Why is it that we see young stars in the industry practically self destruct?  Let’s face it, Disney stars turn into NC-17 rated porn stars in their videos and it only seems to be noted as a problem once they are in rehab.  We have Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and now Miley Cyrus.  We also see male pop stars like Justin Bieber struggle with transforming into adulthood.  It’s kind of scary to know that the industry life can take hold of a child’s innocence and release them as far too daring kids that have grown up too fast.

I will say, I actually like Miley Cyrus.  I don’t think she has fallen off of the deep end yet…in fact, she seems to be somewhat of a marketing genius.  During her MTV VMA performance with singer Robin Thicke, she was mentioned in Tweets at one of the fastest rates in VMA history, with 300,000 tweets per minute.  By the end of the first airing, the VMA’s had over 4.5 million Twitter mentions.  She has one of the hottest singles out now, Wrecking Ball, and you have to admit, she’s gorgeous.  With all of that said, some veterans in the business see a young girl going down the wrong path with her “Twerking for Tweets” mentality and her naked body on an actual wrecking ball.  Singer Sinèad O’Connor writes an open letter to the young Cyrus star.  She states:

I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos…It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it’s the music business or yourself doing the pimping.  The music business doesn’t give a sh*t about you, or any of us…They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted… and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, ‘they’ will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.  The look I chose, I chose on purpose at a time when my record company were encouraging me to do what you have done. I felt I would rather be judged on my talent and not my looks. I am happy that I made that choice, not least because I do not find myself on the proverbial rag heap now that I am almost 47 yrs of age, which unfortunately many female artists who have based their image around their sexuality, end up on when they reach middle age. As for the shedding of the Hannah Montana image… whoever is telling you getting naked is the way to do that does absolutely NOT respect your talent, or you as a young lady,” she wrote. “Your records are good enough for you not to need any shedding of Hannah Montana. She’s waaaaaaay gone by now.. Not because you got naked but because you make great records.

What do you think?  Is Miley headed down the wrong path or is she building an empire?  While you try and figure that out, check out her video Wrecking Ball that has everyone up in arms.