Hannah Montana

If you're a pop culture junkie who's not following the show yet, we're recommending you fix that right now by following Pop Culture Happy Hour on your favorite podcast app. Now, onto the show.

“This year marks 20 years since Hannah Montana premiered on the Disney channel, the show made a global phenomenon of Star Miley Cyrus and her Pop Star alter ego.”

It's been streamed millions of hours since going off the air and influenced the next generation of pop stars like Chapel Rome. I'm Steven Thompson and today we are talking about Hannah Montana on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining us today is NPR Music Reporter, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, Hey Isabella. Howdy. Glad to have you, also with us is the former host of Slates Internet Culture Podcast ICYMI and former Pop Culture Happy Hour producer, Candace Lim Hacendus. Hello.

Oh, great to have you back, buddy. Alright, for those of you who have not seen Hannah Montana, it was a TV sitcom about a girl named Miley Stewart. Humble teenager by day, massive pop star by night, Miley Stewart was played of course by a young Miley Cyrus who starred alongside her country singer Father Billy Ray Cyrus. As the show went

“along, Miley's double-life group more complicated as more of her friends discovered her secret.”

But her best friend Lily played by Emily Osmond finds out in the very first episode.

Hey, I have a lucky bracelet just like that. I learned it's my best friend yesterday. Of course, mine says Lily on the back. Just like that. Hannah Montana spawned a feature film, best selling albums, and so much merchandise. And it laid the groundwork for Miley Cyrus's own superstar career, which required her to pivot away from kid-friendly pop. In the Hannah Montana 20th anniversary special, which recently dropped on Disney plus,

Miley Cyrus revisits the Hannah Montana set, where she's interviewed by Podcastor Alex Cooper, and visited by fellow pop stars Selena Gomez, who knows a little something about life as a Disney channel star, and Chapel Roan. So we figured it's a good time to look back on 20 years of Hannah Montana. Candace Lim, I know you'd be someone with a more than passing interest in this subject. Give me your big picture thoughts on Hannah Montana and what that whole phenomenon

has meant to you. Well, first off, "Hode Down Throw Down" is my mobile bomba, okay? I hear it today.

I hear it in 2080. We're dancing. Hannah Montana was everything to me. You know, it was the first episode of TV I ever bought on like my iTunes, I booked G4. I remember being obsessed with it immediately, because it came out around the same time, like we first got Wi-Fi at home, and so there was something very 360 about it, where I think Hannah Montana Miley Cyrus was the first full-blown pair of social celebrity

relationship I ever had. I sent her fan mail, I was like on MileyWorld.com. Part of my lore is that I was catfish on MileyWorld.com. We saved that for plus. We saved that for plus. It was the situation of like, you know, you watched the episode on TV, you go to school, you talk about it. You listen to radio Disney on the way home, you go online, you play all of her treasure hunt on Disney Channel.com. It was so easy to kind of be obsessed with this world, but I also think

part of that is just the fact that part of the intrigue around her is that everyone wants to know

“more about the pop star and who they are underneath. Well, that's Miley Stewart. That's what the”

show is about. And then one layer under that we have Miley Cyrus, who I think was and is a perfect celebrity. I think one thing I gained from this special is that she's so funny. I forget that Miley Cyrus is so fun. Art agree. I did something really gnarly. My favorite thing to get at pandas for us was the White Rice and Poor Diet Coke on top of that. Instead of soy sauce and good Diet Coke. It's a whole thing. She's a comedian. Hannah Montana is everything. Hannah Montana

is forever. And I am Hannah Montana. I'm not. Could I? Okay. How about you, Lisa? I grew up watching Hannah Montana. Definitely very formative. I think she, I mean, this was the whole point of the show, right? She was my first relatable pop diva. But at the same time, it was like you could be her. I think she made millions of little girls think that they too were destined for Disney Channel original series. Yeah. Greatest, which is something that I've recently heard like one

of my current favorite pop stars Audrey Hobart talk about like you would watch Hannah Montana and be like that's supposed to be me. She gave all of us main character syndrome. And she's just so hilarious.

Like I think it's inspired me to have 20 years of like always rooting for Miley. Even when

Interesting. It's also interesting that this show does map over American idol somewhat?

