On A Roll

Album: released as a single (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • From 2006 to 2011, Miley Cyrus played a pop star named Hannah Montana in the Disney series of the same name. In 2019, she starred in the Black Mirror episode "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" as Ashley O., a glossy pop star with a dark side that is suppressed by her handlers through pills and manipulation. Ashley's big hit is "On A Roll," a song with an empowerment message that belies what's happening behind the scenes.
  • The song was created for the show but released as a single to streaming services with various remixes, credited to Ashley O. A music video was also released, which quickly garnered millions of views on YouTube.
  • Musically, this is a reworking of the 1989 Nine Inch Nails song "Head Like A Hole," an industrial music landmark that rails against exploitation by the privileged class. In "On A Roll," these lyrics:

    Head like a hole
    Black as your soul
    I'd rather die
    Than give you control


    are replaced with:

    Hey, yeah, whoa-ho
    I'm on a roll
    Ridin' so high
    Achieving my goals


    The chorus of:

    Bow down before the one you serve
    You're going to get what you deserve


    becomes:

    I'm stoked on ambition and verve
    I'm gonna get what I deserve


    When Cyrus sang it in Black Mirror, it was strangely familiar to those who knew "Head Like A Hole," creating a strange dissonance. At the end of the episode, a liberated Ashley O performs the real version of "Head Like A Hole," ditching her pink wig and going with lots of black eyeshadow.
  • Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker wrote the lyric; the track was made by the English production trio The Invisible Men, who have worked on the kind of modern pop songs "On A Roll" parodies. Their credits include "Do It Like a Dude" by Jessie J and several UK hits for the pop star Conor Maynard.
  • In the Black Mirror episode, the Ashley Too robot, which contains Ashley's consciousness, explains the meaning of his song: "It's about when dreams come true. You know, I wrote all my early songs in my dreams and recorded them and put them on YouTube. That song's me saying, 'Look how far I came. If I did it, so can you.'"

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