TV Tunes: Made For TV Bands That Rocked Our TV Sets Part Two: 1980 to 2009 (page 3)

From the people who brought you The Spice Girls came S Club 7 - (top row) Jon and Bradley, (middle row) Rachel, Paul and Hannah, (bottom row) Jo and Tina

S Club 7 (Miami 7/ S Club 7)  As the 1990s were coming to an end pop music was having a renaissance.  Boy bands such as The Backstreet Boys and N’Sync and pop princess like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera ruled the airwaves.  As a result of this questionable period of music history S Club 7 was born.  Although their time at the top was fleeting and their influence was minimal, S Club 7 was possibly the most successful fake TV band since The Monkees.   However this isn’t much of a shock considering that the Monkees formula was the inspiration for the formation of S Club 7, and unlike the dismal failure of The New Monkees, S Club 7 succeeded.

Formed by Simon Fuller, the man behind 90s pop culture icons The Spice Girls, S Club 7 followed the same basic premise of The Monkees.  The group would consist of seven good looking likeable British kids in their twenties with some musical talent who would play characterized versions of themselves in a light hearted half an hour sit-com and would sing pop songs that would be released to the public as potential hits.  Fuller held auditions for the group in 1997, weeks after being fired by the Spice Girls, which brought out one hundred thousand hopefuls.  Eventually the seven members of S Club 7 were brought together, including unofficial band leader Tina Barrette, sweet Hannah Spearitt, tomboy Jo O’Meara, girlie Rachel Stevens, goofy Bradley McIntosh, and token guys without much distinctive personality Paul Cattermole and Jon Lee.

S Club 7 succeeded to be cool enough to want to hang out with, but not glamerous enough to despise. Also, by splitting the numbers between male and female, S Club offered something for both sexes to crush on

Now the beauty of S Club 7 was that the group was a pop group made up of both guys and girls.  The history of pop music has always been sexually fragmented with the male public disliking the pretty boy pansy male pop stars which their girlfriends swoon over, and while many girls often look up to female pop stars, eventually there is a backlash as female fans become sexually insecure and deem the female pop stars to be rivals and whores.  However, S Club 7 offered members that both male and female audiences would like.  The guys were not arrogant or obnoxious and the girls were not sexually suggestive.  As a result the S Club 7 kids were the kind of people you wanted to hang out with.  Furthermore the group themselves seemed to actually get along, often seen partying and dining together on off times, not to mention the formation of a real life relationship within the group between Hannah and Paul, which would be kept secret until the third season of the show.  It seemed that everybody loved S Club.  They were the group that kids looked up to, teens wanted to hang out with and everybody had crushes on (for the record I sort of fancied Tina.)  The key word to the formula was “likeable” and S Club 7 fit the bill.

Putting twelve songs onto the Billboard charts, S Club 7 were the second most successful TV band in music/television history, only after The Monkees

S Club 7 made their debut on the BBC 1 kid’s sit-com Miami 7 in 1999, which was brought to North America in early 2000 under the retitled S Club 7 in Miami.  The premise was about the kid’s relocation from England to Miami in search for pop success.  An album also followed, which proved to be an immediate success in the UK, but S Club 7 had slower chart success in the US.  Eventually their theme “S Club Party” cracked the charts in the US and for the next two years S Club 7 had repeated chart success.  Another two albums were released, which lead to three other hit singles – “Reach,” “Natural” and “Don’t Stop Movin.”  As ratings grew, more series were ordered and official merchandise began to find its way on the market, including dolls, books and clothing.  A spin off of sorts even aired in the UK.   Based on American Idol, S Club Juniors featured pre-teen contestants battling their way through song to be make up a pint sized version of S Club 7 which would tour with the real band in a 2002 European tour.

