Few reports and social commentators took issue with Sinead O’Connor’s open letter to Miley Cyrus. Because most–vocal bloggers, not music buyers–agreed with O’Connor’s sentiment, it was easy to assume it was genuine and without an ulterior, attention-driven motivation.
O’Connor made that altruism easier to question Friday by looping another pair of celebrities into her rant. With Cyrus’ racy new image and “Wrecking Ball” video already on her radar, she turned her attention to Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh, the early faces of franchises like “Idol” and “The X Factor.”
“I feel sorry for the murder of music and rock ‘n’ roll, which has happened because of the industry,” she told host Ryan Tubridy during an interview with Ireland’s The Late Late Show. “Because of Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh – they’ve murdered music. I stand to say it on behalf of every musician in the world and they’ll agree with me.”
She added that competitions like those judged by Cowell and Walsh reflect the music industry’s growing commercial influence over art and, ultimately, lead to the “murder of music.”
“The industry has taken over so much, the money-making side of it, the sexualising of extremely young people making records, and all the worship with money and bling and diamonds, all the Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh – it all amounts to the murder of music and that’s what concerns me,” said O’Connor.
Naturally, O’Connor’s discussion on the show turned to the Miley Cyrus controversy.
“I’m not dismissing the records, they are great records,” said O’Connor. “I’m asking whether it’s appropriate for 20-year-old women to lick sledgehammers for videos in songs which have no lyrical reference to any such thing in them. It’s an exploitation of someone too young to understand the dangers.”
Though she does not believe Cyrus did it maliciously, O’Connor also ripped the former “Hannah Montana”‘s decision to compare O’Connor to media punching bag Amanda Bynes in a response to the letter.
“I thought it was a nasty thing to do. She had nothing to do with the conversation and also the poor girl is in hospital receiving treatment for the very illness she’s being knocked for having,” said O’Connor of the Tweet, which saw Miley attach the caption, “Before Amanda Bynes…. There was….” to a screenshot of an alarming Twitter rant attributed (but reportedly incorrectly) to O’Connor.
Cyrus, who also posted a screenshot of a 1992 “Saturday Night Live” episode, in which O’Connor infamously ripped a picture of the pope, later replied, “Sinead. I don’t have time to write you an open letter cause Im hosting & performing on SNL this week…So if youd like to meet up and talk lemme know in your next letter. :).”
