Shannon Costello

I lose big time whenever I get stuck on the pop culture questions of Trivial Pursuit.  On the other hand, I work with kids, so it makes some sense to keep in touch with what I can stand.  Sometimes, like with Harry Potter, it is rewarding…other times it is at least entertaining.  This movie belongs in the latter category.

I’m afraid a good chunk of my musical prejudices have fallen by the wayside.  I blame that on Spanish language radio.  Yeah, I’m practicing, but I’m also enjoying it.  So maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised that I liked most of the music in Hannah Montana:  The Movie.

Miley strikes me as genuinely talented as a musician.  She co-writes a lot of her songs, plays the guitar (at least), and sings with control.  Some of the songs had appealing metaphors for life- caterpillars and butterflies, mountains to climb, etc.

On the other hand, she sounds like an adult.  Sometimes I felt sad watching her- was she ever a child?  The filmmakers certainly went out of their way to make her appear like one- she was always dressed very conservatively by today’s standards, clothing designed to elicit parental approval.  But the danger in this film is not the clothing, but Hannah Montana’s positioning as a gateway musician to racier singers.    Christina Aguilera’s “Ven Conmigo” encourages listeners to dance out of control.  Besides the dangerous message the you-tube video I saw of the song is suggestive.  A similar song by Hannah talks about getting crazy and dancing.   I know little about dancing, but to me Hannah’s dancing looks similar in style to Christina Aguilera’s.  Just not suggestive- yet.