18 Years Since We "Broke-Out" (She's legal, folks!)
Special dedicated to @/dkardash & @/debkydd!
Hold up-did you remember to pick up your July (’08) J-14 mag before you started reading?! Don’t sweat it, I’ll recap.
July 2008. Disney Channel Games are in full swing for a SECOND consecutive year. We're going to skip over the market crash that arrives shortly that fall, but the air was bright regardless. Teen culture is in total SHAMBLES, which is more important than some boring market crash. We’ll leave our parents to freak the f*ck out over that. Nick Jonas just dumped Miley Cyrus six months prior (at her PEAK, mind you), leading Cyrus to quickly and angrily dye her hair pitch black, as rebellion against her former lover, who preferred her hair to be styled with highlights.
At the end of 2007, a fifteen-year-old Cyrus told Seventeen Mag, “At first, I bawled for a month straight. I was so sad. I just went into this weird funk. And I dyed my hair black. When we were dating, Nick wanted me to get highlights – and so I did that, and I got myself looking great. And then, on the day we broke up, I was like, I want to make my hair black now – I don’t want to look pretty; I want to look hard-core. I was rebelling against everything Nick wanted me to be. And then I was like, I’ve got to be by myself for now, and just figure out who I really am.”
2008-ley was on a ROLL! She was put to WORK, honey (cue Donna Summer’s She Works Hard for the Money). Cyrus would conclude up her Best of Both Worlds Tour at the top of March to begin recording her upcoming LP, “Breakout”, while also preparing for the release of her lead single, “7 Things”. Cyrus would also prepare to film the blockbuster childhood classic, Hannah Montana: The Movie, later that summer. The film was released in April 2009. Cyrus teased fans in late 2007 on NYC’s Z100, stating “They’re still trying to write it out because we want to make sure that it’s not just like our television show, that’s really fun, but otherwise, we’d just do a television movie. We want something that’s theatrical and real...” Hannah Montana would wrap up season two by the summer of 2008 to gear up for season three, which Miley was actively filming for as well!
Cyrus kicked off the Breakout era with her performance of the title track at the 2008 Disney Channel Games held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, on May 4th, 2008. The title track has been my all-time favorite since I was a wee-little-boy. It always reminds me of something you would’ve heard on One Tree Hill/The O.C, if Cyrus had been around for the bulk of their high school years. It fits the epitome of episode 4.13, Pictures of You (One Tree Hill). It takes me right back to hangouts with Alex and Susie. The performance was later used as a promotional montage of all the stars of that era who were participants in the event.
Fast forward to June, the rollout was alllllll right here (No pun intended for Hannah’s upcoming lead single for HM3, released later that year). Cyrus released the lead single, 7 Things, on June 17, 2008 (A play on the iconic film, 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). The single received mixed to positive reviews from music critics and enjoyed WW commercial success, becoming a top ten hit on charts in Australia, Japan, Norway, and the US. 7 Things infused a blend of country-pop with a very emotionally chaotic chorus. The song's accompanying music video, which became the most-watched music video on YouTube at the time of its release era in 2008 (holding that status until Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" surpassed it in 2010), was directed by Brett Ratner.
(Fun fact: Some years after release, around Bangerz era, I ended up burning 7 Things on a CD-R disc (Just because I’m Generation Z, don’t mean I’m not ol’ school, chile) and played it the hell OUT, pretending I had an ex-boyfriend when I sure as hell did not.)
The video features Cyrus performing the song with her band, along with dozens of heartbroken teenage girls lip-syncing and expressing their pain. A certified classic. In the video, Cyrus holds up half of a photo of her with some guy, who was rumored to be the one and only, Nick Jonas (obvs!). Girl, we know it was Saint Nicholas, but we played into her little clue! One of the very heartbroken teenage girls’ viewers can spot out would be the gorgeous teenaged Nicola Peltz, actress and wife to Brooklyn Beckham.
Cyrus would go on to perform 7 Things at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards, and we got our entire LIVES! At the time, a feud between fellow House of Mouse star, Selena Gomez, and Cyrus had been brewing, due to Gomez becoming official with Nick Jonas, shortly after his split with Cyrus. Gomez was famously featured in Jonas Brothers’ Burnin’ Up music video, which also included a lyric about Cyrus looking ever-so stunning at the 2007 American Music Awards, when the couple were still hot. Cyrus and Gomez would go back and forth publicly & privately, with one of the most memorable moments being Cyrus and Mandy Jiroux (Sis, you was too grown) mocking Gomez and Demi Lovato’s YouTube video with their own parody! Was it mean, yes. Did I have a laugh? Well, yes!
Cyrus did (half-heartedly) apologize for her petty behavior in July 2008 in an interview with Popstar! Mag. She stated, "If we offended [Selena and Demi], we're super sorry, but we were, like, just having fun." Cyrus, Gomez, and Lovato made up at the Teen Choice Awards; Cyrus was seen flicked up with both Gomez and Lovato and Cyrus and Gomez had a heartwarming, cute “girl-power” moment during Cyrus’s performance of 7 Things! What a way to visualize girlhood. These three ladies patched things up quickly, at least privately, for Disney’s benefit.
Cyrus released her LP, Breakout, on July 22nd, 2008, under Hollywood Records. 2008 was an eventful year for the label, with Aly & AJ on promo runs off the hype of their release, Insomniatic in 2007, Jesse McCartney releasing Depature (his best album), Lovato releasing Don’t Forget, Selena Gomez & The Sceneofficially forming, gearing for their debut 2009LP, Kiss & Tell, and theJonas Brothers with A Little Bit Longer (LP)… okay, it was STACKED.
While Meet Miley Cyrus (2007) was an iconic debut album for the star, Breakout is what really deemed her as a mainstay. From upbeat, pop-rock, high tempo love songs like Full Circle, See You Again (Rock Mafia Remix), and 7 Things, to heartbreaking ballads like Bottom of the Ocean, The Driveway, and These Four Walls, Miley was conveying a message early on, even prior to Bangerz, that she has her own identity outside of the iconic and polarizing, Hannah Montana. Her own feelings, struggles/hardships, etc. My favorites from the album are still Breakout (title track), 7 Things, and Fly on the Wall (honorable mention to Simple Song). How can we forget the PLATINUM version with the iconic, Someday?? (RELEASE IT NEOWWWW).
Cyrus released Fly on the Wall, her second and final single (I honestly believe Breakout deserved to be a single), on November 4th, 2008, accompanied by a flashy, MJ (Thriller) inspired music video that I used to run back on Disney: Sing It! until my Wii console burnt to flames. I fucking LIVED for this song! Don’t cha! On the week ending August 8, 2008, Breakout debuted at number one (that Cyrus reign just won’t let up) on the Billboard 200, earning her a third-number one album to her name. The LP received mass success internationally (charting in CA, NZ, AUS, Japan, etc.). Still one of my favorite albums to this day; a childhood staple.
Who would Jazzy McGuire be without Disney Channel and its stars? MC was a force to be reckoned with, and I’ll always be grateful for the impact she had on my upbringing! Happy birthday, Breakout.
Signing off na,
Jazzy McGuire
