Melissa Kacar

Miley Cyrus is the latest member of Spotify's coveted Billions Club , a series which honors some of the highest streamed artists on their platform. As of November 2024, Miley has six songs that surpassed a billion streams on Spotify, which is a rare and impressive accomplishment. These songs were released between 2009 and 2023, which is such a massive span of time for an artist that is still so young. Honestly, these six songs hardly even scratch the surface of her incredible musical legacy. Her extensive catalog is so varied and spans across three different decades. She has reinvented her sound and style countless times, even embodied different characters and personas over the years, but still always found a way to be authentically herself. She started in the industry when she was about fourteen years old and from the very start it was obvious that Miley is a natural born star. Miley has been and always will be one of my favorite artists ever. Looking back on it now, she is the f...

Bangerz is an album that marked a major turning point in Miley Cyrus ' career and the public's perception of her. "I know what I’m doing. I know I’m shocking you," she told Rolling Stone in 2013. While Miley now is known for always reinventing herself and her image with each new album cycle, Bangerz  was the first big transformation she had about a year and a half after Hannah Montana ended. She released it ten years ago to much controversy and backlash as it was such a huge departure from the image of Miley we all knew and loved from Disney Channel. I grew up loving Hannah Montana and have always been a huge fan of Miley through the years, so I do understand the level of shock factor that this music and her promotion of it held at the time. However, I have always thought the outrage surrounding Miley was very harsh and unwarranted. People were so critical of her at the time and for what? I think more people are starting to realize that in hindsight, how unfairly she ...

My favorite rock star forever!  So much of my love for music, fashion, and pop culture as a whole stems from Hannah Montana , and that spark has only grown into a lifelong passion for all of those things. That fact truly cannot be overstated, as Miley Cyrus ' music has been such a big part of my life since I was six years old. She has lived so many lives as an artist since the show premiered in 2006, it has been so special to witness every single one and have her music continue to be such a constant through all of those years. To celebrate two decades since the show premiered feels like honoring the younger versions of ourselves who first fell in love with this world and all of the magic, music, and fantasy within it. This Hannah‑versary is also a reclamation of what has always belonged to her and is a true full‑circle moment amplified by the recent Disney+ special. No one else could have portrayed this character the way she did. Miley didn't just play a fictional pop star; sh...

"Carla's Song" by Harry Styles Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally  is here and it is such an incredible return to one of the defining artists of our time. One undeniable career highlight for Harry is the album's final track, "Carla's Song" . It's hard to even put into words how special this song is. It feels like a celebration of the music that shapes us and the people who enter our lives and change the way we listen, share, and connect. There's something so moving about the way he captures that exchange; how you show someone the songs you love, and they show you theirs, and suddenly your world is bigger because of it. It also feels like a beautiful reflection of the relationship between artist and listener, and the way he understands what his music represents to so many people right now in the moment, and also the ways in which this art will outlive all of us. As a closing track, it's powerful, emotional, and unlike anything I've hear...