Paul left S Club 7 after the third season, changing the band name to simply "S Club"

However, the hectic schedule for S Club 7 would begin  to work against the band.  Although based in the UK, the series was shot in the US making the group subject to never ending jet lag.  Pile on top of that a hectic touring schedule, endless charity work and never ending promotional work the S Club 7 kids began to burn out.  As a result, S Club 7  moved from the US back to European shores for their final season, which would be filmed in Spain.  However, having formed an alternative rock band called Skau, Paul quit S Club 7 after his contract was up and returned to the UK leaving only six members left prior to the filming of the final season.  The group stayed together, calling themselves simply S Club.  But before Paul’s departure the group would face further scrupulation when Paul, Jon and Bradley were picked up by London police for public drunkenness and were found possessing marijuana.  The guys got off with just a warning and issued a public apology, but as a result S Club was dropped by a number of companies that were planning on marketing them.  Yet, despite these set backs the group continued on to do a feature film called Seeing Double, as well as played Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.  Unfortunately tragedy struck again when Jo announced that she was suffering of a back problem that was forcing her into early retirement.  Now with the loss of two members the rest of the members of S Club decided to throw in the towel in 2003 while still on top.

Surprisingly, only five years later, S Club 7 has nearly completely faded from the pop culture radar.  However, the group remains to be the most successful fake TV band since the Monkees with four TV seasons, three world tours, four hit CDs, five top twenty singles and a feature film.

Despite being one of the most successful and likeable TV bands in pop culture history, S Club 7 had a short ride and have slipped into obscurity

So what are the S Club 7 kids doing now?  Well you might be surprised that the majority of the S Club kids are still kicking around.  Although Paul’s band Skau didn’t take off he is still working in music and has a new album coming out in 2009.  Bradley took part in a British reality show called Totally Boyband and was in a celebrity boxing match with Ozzy Osbourne’s son Jack, but currently works as a club DJ in Essex.  Jo was the victim of controversy when she appeared on the UK series Celebrity Big Brother when she was accused of “racially bullying” Indian contestant Shlipa Shetty.  Soon afterwards she went through treatments on her back, and while recovering released a solo album and has another album due in 2009.  Jon turned his attention to the British stage where he gained critical praise for his portrayal of Marius in Les Miserables, and for his performance in a disco themed production called Love Shack.  He will be performing in London’s production of The Sound of Music in 2009.  Hannah has kept acting and is currently a regular cast member on the ITV series Primevil.  Rachel had some chart success after S Club split up, but has since dropped out of site.  However she will be a member of the UK version of Dancing with the Stars in 2009.  As for Tina?  Well Tina has remained the most reclusive and has totally dropped off of the pop culture radar.

But the S Club story doesn’t end here.  Just like the Spice Girls and The New Kids on the Block before them, S Club has partially reunited and are currently on a low key tour in the UK!  Paul, Bradley and Jo have reunited as S Club 3 and are doing a series of university campus and night club gigs throughout England.  Kicking off on November 1^st in Oldham a total of twenty two dates have been planned so far until June 27^th.  Don’t miss your chance to see S Club 7 for maybe the final time!  Get your tickets today!  For more information click here.

"Angel's" flamboyant singing mindreading demon Lorne (aka Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan)

Lorne (aka Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan) (Angel)  Over the decades there have been some pretty scary looking musical moments in the history of TV fake bands.  Singing Bradys, Grant Goodeve’s rendition of the Eight is Enough theme and Kaptain Kool and the Kong’s wardrobe quickly come to mind.  However there was nothing more macabre, yet at the same time so darn entertaining, then Lorne the lounge singing demon from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel. Performed by singer/actor Andy Hallett, Lorne was originally intended to be a humorous character who would slip in and out of the series every now and then for a bit of comedic relief.  However, due to his popularity with cast, writers and fans, Lorne became a regular character on the show, and often acted as both a voice of reason and uplifting presence on what was often a heavy handed and dreary program.  With his green skin, red eyes, horns and flashy leisure suites, Lorne was quick with a joke, the first to offer encouragement and always ready to burst into song…and man that demon could SING!

