Miley's New Song Is Overshadowed By Her Pasties

The most common feeling I have when I hear about the latest Miley Cyrus performance is usually a burst of bafflement, if not outright rolling my eyes. I respect that Cyrus is a talented artist, even if her music and antics aren't my cup of tea, but there are just times when her over-the-top behavior distracts from her actual musical career. That's exactly what happened when Cyrus performed at the Adult Swim Upfront Party. You see, during the performance, Cyrus debuted her new song "Tiger Dreams," but don't expect to hear people talking about that. Because Cyrus was not only dressed in pasties and butterfly wings while doing it, but she also lit a blunt that she proceeded to pass around the room during that same performance. Naturally, people are talking more about that.

I've grown beyond side-eyeing Cyrus over her actions because, after all, she is a woman who knows exactly what she is doing. Her name probably wouldn't be the household name it is now if not for the infamous incident in which she twerked on Robin Thicke at the VMAs, and every wild stunt she has done ever since has obviously been sufficient to keep her name in the papers and her face at the forefront of everyone's minds. It just seems like the Upfront Party was a bad time for Cyrus to debut new music, if she wanted that music to be what people were thinking about.

It has been over a year since Cyrus completely re-invented her sound with the release of her album, Bangerz, and new music from her has been hotly anticipated by those who are super into the new Cyrus. However, instead of new music, we've mostly gotten a lot of events to talk about that are completely unrelated to her career, like a concert that is spiced up by Cyrus' onstage antics or an Instagram that's full of bedazzled images and photos of Cyrus peeing in the woods during a hike. "Tiger Dreams" is a new song, one that we weren't even expecting, so why aren't more people talking about that rather than what Cyrus was wearing?

The fact that Cyrus' actions are starting to overshadow her music concerns me. Sure, part of it can be chalked up to the fact that people will always be more interested in the unusual or the sexy rather than the predictability of the music (oh, shocking, Cyrus the singer is singing a new song — not exactly headlines for some people), especially if they don't like her music to begin with, but hasn't Cyrus become predictable in her unpredictability by now? I've come to expect to hear that Cyrus has done something like wear a butterfly costume with pasties and offer a large blunt to her audience, so why is her new song a footnote in this story? From the snippets available online, it sounds like a great song.

At this point, I am hoping that Cyrus soon begins to transition into the more demure version of herself that she debuted at the 2014 VMAs, when she gave the focus of the media's attention to a cause she really believed in rather than in some stunt or costume to keep her on the front page. As much fun as Cyrus seems to be having being her unique self, I don't doubt that music is just as important to her, and she is setting a precedent of getting people to care less about her music and more about what she's wearing or doing that isn't related to that music. Then again, if there's one thing that Cyrus is good at, it's putting on a show, and that buzz will hopefully carry her into her next album the same way it did with Bangerz. For her career's sake, I hope that's how things play out.