Music video analysis

Party in the USA

Party in the U.S.A. is a dance-pop song which arranges R&B and pop music elements, as it is a pop song, aimed at a wide audience to gain quick succession it completed this task as it got to number 1 in American mainstream charts and sold 4.5 million copies of the single.

‘Party in the USA’ by Miley Cyrus is a good example of a music video which complies with the star image of a performer; Miley Cyrus is also known as her child TV star alias Hannah Montanna, the ‘normal girl’ by day and ‘pop star’ by night. As Hannah Montanna is a child’s show the representation of Hannah Montanna is that of a young, innocent, ‘good girl’ performer, Miley Cyrus however is currently in the stages of breaking out of her innocent pseudonym and so her video ‘Party in the USA’ helps this as she is no longer the innocent child but turning into the slightly rebellious, grown up pop star.

The video shows Cyrus wearing black denim short shorts, cowboy boots, a low cut top revealing cleavage and dark heavy eye makeup, she is dressed provocatively and her dark clothes gives her a more ‘grown up’ and sophisticated look. In comparison to her earlier Hannah Montanna videos, Miley is a complete transformation aimed at an older audience now who has grown with her through Hannah Montanna to the more established pop star she is today. In the video Cyrus is surrounded by girls of a similar age to show that she still appeals to the girls that grew with her through HM, however she also waves to an attractive man to show that she has grown. The song is a very upbeat, high tempo pop song and the video reflects this with a lot of dancing and movement from the dancers and Cyrus’s fans.

"Party in the U.S.A." was a critical and commercial success, reaching the top ten of charts in eight countries. In the United States, the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Cyrus' best-charting single to date and sixth-best-selling digital single of 2009. It was also deemed one of the best-selling singles in the United States and Hollywood Records' fastest and best-selling single to date, selling 4.5 million copies as of April 2011.”