Transition From Child Star To Adult Career Sociology

Caroline Bush
Sociology of Music Term Paper
November 24, 2014
Dr. Lang
The Sociology of Transition from Child Star to Adult Career

The American music industry today is unforgiving. In order to succeed, artists must sacrifice their image, talents, and taste in music. When signing a contract with a record company, they are giving their voice to a business that has the power to make that musician do exactly as they do or say in order to make money.
When a child star begins their journey in the spotlight, they are respected for their talent by a young audience. As this audience grows up, the artist grows as well. In order to keep the attention of this audience, the artist must make changes. These changes often come in appearance, behavior, and

Kids relate to these problems. They find sanctuary in the show because of its relatability. They feel like they know the characters on a personal level and empathize with the characters when they struggle. These child stars may have been a bad influence all along, but because of how they are portrayed on television, the world sees them to be wholesome. So when they wish to change that image to be more mature or to match their true personalities, they receive negative feedback. Childhood celebrities act out to remove this wholesome Disney image

A child star often is only able to capture the attention of their age group and their own gender. If they wish to move up the ladder of success they must look for a solution to this limitation. This is where the rebranding comes in.
When this rebranding came about, it caused uproar among fans, because of the betrayal of a message once conveyed to the fan base on a regular basis through the themes of the Disney Channel show. Kennedy writes in her journal about the Disney star:
Like so many films, television programs, and songs that make up the contemporary tween popular culture landscape, the Hannah Montana franchise often employs the message that it is important to stay “true” to yourself.
So many young people viewed Miley Cyrus and her characters on Disney Channel as one person. When Miley Cyrus moved forward from Disney after the finale of the Hannah Montana series in 2011, and made several changes, many saw this as a betrayal to her true self. Audience members were given mixed signals because the image that Cyrus had once sent to them changed from being wholesome to