“True. Yes, true. You know, so the American idol had been around for a few seasons by that”

point, but was still a very, very big deal. It does feel like it kind of piles onto that phenomenon of watching pop start-up play out in a way that feels aspirational to kind of answer my own question in terms of like, where do I fit in to Hannah Montana? Please tell us. Not at all. It's the answer. It premiered in March of 2006. I was just about to start working at NPR. NPR at that time did not cover big mainstream pop phenomena as much. And so for me like I didn't

really like fully tap into it as a phenomenon kind of until Miley Cyrus started banking like major pop hits. And like appearing on awards shows. And what struck me was seeing her come on stages at 13, 14, 15 years old and seeming like she's 30. You know, kind of just in her way of speaking. Not only did she have that comic timing that you two are talking about, but she also just had this uncanny poise. And clearly kind of the uncanny poise of somebody who grew up kind of as a

child star who is very smart. So it's been fascinating to go back and actually start watching this show

in preparation for this episode for the first time in my life and kind of go back and see what the

fuss is about. And and to also realize that to this day, Miley Cyrus currently 33 years old. She's a baby and it feels like she's been around since I was kid and I don't understand how time works at all. Like when you go back and revisit the show now. Because my impression of the show as somebody who did not grow up with it and did not watch it when it came out 20 years ago is I'm watching it and I'm like, when is this from? You watch the pilot. It's 20 years old. It's

2006. That is a grand scheme of things. It's not that long ago, but that pilot feels very 80s and early 90s coded. I mean, that aspect ratio. Yeah. But when you go back and revisit it, what do

you think? Yeah, it's really funny because I've never had this thought before, but when I was

rewatching the pilot in the first season recently, why was I like, Miley and Emily are so Jerry Seinfeld George Costanza coded? I genuinely want there. Where I was kind of like, you know, Miley's kind of like the sane one, Emily's little crazy cramers, the Mitchell Mousseau and I was like, okay, we're forming something here. All over Oken and May I say you two are smoking in your dreams. I'm counting on that. But I think the whole thing about this era of Disney

Channel Nickelodeon is that I remember kind of thinking of Nickelodeon as like the edge of your girls. This is your victorious, like Carly. They're kind of like the artsy ones. And Disney channel is still family friendly. I think what's really funny about 2006 is that, you know, Hannah Montana premieres in March. Months prior. Another small property called High School Musical came out and I think the success of most of my favorite preteen shows predicate on this premise of what if like you were

“kid without adult supervision who got to have like an adult. What would you do? And that's what”

the premise of Icarlias, that's what like Victoria says, that's what Hannah Montana is. And the funny thing about Hannah Montana is a concept is like, so half of the day she is like at school and she's not even cool. You know what a lot of people don't know is it's also a wonderful moisturizer. Isn't that lovely? moisturizer. You're pretty funny. And then at night, she performs child labor. She's a pop star. And I just kind of remember being like, oh, is this me aspiring to pop

stardom aka work? Okay, interesting. But I think the reason why I like really related to the show and just kind of like the Hannah Montana Myly Cyrus experience is because this is a show about someone who has a double life. This is a show about someone who wakes up every day with a secret that she has to kind of contain within herself. And I related to that. I related to that because the

show came out when I was in third grade when I started to kind of create these personas for myself as

“well, my home life, my school life, and then a third secret thing, the internet. And I think in that”

way, I felt so, so relatable of like, oh, okay, like she is burdened with the same things I am with like there are some things that I, you know, love talking about online that I can't talk about with my friends at school and vice versa. And there are a lot of kids who like go to school with like things they can't talk about that's going on at home. And I think in a weird way, it's kind of like, if school isn't escape from home and home is it like escape from school, is there a third escape

being a pop star? Hannah Montana, there you go. Being a tumbler star, some would say, that's right.

you're always waiting for the sort of like laugh track to come after in such an exaggerated way,

“and I think that that's why this show in particular Hannah Montana has been so memified. Like I”

feel like it's so present in my day-to-day life because it's still how I communicate with my friends, like in the sense of like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, the transition music. Oh, yeah. So many memes that we still refer to to this day come from this show. So I feel like it's never gone anywhere. And that's part of what I think it's really funny that in talking about this special Miley was like, we weren't trying to be ironic. We weren't trying to be funny about it. Like this is Ernest

because I think this is such a campy show. Oh, yeah. And I think it's like there's no escaping sort of the unseriousness of it. And I think Miley Stewart, the character is so awkward that also made her very relatable. And it's like overtly goofy in a way that feels in a stable. Like I still open TikTok and there's Miley references. There's Hannah Montana references left and right. Like

it's she's she's never gone anywhere for me. She's like she's sort of maintained at the top of

pop culture no matter what, which is weird to say for like a random Disney team show that didn't

“air for that long in the context of things. Yeah. And I think like it's funny because I actually”

will say there's a part of the special that really surprised me, which is when Miley is with her real-life father, Billy Reciors, who I was very surprised signed up for this because I thought they were not on talking terms. No shocker. I was like he's here. And they kind of alluded to like good things are better when the cyruses are getting along. Yeah. I think when me and my dad are good people, they feel better. It just feels good when the cyruses are getting along.

