How Gossip Helped Propel Miley Cyrus to the Top of the Charts

Mr. Molina, 26, who runs the fan account MileyEdition, said fans in his network were already well-versed in the rumors embedded in “Flowers” before it was released, and had a promo plan to get the word out.

The Smilers, as Ms. Cyrus’s fans are known, have streaming parties, buying parties, and Zoom listening parties. “We even have group chats where we’ll plan what to post and when to post,” he said. 

Fan speculation on everything from her gold dress in the music video to a deeper meaning behind the line “built a home and watched it burn” has spawned weeks worth of headlines, tweets, and TikToks. It led to stories explaining Ms. Cyrus and Mr. Hemsworth’s relationship, and deep-dive analyses into the song’s lyrics. “Flowers” made its debut in number one spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 in January, stayed there for six weeks, and built anticipation for the release of Ms. Cyrus’s new album, “Endless Summer Vacation.” which came out March 10. 

Ms. Cyrus’s team declined to comment. A representative for Mr. Hemsworth didn’t return calls for comment.

Artists have long used their music to tease stories about love and love lost, from Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” to Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours.” Playing with relationship gossip can be risky for female pop stars, who have often been vilified and embarrassed by a tabloid press they can’t control (see Britney Spears). 

In the social media and streaming era, when every replay is counted, this kind of gossip has benefits, says Dana Meyerson, who has worked in publicity for 20 years with artists like The Weeknd and Caroline Polachek. “You could put out an album, and a week later people move onto something else,” she said. “The way to keep them talking is to plant subliminal messages.” 

Taylor Swift has been baiting Swifties for years with Easter egg-filled albums. Beyoncé made headlines for months after singing about relationship struggles on “Lemonade.” In 2021, fans alleged that then-newcomer Olivia Rodrigo was actually dissecting her breakup with

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counterpart Joshua Bassett on her debut LP, “Sour,” leading to a gossip cycle that helped drive the single to No. 1 for eight consecutive weeks and turned Ms. Rodrigo into a mainstream star.

This year, emerging country star Kelsea Ballerini dropped a surprise EP detailing her divorce from fellow country musician Morgan Evans, who also released a song about their split. As tweets and headlines followed their crumbling relationship, the gossip thrust Ms. Ballerini beyond her country circles and into the mainstream, with Page Six write-ups and a confessional interview on the buzzy “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

“Chatter used to be talking to your friends at school,” said Steve Greenberg, founder/CEO of S-Curve Records and longtime music executive. “Now, chatter is millions of people talking to each other online, and having their thoughts read by thousands of millions of people.” This fuels, what Greenberg called, “the relationship song on steroids.”

The hype around “Flowers,” has created a trickle-down effect for other works in its orbit. Interest in “The Last Song,” Ms. Cyrus and Mr. Hemsworth’s first movie together from 2010, shot up by 17.32% in the U.S. the week following the single’s release date, according to entertainment data firm Parrot Analytics, which tracks everything from video consumption to social media engagement. 

The soundtrack for “The Last Song” saw a 9% increase in streams from the week before “Flowers” was released to the week after, according to Luminate Data. Bruno Mars’s “If I Was Your Man” also had a 20% streaming bump in that period.

Bill Werde, the director of Syracuse University’s Bandier music business program and a former editorial director at Billboard, said that along with the rise of so-called stan culture, he began to witness artists crafting personal stories for fans to latch onto, and then releasing music that would further those story lines.

“Everyone had their own story line. It was like a soap opera that never ended, and you had to keep making it interesting,” he said. 

Fans want “immersive experiences,” said Giacomo Negro, a professor of economic sociology and cultural and creative industries at Emory University. The song becomes, as Mr. Negro put it, a “conversational good,” where the surrounding noise gives the song added social value.

For Gabriel Herdy, a 26-year-old who lives in Brazil and has been running @MileyUpdates Twitter page for the past 12 years, unpacking the gossip provides a way to connect with other fans. 

“I think the rumors were a lot of fun, honestly,” he said. “This connection means so much to me…I even got best friends that I can always count on all around the world.”