Lorne first appeared in the opening episode of the second season of Angel as the owner of a unique Los Angeles demonic karaoke bar called Caritas which had a sanctuary spell cast upon it so that nobody could commit any acts of violence on the premises.  Lorne, choosing to be both non-violent and neutral, was the host to both the good and evil forces of Los Angeles which came to Caritas to relax, drink, sing and watch Lorne perform.  Having a love for the disco divas of the late seventies, Lorne’s performances normally include the songs of Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and Olivia Newton John.  However, Lorne offered a much more attractive commodity to his customers then just his golden voice.  Lorne was also a soothsayer of sorts who could read futures and auras while patrons were singing, in which Lorne would give mystic advice.

Originally intended to be a humourour one shot character, Lorne proved popular with the audience, as well as the cast and crew of Angel, and quickly became a member of the main cast

Originally from a demonic dimension called Pylea, Lorne was an outcast amongst his society.  A dimension without art or music, Lorne was an embarrassment to his clan who were made up of barbarians and hunters.  Sort of reminds me of my high school days.  Lorne, on the other hand, was far more sensitive and creative, and although music didn’t exist in his dimension, the strange sounds were floating through his head.  When he sang it deafened his people.  While his clan used their mystical abilities to hunt and conquer, Lorne preferred to use them for more creative endeavors.  Coming across a portal, Lorne was sucked through to modern Los Angeles, where he embraced the culture LA had to offer him.  Compared to Pylea, LA was heaven.  Obviously one man’s hell can be another demon’s paradise.

Angel, Cordelia and Wesley first came to meet Lorne when Angel was seeking answers to his future, which lead to Angel singing a rendition of Barry Manilow’s “Mandy.”  It was all good fun, but as the season progressed Angel and the members of Angel Investigations began to spend more and more time at Caritas seeking help from Lorne who was not always willing to get involved in his desire to stay neutral.

Sadly, actor Andy Hallett, who played Lorne, died shortly after "Angel" was cancelled, at age 33

However, things would change when Caritas came under attack and was decimated by Angel’s arch nemesis Daniel Holtz, forcing Lorne to seek refuge with Angel Investigations.  Moving into Angel’s hotel, Lorne originally acted as both secretary for the agency, as well as eventual babysitter for Angel’s son Conner.  However, by the end of the year Lorne had moved on to make all his dreams come true by setting his sights on Las Vegas and opening his own musical revue.  Setting himself up in a casino Lorne’s show,  featuring dancing girls dressed up as green skinned demons in a hell like dimension, was a huge hit making him a genuine Vegas celebrity.  Obviously, the Vegas tourists thought that Loren’s appearance was all part of an act.  Unfortunately it backfired on Lorne, who was being kept a virtual prisoner by mobsters and being blackmailed into helping them to doom tourists’ souls.  Fortunately for Lorne, Angel, Charles Gunn and Fred Burkle came to his rescue.  Returning to Los Angeles, Lorne stayed with Angel Investigations as a partner, and when Angel made a deal with his rivals, legal firm Wolfman and Hart, to run the company, Lorne was put in charge of the entertainment division, wheeling and dealing with entertainment icons that sold their soul to evil forces in order to become famous.  Obviously Lorne was doing luncheons with Celene Dion.  At first Lorne reveled in the job, but as the job wore on it changed his good natured temperament.  Realizing that he had compromised both his pacifism and his neutral stance, Lorne’s optimism turned to cynicism and his positivity turned to self loathing.  When Fred was killed Lorne decided that he had enough and was going to leave Los Angels behind him forever, but after doing one last favor for Angel – gunning down his long time rival Lindsey down in cold blood.  A broken and defeated Lorne was seeing leaving LA.  Surely his tale was to be continued, but unfortunately Angel was cancelled.

