Europe Only Release from Miley Cyrus

Who Owns My Heart is a Europe only release from Miley Cyrus. What insight can this song give us into American perceptions of European music, what does it say about American musicians, and most importantly, is it any good?

There's two sides to this track - the song and the video. Both have been aimed primarily at European charts (think UK, Germany and Eastern Europe). The video continues the sexier side we're seeing of Miley Cyrus with a few of the standard lesbian hints (a little bit of girl on girl grinding, nothing spectacular), and features locations that look more in place in perfume adverts than music videos. However, with bedroom scenes lifted straight from Cheryl Cole's recent videos, and club dancing seen in Cascada's work, this isn't exactly original.

Half the outfits are little more contemporary than american music videos usually go for (ignore Gaga and Rihanna, they're aiming at Europe on a regular basis), and I guess this confirms the American perception that Europe is a little more open when it comes to fashion, both day to day and in featuring regular artists wearing couture items in videos. Nothing ground breaking, and a token gesture really, but it all counts.

When it comes to music, it's usually fairly easy to identify tracks intended for either american or european markets - the european charts are generally a lot quicker and are more dancey (remember the legal drinking age is 3 years higher in america, so the people that drive the chart sales (16-25) aren't listening to poppy dance tracks when they go out to clubs like they do here). So it's fairly obvious this song was going to be a little faster and more dance oriented (think synths) than a normal Miley release. With lyrics that remain ambiguous and vague, and rising tones to the chorus, this is typical dance music that the aforementioned Cascada would be proud of. 

So a valid effort at replicating european charts, but bringing nothing new to the table? Yes. Apart from one thing, which although seemingly too obvious to note, does have an effect - this is Miley Cyrus doing club music. Her voice is a little deeper and more sultry than most of the artists in this genre and gives the song it's uniqueness. Combined with a few flourishes that make Miley sound like Miley in all her songs, this track manages to sound just slightly different to what we've already got. Commendable, but let's face it, no one's gonna care about any of this when they hear it