Cole Mayer

What hath the normally good music world wrought? Young stars with little to no talent, such as Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Taylor Momsen.

These stars are near-ubiquitous in today’s society, when they really should just go away.

There once was a man who performed on stage, his mullet swaying with him as he sung about his “achy-breaky heart.” For a time, he was popular.

Then the world mostly ignored him, until his daughter decided she liked to sing and act.

Her name is Miley Cyrus. She does not act terribly well, which admittedly could be chalked up to inexperience as a young actress.

The premise of her Disney show, “Hannah Montana,” is that people do not recognize her with a wig on, something not terribly hard to act, although totally unbelievable.

Her gravelly voiced singing could use some work, and based off of her recent works, she has not really found a style that suits her. Her voice simply is not suited for what she has been trying to do, making her music sound wrong.

Yet her name is recognized by anyone who has turned on a TV in the last year or so.

Why does our culture assign such celebrity status to someone who has so little talent? Especially one who is not the best of role models?

Cyrus turns 18 years old this month, yet she has already been a terrible role model. She has appeared on the Internet in her underwear, has been seen at wild parties and is even dressed inappropriately in her music videos. For instance, Cyrus’ video for “Can’t Be Tamed” makes her look like some sort of caged demon stripper.

It might be argued that girls already do act this way and dress inappropriately, but does society really want someone famous perpetuating these bad behaviors?

Molly Chappel, senior journalism major, thinks Cyrus’ antics are to get attention, breaking away from the carefully groomed Disney persona.

“Miley Cyrus is being a slut to make up for not being talented,” Chappell said.

It seems to be the proverbial “Paris Hilton effect:” Once someone is assigned even the smallest bit of celebrity status, he or she will milk it for all it’s worth, until he or she is famous for being famous.

That, or a legion of people who know nothing about good music, such as screaming, not quite teenage, “tween” fans, will make someone famous. This is the case with Bieber.

Discovered on YouTube in 2008, Bieber’s popularity exploded when he was given a record deal, given the amount of young followers he had.

Ryan Pritchard, senior communication studies major, enjoys the music of both pop stars but does not think much of the stars themselves.

“I think their music is vacuous, and the only reason it’s popular is because it’s catchy,” Pritchard said. “I think they have talent, but it’s not being nurtured or focused.”

While Pritchard has a point, Cyrus and Bieber might have some spark of talent, or they would not be so popular. If they spent more time in the studio, perhaps their music would actually be good.

“Miley is too interested in being a whore,” Pritchard said. “Justin is too busy hanging out with Usher, getting more street cred.”

Rome was not built in a day, and there are plenty of bands that started out with eardrum-shattering music that later developed into respectable talent. Cyrus and Bieber just need to get past the first stage of horrible music-making, and their audience will extend far beyond “tweens and the minority of college students.

One does not need to be a pop star to have no talent and still wail out music that shows up in the news too often.

Taylor Momsen, who stars in the TV show “Gossip Girl” and as Cindy Lou Who in “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” is the lead singer of metal band The Pretty Reckless.

Momsen, like Cyrus, has not been dressing the way someone her age should. She appeared in lingerie on the October cover of “Revolver,” toting guns. She flashed her black tape-covered breasts to her audience in New York City. Her failures as portrayed by the media do not end there.

Like Cyrus’ and Bieber’s attempts at pop, Momsen’s attempt at making metal music is terrible. It is just noise coming from speakers.

Like Pritchard said, Cyrus and Bieber’s music could be catchy, if it was not marred by their undeveloped voices. Momsen suffers not only from that, but her music is not memorable by any means.

Bieber at least has a clean-cut image, for which he deserves credit. He cannot sing well, but at least he is not aiming for a bad-boy image … or is he?

Cyrus parties too much, and both she and Momsen dress as if their next stop after a concert is the stage of a strip club.

What happened to the fairly wholesome music groups of “90s? The boy bands and bubblegum girl groups had some semblance of talent and did not dress like they were destined for a street corner when they hit the airwaves.

The music of today’s top stars is terrible, and needs to either quickly get better, or fade away faster than a one-hit wonder.

Cole Mayer can be reached at [email protected].