Miley and Billy Reciors, they sit down on set at the table and they read a scene from like an episode they actually did. And I will just speak for myself. I find those lines a bit corny, but Billy Reciors, very honestly, he's like, ah, that was a funny line and I'm like, oh my god. Okay. The only one who can tell you that is, oh no. Please don't say listen to my heart. Or am I kidding or am I spleen or any other vital organ? That's my favorite one. That's got a good

she's so endearing. That was my big takeaway watching this is like, I still love her. She's so

“goofy and just like, we talk so much about authenticity when it comes to our pop stars. And I think”

it's so funny that like, Miley became a pop star by playing a literally manufactured pop star. And yet she feels authentic in a way. I think a lot of celebrities don't. The way that she likes sort of, I don't know, exist in those fragmented layers of her career. And the way that she's just like unapologetically herself, I find really fascinating. Well, I think there's something very interesting about Miley Cyrus's career that kind of lives right alongside the legacy of this show,

which is that in many ways, like, she is a meta celebrity. She's a meta pop star. She became first. She was kind of second hand famous because I remember when the show started. It was like, wow, that's Billy Ray Cyrus's daughter acting with Billy Ray Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus. It had an Apple baby. Right. And Billy Ray Cyrus had that achy breaky heart single in the early 90s. And so that was kind of my first awareness of the show. But then like, Miley Cyrus became

famous as Miley Stewart, Hannah Montana, and Miley Cyrus. And so she has always kind of juggled

these three personas. But then you had in the aftermath of this show, Miley Cyrus taking this pivot. I mean, this is such a cliche to say, but like, quote, unquote, grew up before our eyes. But that included these kind of awkward moments where she became sort of a tabloid fixation. She was twerking at the VMAs. There was sort of this, what is become of our sweet innocent baby. You know, it's like, all that weird crap around young women pop stars. Like, there's a moment in the special

where she's talking to Chapel Roan and Chapel Roan says like, you walk so I could run. You literally walk so I could run. Like, what I do on stage where I can like go on a red carpet and just be always gagged of that love. But that's because like, you took a lot of the heat for that in 2012, 2013. Like, that means a lot. Like, I don't have to deal with that as much. You made it possible for me to navigate this world more easily. And like, in a way, she's talking about Miley Stewart

Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus. And I think like the fact that Miley Cyrus has managed to maintain any kind of sense of authentic personhood, you know, let alone have like a distinct sense of humor and like a playfulness and just like humanity to her is just a testament. No, it's insane. She was releasing music as Hannah Montana and releasing music as Miley at the same time. That sounded different. Like, there was distinct sounds to both of those. And I think that was one of the

fascinating things about the special was like, when she's with her mom sort of being like, oh,

imagine being 14 and a being a pop star, being like three different pop stars at the same time.

“It was, it's kind of nuts. And I thought the Chapel stuff was interesting because I think Chapel Roan”

is another pop star that we're constantly sort of having these public conversations or she's constantly in the midst of this public discourse about like what do celebrities owe us and how much access to celebrities are we allowed to have. I do think it's like in some in so many ways we've come so far and I can can't help to a lot of these pop stars sort of, I think Miley helped a lot of these pop stars develop more of a divide between their personal and professional images. But it also

just shows you how much further we still have to go in that regard, I think. Yeah, I love what you're saying because like that is essentially the conceit of Hannah Montana the show. It is asking this question like, hey guys, Britney Spears happened. What if there was a way to kind of divide yourself into fulfilling all of your dreams and being normal and a way of grounding you? That is the premise of the show and in a weird way by creating not two but three personas,

it almost all compounded upon Miley Cyrus the entity to this point where she almost had to deal with three celebrities, three images, three personas at the same time and albums constantly. And that is why I genuinely was shocked that Miley signed on to do this like anniversary special thing and to do it with such fondness for Hannah Montana because here's a thing. In the past like

“two, four years I think we have seen and heard about a lot of child stars coming out and saying like,”

hey, my experiences on Nickelodeon shows, my experiences just being in Hollywood. We're not, but they seem to be here's my story. This isn't at McCurdy. This is quite on set with Miley and with

Hannah Montana. I always assume that she had a bit of a tricky relationship with Hannah Montana

because of two things. Number one, Hannah Montana catapulted her to this enormous fame that obviously came with a lot of great things but it also came with a lot of controversies with all that said, I love to say Miley Cyrus is the Nick Jonas of her family, but she knows she carries. This entire project of Hannah Montana was such a family affair. Her dad is in the show. Her mom is actually extremely integral into the behind-the-scenes machinations of her as a celebrity. Also,

