The Hannah Montana Epidemic

Will she be just another fad or a new pop legend in the making?

      There is a constant roar coming from the stands.  Everyone is shouting, “Hannah! Hannah! Hannah!”  The intensity gets stronger by the minute as people wait to see the real person that they have heard so many times on the radio and seen on television.  She is their role model.  She is their idol.  She is their life.

    The Hannah epidemic begins.  Her huge debut staring on the Disney show Hannah Montanta made her sales skyrocket.  The soundtrack was the eighth best selling album of 2006 in the U.S., with nearly two million copies sold that year.  According to Wikipedia, the album has sold 3.2 million copies in the U.S. and over 4 million copies worldwide.  Her songs from the show constantly play on the radio.  Equally as successful is her own clothing line and wig collection.  This contributes greatly to her popularity and sales.  Many have fallen under the spell of Hannah.

      Hannah has millions of fans all over the world. One of her great marketing strategies has been trying to be everything to everyone. She became famous while staring in her hit television show Hannah Montana on Disney.  In this show she develops two identities; one is Hannah Montana, the teenage pop sensation, and the other is Miley Cyrus, the normal teenage girl.   This allows her to be interesting to two age groups of girls–young and teenage.  Like one of her songs says, she really is trying to get the “best of both worlds.”

      When a person becomes famous, the media instantly tries to bring them down.  They are always trying to find something wrong with stars, because unfortunately the public want to know about it, and that’s what sells.  Recently, the media has questioned many things concerning of Hannah Montana.  Or should I say Miley Cyrus?  One of her very devoted fans videotaped Hannah’s double at one of her concerts.  When she saw the body double in place of Hannah Montana, she was appalled because her perfect image of Hannah was crushed.  According to a YouTube video many fans felt cheated because they did not get to see the real Hannah Montana–the Hannah Montana that they paid big bucks to see.  Also recently in the news was a scandal involving Hannah taking inappropriate pictures kissing a girl.  Hannah says, “the leaked photos were total innocent.”  This is just another example of how the media today is trying to destroy someone’s fame.

   Perhaps she said it best with the title of a recently released song–”Nobody’s Perfect.”  Hannah Montana is, in fact, “Just Like You” and I.  She goes through the same stuff.  She still eats dinner with her family.  She makes mistakes.  Except when she does, it ends up on the cover of People magazine.