You can't escape the Miley Cyrus hype. Look to your right, and you'll probably see a Miley-centric article as MTL Blog's most popular. The same goes for almost every other website or news source in North America. We all can't stop talking about the sexual, radical, and outrageous new Miley Cyrus who exploded on the scene in 2013. A drastic change from her Hannah Montana persona (look how cute she used to be!), but why is everyone so intrigued?

Not only young folks are obsessed with Miley. CBC Radio One's 'The Current' had an in-depth convo on contervsial pop idols, with Miley as the focus. Matt Lauer interviewd on the Today Show (with hilarious results, see it here). Youths and old alike are obsessed.

Lets be honest, being sexually explicit and crazy on stage is nothing new in the music business. Britney, Xtina, Ke$ha, and many others are among the long list of white girls who go slutty to get attention. Hell, almost every artist sexploits themselves to stir the pot and gain fame (actually talented artists excluded of course). Miley isn't the first pop star to get intimate with inanimate objects, or take racey photos, and yet she is still on everyone's mind.

A difference for Miley is how she went from sweet and innocent Montana-Miley into the supposedly sexually liberated woman she is now. Few make the transition from child star into full fledged celebrity, and Cyrus seems to have made the switch. She only had to become a literal reversal of her former self. A strategic transformation which seems too planned to be a natural progression of just growing up.

In her youth, Miley could be seen as a puppet doll of Disney, but who is to say things have changed? People talk about how 'raw' Miley has become and now walk to the beat of her own drum. A cute idea, but lets face it, Miley is a celebrity pop star, and there are a lot of people who rely on her to remain trendy and rake in the dough. I find it hard to believe Cyrus is simply 'being Miley' as she takes semi-nude photos and twerks on stage. No, it just looks like she has a really good marketing team.

Still, well marketed sex appeal still doesn't explain just why Miley is on everyone's mind. For people under twenty, I wouldn't doubt there is some envy; young girls want to be the sexually free star and boys wanna bang her. Adults have seen this all before, so why the interest?

The only thing I can think of is how Miley, despite her crudeness and staged sexcapades, seems to be a functioning adult. Unlike Britney or her other pop predecessors, Miley didn't marry some guy in Vegas, have an eating disorder, or a drug problem. Sexy stage persona aside, Cyrus interviews intelligently and looks pretty put together. Maybe we're all so intrigued because we're just waiting for Miley to fall hard as we build her up so high. Maybe we envy Miley as well, wishing we could also be simultaneously crazy and put together. Maybe we all just wanna be Miley. God, I really hope not.

Why do you think the public is utterly obsessed with Miley-mania? Is she a talented artist working the music industry to her own needs, or just a corporate puppet? Let us know in the titles below.