I just remember at the time knowing so much about Miley's siblings, I know that one of her brothers was engaged a Brenda song like of Metro Station Shakeett fame. Also, multiple bangers across the culture thanks to the Cyrus family at this time. Shout it to Brandy Cyrus too. Exactly. Right, and that's the thing of just like, it almost reminds me of the Kardashians, but just specifically anyone who enters reality TV and tries to make an entire family business out of it, I'm kind of like,

oh, like, she was the CEO. Damn. You know, but I do think like Candice earlier, you were talking about how so many of the shows of this era on both Disney and Nickelodeon, there's no parents around. And I do think the one difference is like so much of Hannah Montana is about Miley's relationship with her dad. Billy Ray is such an integral character and part of that show. And I think also that that has translated to like there was more. She was part of a family

package in a way all of these other celebrities really weren't. And that I think sets the show apart and I think it also kind of sets her apart as a celebrity of what she was doing and how that was reflected by her family and the public eye. I think which is an interesting to read interviews where she says like her mom was on board with like all of these things that she was doing and

she always had her mom's support. She didn't feel like she was the breadwinner for her family. She

felt like it was like her parents sort of made her feel protected from that burden, I guess. I just keep coming back to trying to navigate that many different personas while also navigating

“your very complicated family dynamics. And at the same time, your presentation, what you have to”

present to the world is literally represented in a song called Best of Both Worlds. She has been kind of in this push-and-pull relationship with this show for so many years where she kind of had to pivot away from what her presence on this show represented to now at this stage of her career where it feels very much like she is at some kind of fork in the road, right? Like her last album was not very successful. And she must be thinking like, "Am is this the Katy Perry cliff

that I'm suddenly staring at? Like what do I do next?" Because that album something beautiful didn't really take off her song in the avatar movie didn't even get nominated for an Oscar. You know all these things that I think were expected of her in the last couple years that haven't really materialized. She's in this interesting spot, but I'm just I every time I kind of take a snapshot in time of Miley Cyrus's career. I'm like, "Oh god, that sounds so complicated. I

wouldn't want any part of that." Well, I feel like Hannah has been a shadow sort of looming over

number of ways. Like I feel like every few years, you know, she had the bangers era. She had her sort of like flaming lips, era, which is my personal favorite with the Miley Cyrus and her

dad pets. And she always kind of comes back to a more conventional pop sound. Obviously did very

“well with flowers. But I think it is cool to see her sort of return to Hannah in this way and”

sort of embrace. I mean, even the whole thing, which, you know, part of it's kind of a stick for the special, but like she's not wearing a wig. She like died her hair blonde. And like, I think it seems like she's sort of finally facing it in a way that like much of her career seems to imply she's running from it. And yeah, I'm fascinated to see what she does next because she is at her crossroads. Like she's been one of the biggest celebrities for 20 years and she's only 33 years old. I can't

imagine who the kind of like existential crisis that that might raise. Yeah, no, Steven is so funny

“because you say that she is at, you know, an interesting place, a Katy Perry S. Cliff. I don't know”

why, but I really feel like she's on the elevator to success. I like to meet. She's always winning.

That's right. Just jail. She's never back down. But the thing is something I noticed in the special is that, you know, she does this like, she does this like Taylor Swift re-recording 1989 thing where she sings this is the life and all these other songs from the show. And I could not help but think, oh, she is holding back. Like, we know her range. We've heard the climb. We've heard, you know, flowers. We know how far she can go. But it really shows that her talent has grown so much at

her music, how he has grown so much. At the end of the day, like, I'm like, you, I'm like, I will

always root for my Lee, my Lee stand number one. She throws arrows in a lot of directions. I don't

think they always land, but she's undeniably talented and charismatic. When she manages to find her

“lane, she's got the sauce that's needed to make it work. I think it's just sort of like, what's the next”

line? That's the question for me. I have one final question. It's very important. I have absolutely no dog in this fight whatsoever, but you are both Hannah Montana heads, Jesse or Jake. Okay, so here's my take on it. Let me be clear. Let me be clear, Jesse. Jesse, I mean, the question I actually thought you were going to ask, Stephen, is what is our favorite Hannah Montana slash Miley Cyrus song of all time? How are we going to be bonus? Bonus content, love it. All right,

Hannah Montana, I have to say, I'm a huge nobody's perfect girl. Same. I did love he could be the one, and then on the Miley Cyrus side, the song that will always get me see you again. Dude, me too, all you're for you, nobody's perfect see you again. That's right, that's right. Play it, let's go. That brings us to the end of our show. Isabella Gomez, Armiento, Candace Lim, thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much.

This episode was produced by Liz Metzker and Mike Katzif, an edited by our showrunner, Jessica Readie. Hello, come in, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR, and if you're not already following the show, do that right now. I'm Stephen Thompson. We will see you all next time.