In Defense of Poppery, VII: "The Mae Shi vs. Miley Cyrus' 'See You Again'"

Pop example: The Mae Shi vs. Miley Cyrus’ “See You Again”

What redeems it: “Mae Shi,” or “mei shi” in Chinese, means “it’s okay.” The band’s name is the equivalent of the Hitchhiker’s Guide’s “Don’t Panic” cover – and a good thing, too.

The Mae Shi are an anxiety-producing band for an ex-evangelical. In (what seems to be) their most recent album, “HLLLYH,” they sing on religious themes explicit enough to refer to God directly and remind all of us who did this sort of thing, of the “secular music” purges that used to leave us with nothing but DC Talk and Church of Rhythm in our music collections – minus the Alanis and Counting Crows and Right Said Fred we might have been listening to before (with an exception for Creed and, more recently, Evanescence).

Most of us probably shudder to remember these times. I know I do. I’ve rejected those Christian bands now with almost the same amount of conviction I had when I rejected the secular ones.

So when I heard “HLLLYH,” I was worried that I’d accidentally stumbled back into a Christian music scene I thought I’d left behind. But that anxiety was soon replaced by actual anxiety, because The Mae Shi don’t sound anything like the Christian bands we considered “safe” back in youth group. If you listen closely, they’re actually mocking God, or at least organized religion, or at least Christianity.

“Run to Your Grave” is the closest I’ve heard to a God-mockery song, though I don’t listen to Marilyn Manson, and The Mae Shi bring an admirable sense of humor to the whole thing. They parody the “heaven is our home” theology that comforts Christians who are struggling in “this life” -- but that’s historically kept repressed groups repressed, rather than revolting. (This theology is the “opiate of the masses” Marx was referring to.) They complicate the theology by pointing out (satirically) what's wrong with its focus on the afterlife to the detriment of this one. And their songs never resolve the complication: There's no "homerun Jesus" for The Mae Shi.

The effect of the use of this theology in the parody is to make real Christians nervous, the way other Jews were probably nervous when the sons of Aaron were offering “strange fire” to God: You know something bad is going to happen, but you don’t know what, and you can’t stop yourself from watching.

At the same time, even while they’re singing “turn, burn, soil the flesh; God will do the rest,” the song is really FUN – which just makes you all the more anxious. You’re having fun! You’re worried God will smite you! Fun! Smiting! OMG!

All of this is important context for my defense of The Mae Shi’s singing Miley Cyrus’ teenybopper song “See You Again.”

First of all, the title I give as “pop example” is exactly the title as I downloaded it off the web. The Mae Shi set themselves up from the beginning as antagonists in the “we’re on the side of right” war against Miley Cyrus, the same way their lyrics set them against God in “Run to Your Grave.”

But the lyrics for The Mae Shi’s version of “See You Again” are exactly the same as Miley’s lyrics. This would leave them very little room for satire if the lyrics didn’t satirize themselves simply by being sung by non-teenagers who aren’t named Miley:

“I just kept looking down,
st-st-st-stuttering when you asked me what I'm thinkin' 'bout
Felt like I couldn’t breathe, you asked what’s wrong with me
My best friend Lesley said ‘she’s just bein’ Miley.’”

Of course, “she’s just bein’ Miley” was a silly lyric to begin with; with The Mae Shi singing it, it reaches new heights of ridiculousness. In the original song, you get the impression that Lesley is kind of a jerk. (Who didn't have jerk friends when they were 13?) In The Mae Shi’s version, you see how ridiculous the entire situation is.

The Mae Shi further subvert the song by adding what seems to be characteristic “video game” sounds – think Atari or the tinny tones of Tetris themes, but unspooled into non-melodic one-note-at-a-time frills on top of the punk guitars – and by adding a “breakdown” point in the middle, so popular with indie bands who want to reflect on “what music IS” or “what melody MEANS” or “what people will PUT UP WITH.”

But as with the sense that even their mocking of God is actually an engagement with God that most songs don’t attempt, or don’t manage if they do attempt it, the Miley mockery only works because the original song is catchy-and-stupid. The version of the song as done by The Mae Shi is catchy-and-sarcastic, which lets us all off the hook of needing to feel guilty about liking a stupid Miley Cyrus song.

When I first heard the song on the radio last year, the original, I didn’t know who was singing it, but I was perversely pleased that a song about a thirteen-year-old’s concerns – acting like a mute imbecile in front of her “crush” – existed. Then I found out it was Miley and realized I couldn’t stomach the onus of liking anything by her. I gave up my delight with the song reluctantly.

By externalizing the perversity -- the conflicts inherent in being an indie music fan who appreciates a Miley Cyrus song -- by complicating and satirizing the lyrics and melody, The Mae Shi frees us all (internally) to like the song uncomplicatedly. They’ve already done the work of hating on it, so now we’re free to like it.

If a spoonful of sugar is how to get medicine down, this is the equivalent of adding a bit of salt to your saccharine.

After all, as I always say, if it works for chocolate chip cookies, it should work for Miley.

5 chocolate-chip cookies.