Plasma Pool

The most famous lyric in teen pop princess Miley Cyrus’s new #1 hit single “Party in the USA” concerns a Jay-Z song and its positive effects on our narrator. Here it is in context:

Jumped in the cab
Here I am for the first time
Look to my right
And I see the Hollywood sign
This is all so crazy
Everybody seems so famous

My tummy’s turnin’
And I’m feelin’ kinda homesick
Too much pressure and I’m nervous
That’s when the taxi man turned on the radio
And a Jay-Z song was on (x3)

So I put my hands up
They’re playin’ my song
The butterflies fly away
I’m noddin’ my head like yeah
Movin’ my hips like yeah

This is obviously not the smartest song in the world, but the sentiment is pretty universal: a great song can make you feel good, set your nerves at ease, and make you ready to party and win new friends with your sunny approach to life. It’s not surprising that a well-crafted piece of pop like “Party in the USA” has become so popular.

Except it turns out Miley has never heard a Jay-Z song. From a recent interview:

Miley: I picked that song cause I needed something to go with my clothing line, I didn’t write it. And it wasn’t something that, like, I even expected to be popular, originally. It was just something that I wanted to do, I needed some songs, and it turned out for the best.

Interviewer: You’ve gotta have one in mind. “Big Pimpin’”? “Can I Get A”?

Miley: I’ve never heard a Jay-Z Song. I don’t listen to pop music and I, like, it’s not even my style of music, that song. But I’m just really blessed for it to have done as well as it has.

Blog reaction has generally been filled with shock and awe. From the same Best Week Ever link:

The following interview with Miley — who is dressed up for Halloween as a slutty Native American, we think – she admits the WORST thing we have EVER heard: She has never heard a Jay-Z song. Not one.

This is likely joking hyperbole — anyone who follows pop culture should not be surprised that a pop star didn’t write her own songs and doesn’t 100% agree with every sentiment held within them. If Michelle Collins is actually this upset about Miley’s folly, she really needs to reevaluate her priorities.

But the most interesting thing about this story goes unremarked upon. Namely, how the hell has a teenager in America never heard a Jay-Z song?

No one will ever mistake Miley’s concoction of country, pop, and Spears-style pre-legal come-ons for hip-hop, but her music occupies the same cultural sphere as Jay-Z: super-popular with wide-reaching appeal beyond the usual demographic boundaries. You would assume Miley had heard a Jay-Z song at an awards show she’d attended, or while scouting her competition on the charts, or just on TV. These are songs that people know, especially when they are on the edge of 17, an age at which you expect someone to consume lots of music. Maybe nerds or shut-ins wouldn’t know Jay-Z, but Miley is a pretty girl who supposedly has her finger on the pulse of America. If she were a normal girl, she’d be going to Jay-Z concerts with her friends.

But famous people aren’t normal, particularly when they’ve been programmed and focus-grouped from an early age. Father and one-time star Billy Ray Cyrus obviously protects his daughter — last spring he said he wouldn’t mind being best friends with her forever in a truly crazy interview — but this Jay-Z news gives a more specific peek into what Miley’s life must be like. She likely has few friends, spends most of her time working, and knows only what her handlers tell her.

Magazines like Us Weekly and blogs like PerezHilton.com propagate the idea that stars are just like us. They tell us about their loves lost and gained and show them pumping gas and in mid-sneeze. But these are superficial similarities. The most famous of the famous live in a completely different world from those who consume their product, which shouldn’t be too surprising when you consider the circumstances.

Yet we still rely on these superstars for our most popular art, the broad expression of our most human feelings. Do we read gossip to learn more about these people, or to maintain the illusion necessary for their songs and movies to work?