Nation at Odds? Miley's 'Party' to the Rescue

At heart, Miley Cyrus is a “peace broker: She loves trying to get seemingly irreconcilable forces to hug, or at least sit together at the same lunch table.” Her most recent career milestone—“Party in the USA” became her highest-charting single ever—takes this role to a new level, making it clear that “she wants to heal a fractured nation, at least for three and a half minutes,” writes Jonah Weiner for Slate.

The apparently autobiographical song is “a classic fish-out-of-water tale” that brings together Cyrus’ Dixie roots and LA’s “big-city pretenses.” It “isn't a mere single so much as a red state/blue state, hick/elite, rural/urban détente. Pop bliss eradicates regionalism,” Weiner continues. “'Party in the USA’ pairs a familiar notion—music brings us together—with a more timely concern.” And for Cyrus, it’s also “the best song of her career and the first that truly deserves its ubiquity.” (More Miley Cyrus stories.)