Miley Is Back With Bass Persuades: Miley Cyrus is now simply “Miley”: not Miley Cyrus, not Hannah Montana, no longer the Disney child trying to convince the world that she was no longer a Disney child star, not the woman singing “Flowers”, choosing herself after years of having her relationships, body, clothes, and personal life picked apart like they were public property. She is just “Miley”.
Miley Is Back With Bass Persuades
In August 2026, Miley began her next chapter with an Instagram post with the word “MILEY.” and subsequently dropping “Cyrus” from her social-media handle. By September, the rebranding had become a gateway into Bass Persuades, her 10th Studio Album, with its title track arriving first.
It somehow feels oddly fitting because Miley Cyrus has spent nearly two decades being asked to become someone else, or perhaps she has spent nearly two decades becoming someone else while we watched, and the distinction matters.
We talk about Miley’s career through eras because eras make people easier to understand: Hannah Montana, Disney’s Miley, “Can’t Be Tamed” Miley, Younger Now Miley, Plastic Hearts Miley, Flowers Miley and now she is just “MILEY”.
Each one arrived with a new sound, new silhouette, new haircut, new emotional vocabulary and a new round of public discussion: she became a discourse.
First, We Had Hannah Montana
Miley Cyrus entered the public imagination through Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana in 2006. She was Miley Stewart, an ordinary teenager living a secret double life as the enormously famous pop star Hannah Montana.
The setting itself was basically a metaphor for the life Cyrus was going to live: one girl, two identities, and an audience fascinated by the contrast between them. Except that Miley did not get to take off the blonde straight wig. The show became a global phenomenon: its music became almost inseparable from Disney’s machinery, and Miley became one of the faces of a generation that grew up watching Disney Channel after school.
Miley of those years felt wholesome in all the ways possible: the long hair, the boots, the glitter and glam, teenage crushes, the songs about friendships, growing up and life; basically The Best of Both Worlds fantasy.
Thousands of children grew up with her, looking at her, which is important because as Miley changed, we too changed.
The audience that once watched Hannah Montana from their living rooms were suddenly old enough to have opinions about everything Miley chose: her music, clothes, even her body and sexuality.
Miley Wanted to Be Miley
“Can’t Be Tamed”, released in 2010, was Miley’s first attempt to step away from the family-friendly image around her that had got her the fame. Even the title itself felt like a declaration. Miley was 18, and the cultural conversation around her was already beginning to shift from “What does Miley want? to “What is Miley allowed to?” which is when Bangerz arrived in 2013.
Miley exploded with this: the pixie cut, “tongue” branding, “latex”, and twerking arrived. Then came “We Can’t Stop”, “Wrecking Ball”, the infamous sledgehammer and a general sense that the girl who had once sung The Best of Both Worlds had decided to have them all at once.
Bangerz became one of those rare pop eras where the person making the music was at the centre of discourse. The 2013 MTV VMAs performance became a cultural watershed, with the outfits becoming the headlines and the tongue becoming its own character. Miley became the point of conversation around morality, which is perhaps the strangest thing about her career.
Even each Miley era seemed to become a lesson: Hannah Montana Miley was the innocent child; Can’t Be Tamed Miley was the rebellious teenager; Bangerz Miley became the cautionary lore about what happens when a good girl goes to become the societal “bad”.
She was not fictional, but the cultural schema treated her like a before-and-after picture while all she was doing was participating in the broader pop culture.
She Kept Moving
After Bangerz, Miley moved on: in 2015, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz was released. It was deliberately difficult to place beside the polished pop machinery that produced Bangerz. Two years later came Younger Me in 2017.
There was blonde hair again, country influences, denim, softer visuals, and a sunnier version of Miley. It almost felt like the culture had spent years trying to call her back, and she returned only to leave again, of course!
With The Plastic Hearts in 2020, Miley leaned into rock, glam and the legacy of artists she admired, working with Billy Idol, Joan Jett and Stevie Nicks. This was again a new Miley, except that perhaps by this point it was obvious that there was no final Miley.
Somehow We Are Still Watching
This is where the “Miley” story becomes more interesting than a “pop-star reinvention” tale because, despite everything- every controversy and meme, haircuts and the changing genres- people never stopped watching her.
Miley’s achievements started piling up under all the noise, with the Grammys she won.
Flowers, released in 2023, became her second Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 while Endless Summer Vacation debuted at No. 3 on Billboard 200. At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Millet won her two Grammys: Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Flowers”.
The moment was surreal because for years Miley had been famous enough to feel like she had won everything, but she had not; the Grammy Awards made official something that the audience had known perhaps: Miley was not just a former Disney star who had escaped childhood fame but a winning pop star.
Then We Grew Up
Perhaps the most important change in the Miley Cyrus story was not just Miley but us. The children who watched Hannah Montana in 2006 were adults by the time its 20th anniversary happened in 2026.
Disney knew exactly what it meant. The Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special premiered on Disney+ on March 24, two decades after the original series debuted. Hosted by Alex Cooper, the special included conversations with Miley, archival material, recreated elements of the show and Miley’s performance ending with “Younger You”, the first new Hannah song in 16 years.
Suddenly nostalgia was everywhere, but it was different now. We were no longer kids, but we remembered ourselves watching Hannah Montana as kids.
Then, Did We Get Bored?
This is the most uncomfortable bit because Miley’s constant reinvention was once the spectacle which became an expectation: another album, another look, another sound, and another Miley, but at some point perhaps the shock element wore off.
This was not because Miley was less interesting but because we became accustomed to her being interesting. The woman who once absolutely shocked the internet by changing her image spent so long changing her image that change itself became the brand, perhaps.
Now She Is Just MILEY
In 2026, after the nostalgia of Hannah Montana’s 20th anniversary, after the Grammys, after the Disney Legends honour, Miley has entered another chapter. This feels less interested in explaining itself.
She is now professionally presented as Miley, and her new album Bass Persuades, with the title track serving as the lead, is creating a commercial buzz. She has also announced Hollywood Bowl shows for October, which already appear to be sold out.
Everything aside, there is something ironic about the name change. Miley Cyrus had to constantly add something since the start: Hannah, rock, pop, rebellion, Flowers; but now she is subtracting which is why Miley feels like a reinvention itself. She is not becoming someone new.
The strange thing about Miley Cyrus is that we spent years demanding that she find herself, and every time she did, we demanded something else. Perhaps we never actually watched Miley reinvent herself, but we were perhaps watching a person become comfortable enough with being unfinished, and perhaps that is the reason why Hannah Montana hit us so hard in 2026. It was not just Hannah being back, but realising how long we have been here. Now, it is just Miley and for once that might be enough.
Listen to Bass Persuades on Spotify.
Also Read:
