14 DAY TRIAL // When Miley Cyrus teamed up with fashion photographer Terry Richardson for the official music video for her latest single, “Wrecking Ball,” she must have imagined the controversy it would cause. Still, she’s now saying people are overreacting about it.
At the same time, they need to look past the obvious in order to get the message of the video, Miley insists in a new interview with Elvis Duran & the Morning Show.
Before we move on to the actual explanation, a word about the video: it shows Miley riding a wrecking ball in nothing but a pair of punk-style boots, licking a hammer, crying a bit, and posing seductively among ruins in at least a couple of occasions.
Miley doesn’t deny that such a description of her video is accurate but she insists there’s a higher purpose to it all than just her desire of getting attention by showing off her tiny figure.
“I think the video is much more [than that]. If people get past the point I make, and you actually look at me, you can tell I look more broken than even the song sounds. The song is a pop ballad that everyone can relate to; everyone has felt that feeling at some point,” she says.
“If people can take their minds off the obvious and go into their imagination and see what the video really means, it is so vulnerable,” Miley continues.
“If you look at my eyes, I look more sad than actually my voice sounds on the record. It was a lot harder to do the video than it was to record the song. It was much more of an emotional experience,” she adds.
So, with “Wrecking Ball,” Miley is ditching the clothes because she’s vulnerable like that. It could make sense, if you think about it. But what does licking the hammer symbolize?