However, fans still remember Lorne not as a discontented demon from his final appearance but the fun and flashy green faced beast that rocked the house with renditions of “I Will Survive” and “Lady Marmalade.”  Also, Lorne is unique by having fans question his sexuality.  While he is shown both flirting with men and women, including Angel who he calls by the nickname “Angelcakes,” his flamboyant personality and wardrobe lean towards him being stereotypically gay.  However, as Lorne says in one episode, he loves all humans, keeping him sexually ambiguous.  Perhaps that’s why all humans seemed to love Lorne in return.

2ge+her - MTV's parody on the boy band pheomena

2ge+her (2ge+her)  Debuting on the heels of S Club 7, 2ge+her was another product of the 90’s fascination with pop music, especially the oversaturated world of the boy band.  However where 2ge+her differed from S Club 7 is while S Club 7 took itself fairly seriously, 2ge+her was a full out parody of the phenomenon.  Debuting as a TV movie on MTV in 2000, 2ge+her was to boy bands what Spinal Tap was to heavy metal.

2ge+her was made up of consisting of Evan Farmer, Michael Cuccione, Alex Solowitz, Noah Bastian and Kevin Farley

Created by Brian and Mark Gunn, 2ge+her was basically developed with a cookie cutter boy band formula.  When boy band Whoa fires their manager Bob Buss, Bob retaliated by creating the ultimate boy band to rival his former protégés.  He puts together a group consisting of Jerry O’Keefe (the heartthrob – played by Evan Farmer), Jason “Q.T.” McNight (the cute one – played by Michael Cuccione), Mickey Parke (the bad boy – played by Alex Solowitz) and the Linus brothers, Chad and Doug (the cute one and the older brother – played by Noah Bastian and Kevin Farley).  Some of the jokes here were pretty obvious.  Mickey had an uncontrollable temper and was reckless and self destructive, Chad was a naive kid who couldn’t even tie his own shoes and, easily the best of the jokes, was Doug who was literally the “older” brother, being a balding overweight man pushing forty.    The group lived together in a house purchased for them by their record company and each week had humorous antics involving paparazzi, fans, girls, promoters and other music industry types while having the time to sing a new song each week.  Their music also kept with the parody and were novelty tunes that relied on humorous lyrics instead of taking itself seriously.  Yet 2ge+her had some of the best in the industry writing music for them including Viet Renn who worked with N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys and Mandy Moore’s producers Tony Battaglia and Henry Gross.  Furthermore, the series was made under the direction of music video director Nigel Dick who had developed videos for Britney Spears, Radiohead and Guns n’ Roses.

As a result of the high ratings from the TV movie, 2ge+her graduated to a regular series and a soundtrack album was released which had a single hit reach the Billboard Charts called “The Toughest Part of Breaking Up (Is Getting Back Your Stuff).”  2ge+her also became a regular opening act for Britney Spears in her 2000 tour.

2ge+her managed to gain a decent fan following, but never really caught on in a huge way.  Perhaps it was because despite the fact that they were parodying the boy band phenomena, the public’s tolerance for boy bands was growing too thin.  Also, despite being a great concept, the show really wasn’t all that funny.  The characters were a little too cartoonish and the plots and jokes weren’t very subtle.  2ge+her was a good idea, but it just wasn’t executed well enough.

The death of Michael Cuccione days after his 16th birthday marked the end of 2ge+her

Sadly, 2ge+her would be cut short after 23 episodes due to the sudden death of band member Michael Cuccione in January 2001,  only days after his 16^th birthday.  Cuccione had a history of health problems resulting from a childhood battle with cancer.  Respiratory problems during the taping of the second season of 2ge+her lead to a bout with pneumonia which not only prevented from Cuccione from being in the final episodes of the program, but eventually took his life.  His 2ge+her band mates attended his funeral with thousand of mourners, but a musical performance was given by Cuccione’s show business mentor David Hasselhoff, who also gave the services eulogy.  Cuccione’s death was a shocking end to 2ge+her, which ended up just fading away into the mass grave of boy bands that they were spoofing.

