!
    “I am dying!
    “I am dying!”
    We start cryin’
    ‘Cause to tell the truth we’re dying too

  64. 64.

    burnspbesq

    @techno:

    Fleming did NOT cheapen her art

    No, not at all, any more than Anne-Sofie Von Otter “cheapened her art” by making a record with Elvis Costello, or Simone Dinnerstein “cheapened her art” by making a record with Tift Merritt, or Thomas Quasthoff “cheapened his art” by dipping into the Great American Songbook

    The fact remains, however, that Fleming’s pop albums suck.

  65. 65.

    gogol's wife

    @debbie:

    I figured that was the joke of the Letterman thing — you think they’re singing about important stuff, but it’s really trivia.

  66. 66.

    gogol's wife

    I guess I now understand that the original post is somehow equating Renee Fleming with Miley Cyrus (“see — nobody complains about Fleming!”). I am gobsmacked.

  67. 67.

    burnspbesq

    Goes, both ways. I wonder how many Punch Brothers fans will turn up their noses at Chris Thile’s Bach record, which got a glowing review from Gramophone.

  70. 70.

    different-church-lady

    @gogol’s wife: The best part of that clip is when Fleming sticks out her tongue, bends over, shakes her ass at the camera, and everyone applauds it as a big fuck-you to all the old European men at the Met.

  73. 73.

    different-church-lady

    @efgoldman: But for the most sheer horror in all the musical universe, nothing comes remotely close to being subjected to Rod Stewart singing “Twisting the Night Away”.

  76. 76.

    burnspbesq

    @Cassidy:

    You’re kidding. Go listen to the new Sarah Jarosz album and come back and tell me Taylor Swift is fit to carry her mandolin case.

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    @techno:
    Much of the European classical canon was the pop music of its time, wasn’t it? And this is especially true of opera.

  79. 79.

    Cassidy

    @burnspbesq: Saying “someone is not as good as…” is different than “such and such has no talent”. MC and TS can sing quite well. NM is a talented rapper, albeit poor lyricist. I don’t particularly care for pop country, but I’m not going to deny TS’s ability.

  81. 81.

    Mike in NC

    So can I run out to the local thrift store and buy up all the Hannah Montana DVDs and make a shitload of money?

  83. 83.

    techno

    @burnspbesq:
    Fleming’s pop albums probably do suck. The lowest form of this behavior is opera stars singing Christmas Carols (The Three Tenors singing Silent Night off-key, anyone?)

    What makes the Letterman piece so funny / attractive is they borrowed some of the favorite operatic melodies of all time and THEN wrote those goofy Top Ten cracks.

    Of course, I am a poor judge of these things—I tend to swoon over lyric sopranos.

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