By The crowd watching Miley Cyrus at Glastonbury Festival this weekend also saw her perform under another name. Wearing a neon lilac wig the singer played 'On a Roll', the original single that her character, pop-singer Ashley O, performs in an episode of Black Mirror season 5.
Cyrus appearing in character was just the latest way in which the episode has come to life beyond the show. Following its release, 'On a Roll' has amassed over 18 million streams on Spotify, 11 million streams on YouTube and is rising in the singles charts in both America and the UK.
It's not unusual for people to seek out the songs that feature in soundtracks of popular TV shows and films, but there's an amusing irony in this instance. In 'Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too', the bubblegum sweet song is meant to be representative of the manufactured pop-stars and over-synthesised music which audiences lap up.
In the episode Ashley hates performing 'On a Roll' and longs to release music with more artistic integrity, working on piano ballads with more personal lyrics when her manager isn't looking.
Comparisons have been drawn with Cyrus herself, who was thrust into the pop music machine at a young age and has been open about the emotional toll that it had on her. When asked whether the world of the music industry portrayed in the episode felt familiar to her, she told the Guardian: "Eerily so … yes. You can see it playing out in the media right now. There’s huge similarities with what we see in pop music today."
Perhaps her choosing to perform the mindless pop number as Ashley O should be taken as a glib wink to the audience, or that Cyrus - a huge fan of the series - wants to bring the episode to the attention of new viewers.
Still, it's a strangely Black Mirror-esque outcome that a song meant to be emblematic of thoughtless songwriting has come to life beyond the episode, despite the context many have seen it in.
It's not the first time the show has proven prescient, with season 2 episode 'The Waldo Moment' featuring a foul-mouthed cartoon who runs for office and, due to the public's dissatisfaction with politicians, ends up leading the country.
'On a Roll' was intended to be a critique of the hollow nature of songwriting in pop and in a sense, it has inadvertently proven just that. Searching for the single on YouTube brings up a tutorial for how to do the dance routine that a young fan memorises in the episode. The video has over 54,000 views.
Perhaps Ashley O going from imagined television character to real mega star will prove to be the most Black Mirror-esque outcome yet.
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