Dominic Monaghan as marooned rocker Charlie Pace on the cult series "Lost"

DriveShaft (Lost)  What is it about rock stars and plane crashes.  I swear.  Every time you put a rock star on an airplane you’re just asking for it to crash.  So is it any surprise that their was a rock star on Oceanic Flight 815, the doomed flight that left 71 people and one dog stranded on a strange and mysterious Island on the hit TV series Lost?  Well if they were looking at someone to blame they could just look towards Charlie Pace, one half of one hit wonder rock band DriveShaft.  Quirky, comical and fun, Charlie wasn’t without his own demons though, including a battle with heroin addiction, make up and break ups with Australian single mother Claire and mysterious Island dweller Desmond’s looming prophecies that he was soon going to be a dead rock star.  However, his charm, one liners and sense of fun made Charlie Pace a fan favorite on Lost.

Originally the character of Charlie was to be a much older burnt out 80’s has been rocker, but when Dominic Monaghan, fresh off of The Lord of the Rings trilogy where he portrayed Merry the hobbit, showed up to read for Sawyer, he read the part of the Island’s “bad boy” as a comedic yet tragic character.  Totally wrong for the part, it didn’t stop him from gaining the attentions of the Lost producers, who retooled the part of Charlie to be a young rock n’ roll has been whose life and career were destroyed by heroin.

One hit wonders DriveShaft was based heavily on Oasis

Based  heavily on Oasis’ Gallagher Brothers, flashbacks told the story of Charlie and his older brother Liam’s rise to the top of the charts with their hit song “You All, Everybody,” their descent into drug addiction and their battle with fleeting fame. Having shown musical talents early as a child, Charlie’s mother encouraged him to pursue music by buying him a piano as a boy which started Charlie and Liam to write and perform music.  Their father, however, was not so enthusiastic about the boy’s musical aspirations and wanted them to go into the family trade of butchering.  However, in their early twenties the boys formed DriveShaft, featuring Charlie on bass and Liam on lead vocals and guitar, with band mates Sinjin St. John on lead guitar and Patrick Gleason on drums.  Charlie was the principal song writer, while Liam was the front man.  After a number of years of struggling, Liam managed to land DriveShaft a record deal and DriveShaft released a self titled album in 1999, which saw the release of two singles.  The first single, “Let Me Ride” went no where but the second single, “You All, Everybody” was an international hit.  A North American tour followed, but things were not happy behind the scenes.  Caught up in the destructive rock n’ roll lifestyle Liam began to overindulge on drugs, liquor and women, which found him heavily addicted to heroine.  Charlie, keeping away from the drugs,  attempted to keep things together but communication and comradeship began to breakdown amongst the band as Liam became more and more unhinged and unpredictable.  As a result the group was unable to recapture the same magic as they had for their second studio album “Oil Change” which was a commercial and critical flop.  The band set out on a European tour which would end up being their last.  In a blow up between the Price brothers in Finland, Charlie angrily confronted his brother about his self destructive nature and threatened to throw him out of DriveShaft, with Liam, who had developed “Jim Morrison syndrome”, stated that “he was the band” and that nobody knew who the bassist was. 

Unlike most TV bands, DriveShaft's story was full of drugs, rivalry and failure, making them one of the more realistic examples of the rock n' roll journey to be brought to television

Unfortunately, despite his anti-drug stance, Charlie turned to heroine as solace from the confrontation.  With both Liam and Charlie now dependent on drugs the group began to slip even further in status, even selling out to do an embarrassing diaper commercial which they were fired from as a result of Liam’s bad behavior.  Eventually Liam’s girlfriend had enough and threatened to take their new born daughter and leave if Liam didn’t get help.  Liam moved to Australia in order to enter rehab so that he could start a new life with his girlfriend and child.  However, blowing all his money on drugs and women, in order to get the money that he needed for the trip Liam betrayed his brother one last time by selling his beloved piano that his mother gave to him many Christmas’ ago in which Charlie used to write all of his songs.  Liam and Charlie didn’t talk for years.  However, when Charlie was contacted by another rock band to be their opener for an international tour he flew to Australia to try to convince Liam to reform DriveShaft.  Totally sober and living a peaceful life with his new life with his young family, Liam turned down Charlie’s proposal, but encouraged Charlie to enter the same drug rehabilitation program that he had and offered to help Charlie through it and even fund it.  Charlie refused the help and got on a plane for Los Angeles.  The flight never reached its destination.

