August 2013 was a weird time for the internet. If you were around, you definitely remember the morning after the MTV Video Music Awards. Every single news outlet—from local papers to CNN—wasn't talking about the awards. They were talking about a 20-year-old girl in a nude-colored latex bikini and a giant foam finger.
Miley Cyrus and twerking basically broke the cultural Richter scale that night.
Honestly, it’s hard to overstate how much that one performance changed the trajectory of her career. One minute she was the ghost of Hannah Montana, and the next, she was the face of a global controversy about race, sexuality, and "good girls" gone rogue. But if you look back at it now, through the lens of 2026, the whole thing looks a lot more calculated—and complicated—than we realized at the time.
The Performance That Launched a Million Think Pieces
Let’s set the scene. Miley didn’t just walk out and dance. She emerged from a giant mechanical teddy bear. She had her tongue out in a way that launched ten thousand memes. When she started grinding against Robin Thicke during "Blurred Lines," the collective gasp from the audience was almost audible through the TV screen.
People lost their minds.
The Parents Television Council went into full meltdown mode. Critics called it a "train wreck." But for Miley, it wasn't a mistake. She later told MTV News that she and Thicke knew they were about to "make history." They wanted that shock. They wanted the world to stop spinning for a second.
It wasn't just about the dance moves
The real heat didn't come from the suggestive dancing itself—pop stars have been doing that since Madonna crawled across the stage in a wedding dress. The real fire was about cultural appropriation.
Twerking wasn't new. Not even close.
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It had been a staple of the New Orleans bounce music scene since the late '80s and early '90s. Artists like DJ Jubilee and Big Freedia were the architects of this movement long before Miley ever stepped foot in a dance studio. When Miley brought it to the VMA stage, she was accused of using Black culture as a "prop" to shed her Disney image. She had Black backup dancers behind her, but the spotlight was firmly on her.
Critics like Jagger Blaec and others pointed out that Miley was essentially "playing dress-up" with a culture she didn't belong to. It felt like she was using the "edginess" of hip-hop to prove she wasn't a kid anymore, only to discard it a few years later when she pivoted back to country-pop with her Malibu era.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Twerk
There's this weird myth that Miley "invented" or "discovered" twerking.
Google searches for "what is twerking" hit an all-time high in 2013, and the Oxford Dictionary even added the word that same year, citing her influence. But the reality is that the Black community had been doing this for decades.
- 1993: DJ Jubilee records "Do the Jubilee All," which is widely considered the first recorded use of the word "twerk."
- Early 2000s: The Ying Yang Twins bring the term to the Billboard charts with "Whistle While You Twurk."
- 2005: Beyoncé (yes, even Queen Bey) uses the word in "Check on It."
By the time Miley did it, she was the one mainstreaming a movement that was already deeply established. Lizzo actually did a TED Talk about this years later, explaining how the "erasure of Blackness" happens when white pop stars take these moves and turn them into a "wild phase" or a joke.
Miley actually thanked Lizzo for that talk. It was a rare moment of reflection for a star who, for a long time, seemed to shrug off the criticism by saying people were "overthinking" it.
The Bangerz Era: A Malfunction or a Masterpiece?
Looking back, Miley's Bangerz era was a chaotic, high-energy, and arguably brilliant piece of marketing. She teamed up with Mike WiLL Made-It and embraced a sound that was lightyears away from "Party in the U.S.A."
She was trying to find herself.
In 2024, Miley looked back on those years and jokingly called them a "malfunction." She told an audience that she wasn't created in a lab, but if she was, there was a bug in the system between 2013 and 2016. It’s a funny way to frame it, but it also shows a bit of a disconnect from the people who felt her "malfunction" was actually a disrespectful use of their culture.
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The transition was jarring:
- The Unicorn Video: In March 2013, she posted a video of herself twerking in a unicorn onesie. It was goofy and went viral instantly.
- "We Can't Stop": The music video featured gold grills, taxidermy, and plenty of ass-shaking.
- The VMAs: The final nail in the Hannah Montana coffin.
She succeeded in her goal. Nobody saw her as a Disney kid anymore. But the cost was becoming a lightning rod for some of the most intense racial and social debates of the decade.
Why It Still Matters in 2026
We’re still talking about this because it was the blueprint for the "problematic" pop star pivot. We see it everywhere now—artists adopting "urban" aesthetics to get street cred, only to "go back to their roots" when the controversy gets too loud.
Miley's journey taught us a lot about the double standards in Hollywood. When Miley twerked, she was "wild" and "rebellious." When Black women do the same dance, they are often labeled with far more negative, systemic stereotypes. That's the privilege Miley had; she could take the costume off.
What can we learn from the fallout?
If you're looking at this as a fan or a student of pop culture, the takeaway isn't that Miley is a villain. It’s that culture moves in cycles, and the "shock value" of 2013 wouldn't fly the same way today. In 2026, the internet moves too fast, and the "Notes app apology" is expected within minutes, not years.
Actionable Insights for Navigating Pop Culture Trends:
- Do your homework: If a "new" trend pops up on TikTok or at an awards show, look for the creators who were doing it ten years ago. They usually aren't the ones getting the sponsorships.
- Acknowledge the source: Influence isn't theft if you give credit. Miley’s biggest mistake wasn’t the dancing; it was the lack of acknowledgment for the New Orleans artists who built the foundation.
- Watch the pivot: Be skeptical when an artist uses a specific culture as an "edgy phase" before returning to a "cleaner" image. It usually says more about the industry's marketing tactics than the artist's personal growth.
Miley has since grown into a Grammy-winning powerhouse with "Flowers," showing she has the vocal chops to stay relevant without the foam finger. She's at peace with her past, but the "twerk seen 'round the world" remains a permanent, messy, and fascinating chapter in the history of fame.
Check out the original "We Can't Stop" video again if you want a trip down memory lane. Just remember that the dancers in the background are the ones who actually knew what they were doing.
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To really understand the roots of the movement, look up the history of New Orleans Bounce music and artists like Big Freedia or Choppa. Seeing the dance in its original context of community block parties and second-line parades gives you a much better perspective than the 2013 VMA stage ever could.
The conversation about who owns culture is never really over; it just changes shape. By looking at the Miley era for what it was—a mix of teenage rebellion, savvy marketing, and cultural borrowing—we can better understand the stars of today.