“Bad Karma” by Miley Cyrus (ft. Joan Jett)
Of all the shall we say romantically self-centered songs featured on Plastic Hearts, this is the one in which Miley Cyrus, buttressed by her icon Joan Jett, really lets her hair down. What the artists are doing is recognizing that the lifestyle they live, one in which they go about breaking hearts on the regular, is said to bring about “bad karma”. In other words, the prevailing belief is that the way they treat their lovers will catch up with them eventually. However, what they are basically saying in response is that they do not care. Moreover they “don’t believe in luck”, as in the idea of karma in the first place.
Joan Jett actually teamed up with Miley Cyrus to cover a song called Androgynous back in 2015. They did so for a charitable cause, specifically an NGO Cyrus founded called The Happy Hippie Foundation. And said tune was also featured on the soundtrack of a 2018 documentary about Joan Jett entitled Bad Reputation.
Meanwhile Bad Karma itself came out on 27 November 2020, being a part of Miley Cyrus’s album “Plastic Hearts”. And Cyrus is one of its co-writers, as is Mark Ronson, the track’s co-producer.
According to Miley Joan Jett, a singer from the 1970s, was one of the mental inspirations behind the song, which is why she enlisted her to participate. And her admiration of Jett, who is seen as sort of a feminist music legend, is indeed real. For instance, it was Miley who gave a heartfelt speech when Joan was enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.
The other producers of “Bad Karma” are the Picard Brothers (Maxime and Clément) and Watt.