Despite being a fan favorite, Charlie died a hero at the end of the third season, sacrifing himself so that his castaway friends could live

During his time on the Island Charlie not only successfully beat his addiction to heroin, despite the fact that there was a stash of heroin on the Island at his disposal, but with his guitar that survived the crash, began to write music again.  Yet civilization would never hear the songs that he wrote on the Island.  Charlie would heroically sacrifice his life by disabling jamming equipment that was blocking distress signals from the castaways on the Island.  Charlie drowned as a result, making him the first dead rock star in TV fake band history.  When the castaways were eventually rescued DriveShaft fans planned to build a memorial on the island for Charlie, but were disheartened when officials would not reveal the location of the island.

As an odd footnote in DriveShaft story, DriveShaft would break the boundaries of Lost and also appeared on another popular ABC TV series, Alias.  “You All, Everybody” was heard by observant fans of both series playing in the background at Eric  Weiss’ birthday party in a fourth season episode.  Not surprisingly both Alias and Lost is produced by J. J. Abrams.  Pretty clever inside joke, which opens the universal boundaries between the shows.

Miley Cyrus, in the duo roles of Hannah Montanna and Miley Stewart, was the key in creating one of the biggest entertainment franchises of the 21st Century

Hannah Montana (Hannah Montana)  Since the 1930s Walt Disney Productions has discovered and cultivated some of the brightest young talents in the history of pop culture. This is never truer then today.  Walt Disney Productions is holding the souls of the pop culture icons of tomorrow under a Faustian contract, and in return is making them the some of the biggest names in the entertainment world.  Easily the biggest and most popular of these kids is singer/actress Miley Cyrus who has been on the top of the pop culture radar since her alter ego Hannah Montana debut in her own TV series on the Disney Channel in the fall of 2006.  In two years Hannah Montana has become one of the most important and marketable entertainment franchises of the decade, and sixteen year old Miley Cyrus has gained the attention of the entire world, turning heads and making headlines everywhere she goes.  Idol to millions of kids, hated by critics, hounded by paparazzi and a guilty pleasure for media buffs, Miley Cyrus is one of the first new superstars of the century, and the Hannah Montana franchise isn’t going away anytime soon.

Inspired by Britney Spears, Hannah Montanna's popularity evenutally eclipsed the troubled pop star

After the success of Disney’s High School Musical in early 2006, the Disney channel turned to Michael Poyres’ to develop a new musical based weekly kid’s sit-com.  Poyres had a potential spin off from the Disney Channel show That’s So Raven, titled Better Days, in the works about a former child star adapting to life in a normal public school.  Poyres retooled his concept to tell the story of a normal high school student who lives “the best of both worlds” by having a secret double life as a pop star.  The reason for the charade was that she could live a normal existence and avoid the claustrophobic entrapment of fans, reporters and paparazzi when not performing, which would also give the writers the plot device of the character trying to keep her true identity a secret.  Originally the show was to be titled The Secret Life of Zoe Stewart, but when rival channel Nickelodeon aired Zoe 101 the title had to be changed.  The producers also played with the name Anna Cabana and Alexis Texas as names for “Zoe’s” pop alias, but finally they settled on the name Hannah Montana.  I mean, it does have a better ring to it.

