5 Reasons Why Miley Cyrus' VMA Performance Was a Good Thing

Miley Cyrus keeps breaking records. This week, her polarizing, bizarre, what-drugs-is-she-on? performance at the MTV Video Music Awards caused a Twitter avalanche, inspiring more than 300,000 Tweets per minute and upsetting the slightly classier Beyonce as the title holder of most Tweets in a minute in the process. As parents gasped in horror, viewers threw up in their mouths, and everyone from the Teddy Bear Org. to the guy who invented the foam finger got ticked off, Cyrus continued on her quest of world domination. Even her manager, Larry Rudolph (who is no stranger to train wrecks, as Britney Spears' longtime head honcho), called the performance a coup.

Rudolph's right -- at least, if you're not judging the performance in terms of taste or musical talent. Cyrus cemented her status in the VMA performance hall of fame. Keep reading for five reasons why the act the world is deploring actually was a good thing, both for Cyrus and the rest of us.

1. She might actually get adult males interested in her music. Before Cyrus' reinvention as a wannabe rapper, she grew up Disney in her "Hannah Montana" role. Her sexed-up VMA performance that had her in a nude two-piece grinding on Robin Thicke's man bits made straight males actually pay attention to her music.

Sure, it's a cheap and fast trick, but it still got eyeballs glued to the screen.

2. She embodied the individualistic spirit MTV should be championing. Despite its stereotype-perpetuating shows such as Jersey Shore and Buckwild, MTV's origin was based on being a voice for the youth, through groundbreaking videos that touch on political and social issues. While there was nothing outwardly intelligent about Cyrus' performance, the fact she can act a fool and put together the craziest live performance she could envision shows MTV still encourages individuality -- no matter how trashy that may be.

3. She boosted buzz around her latest single with Justin Bieber, "Twerk." Oh-so-coincidentally this week, a new track by Cyrus and Bieber, appropriately called, "Twerk," leaked. The track is super-sexy, at least on Bieber's end, and its leak timing perfectly aligns with the chatter surrounding her. At least Cyrus' business camp is savvy enough to milk that performance while it's still sizzling.

4. She got people complaining about Americans' consumption of news. When Cyrus talk overcame that of, you know, real news such as Syrian strikes, the public was outraged news outlets such as CNN reported on her. News parody site The Onion released a genius article "from" CNN managing editor Meredith Artley about why Cyrus was CNN's top story the day after her performance.

The article's main gist is that the public shapes the news, since in order for news organizations to stay in business, their websites need pageviews -- and Cyrus is more clickable than that boring Syria stuff. Indirectly, Cyrus has inspired people to examine what type of news they value. Isn't is about time you stopped clicking on slideshows of a nearly-naked Cyrus and start clicking on headlines that could actually impact you and your family?

5. Her performance inspired talks about race relations. And, lastly, Cyrus' performance has also pushed the race hot button. Fellow pop superstar Hayley Williams of Paramore said she thought the African-American backup dancers on stage seemed like Cyrus' accessories, and Cyrus' desire to have a "Black sound" for her upcoming Bangerz album has a lot of people scratching their heads about the appropriate way to claim influence from an entire race. Love her or hate her, at least she's gotten people talking about some meaningful stuff.

Do you find anything good about Cyrus' VMA performance? Tell us in the comments.

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