Casting Miley's real life father, country music has been Billy Ray Cyrus, as Hannah Montanna/Miley Stewart's country singing has been father added a strange sort of grey area between truth and fiction on "Hannah Montanna"

Now came the task to cast the central character.  Pop singers Jordan McCoy and JoJo were both offered the part but both turned the role down.  However, Disney struck gold when twelve year old Miley Cyrus came to audition for the role of Hannah Montana’s best friend Lily.  Stating that Miley had the “everyday relatibility of Hillary Duff and the stage presence of Shania Twain” Disney got Miley to sign the contract in blood.  They even changed the main character’s name to Miley Stewart, and in another strange twist, hired Miley’s real life father, former country superstar Billy Ray Cyrus, who single handedly stunted the progression of popular music in the 1990’s, as her screen father in the role of Robbie Ray Stewart who was also a former country superstar who now manages his daughter’s career and acts as principal song writer.  Suddenly the boundaries between Miley Cyrus’ real life, and the fictional world of Hannah Montana were dissolving.   Hannah Montana debuted in November 2006 and was a smash hit, making Miley Cyrus an overnight sensation.  In fact, by 2008 Hannah Montana achieved the record of being the highest rated program in the history of the Disney Channel.

Filled with a natural charisma, Miley Cyrus is the pop star that you hate to admit that you love

So what is the appeal of Hannah Montana?  The plots are simple, the dialogue is inept, the acting is below standards, the jokes are unfunny and even the music is cardboard and unmemorable.  Yet, despite all of these hits against it, there is a certain star quality and energy that flows from Miley Cyrus that makes Hannah Montana so likeable.  Hannah Montana is like pop culture masturbation.  You feel guilty admiting you like it, but you keep returning to it anyways.  Miley Cyrus is a lesson in personality going a long way.  She isn’t a great singer and she is an even worse actress, but she has a certain charisma that makes her a star.  Despite the banality of Hannah Montana’s songs, her two albums have sold in the millions and the Best of Both World’s concert tour in which Miley sang as both herself and Hannah Montana was the most successful tour of the year, selling stadiums out across North America.  The tour was also turned into a 3-D concert documentary which was released in theatres in 2008, and skyrocketed opening act The Jonas Brothers to fame.  Furthermore, Hannah Montana dolls were the hottest selling toy of Christmas 2007, and were impossible to find in stores.  Trust me.  I know.  I was trying to get one.

Despite facing a backlash in 2008 by the press who has been determined to burn her, Miley Cyrus is still one of show businesses hottest commodities

As of this writing the Hannah Montana franchise is still chugging along strong, with Disney having a committee of eighty people just devoted to the development and perseverance of the franchise and a Hannah Montana movie is slated for 2009. I mean Hannah Montana is big business.  However, one has to wonder how much longer star Miley Cyrus can stand being in the spotlight.  Despite her continuing popularity, Miley has suffered a backlash in 2008 and has been the subject of harassment by the paparazzi, been subject of a much publicized photo scandal which was blown severely out of proportion, and has seemed to be wanting to distance herself from the Hannah Montana character and gaining her own identity back by releasing her own solo album not under the Hannah Montana label .  Titled Breakout, Miley had the chance to choose and write her own songs, and as a result the songs seem to have more substance and the recordings are far stronger.  However, unlike Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus doesn’t have a secret identity to hide behind.  Being Disney’s most bankable star may be taking it’s toll on Miley.  But through all the commotion and scandal Miley Cyrus has proven to be smart, well spoken and despite what the media, who loves to burn their pop princess’, wants you to believe, Miley Cyrus is nothing more then a good kid.  It’ll be interesting to see where the whole Hannah Montana thing is going to go because Miley Cyrus has raw star power and is going to be around for a long time.  Furthermore Hannah Montana will be a franchise that may not live forever, but will be fondly remembered in decades to come by the kids today that tune into her show each week..  It is the memories of today’s kids that create the pop culture journey of tomorrow, and Miley Cyrus is the first bonafide pop culture icon of the 21^st Century.

Note:  This article could not have been possible without the reference of www.fakebands.com, containing information on thousands of fake bands from TV, movies, literature, comic book, cartoons and beyond.  Check it out.  House of fun for anybody interested in the history of pop culture and music.