Miley Cyrus trades twerking for riding naked on wrecking balls and licking sledgehammers

LOS ANGELES – We get to see a lot of Miley Cyrus’s tongue in her new video, and much, much more.

The 20-year-old former Disney darling released the music video Monday for “Wrecking Ball,”  the second single off her forthcoming album “Bangerz,” in which she wears see-through underwear or nothing at all.

Yes Miley. We get it. You aren’t Hannah Montana anymore.

“After I stopped laughing at the video all I could think was this video screams ‘I'm beyond desperate to be shocking, beyond desperate to be sexy and beautiful.’ Instead it's ridiculous, not artistic, not meaningful because she's trying too hard to 'pose' for camera and do a Calvin Klein ad for underwear while poorly lip syncing and being overly dramatic,” Nicole Clark, media educator for students and director of the documentary “Covergirl Culture,” told FOX411. “I just can't take her seriously as a singer or a performer in her seriously silly video. It's almost Zoolander because it seems she thinks she's being artistic and serious but her attempt is transparent and laughable. At one point she rubs her nose on the chain and looks absurd.”

John Clark, who works in the film industry and educates young people on the influences of media and pop culture, concurred.

“They didn't fail to make it artful -- they did not try," he said. "Because the point is to show her naked and licking that hammer in bright light and sharp focus so we can all be shocked and awed. This video further emphasizes to young girls that what is most important for them to have success in their lives is being as sexy as possible for the man.”

The sexually-charged video has drawn plenty of surprise and eye rolls from music lovers – “OMG” several wrote on YouTube, “trash” observed another, and “twerking or getting naked: two choices only” – yet several other fans gave it a stamp of approval.

“Miley no matter what the people say about you , They just jealous because you are amazing , you have amazing voice an amazing body , and always remember there are people who love you,” wrote a supporter, as another weighed in: “this is amazing. I love it.”

However, some industry experts anticipated that the “Wrecking Ball” display is the sign of something deeper than just trying to shed her tween star image.

“Miley Cyrus seems to be in the midst of a crash. Maybe it’s a 20-year old acting inappropriately as part of growing up, but it’s not appealing, not sexy and isn’t funny," Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5WPR who has represented corporations and celebrities pondered. "One wonders if Cyrus has anyone counseling her – where is her manager, her agent, her publicist?"

But in this day and age of attention-grabbing, sex-selling celebrity culture, are Cyrus’s antics much of a surprise?

“In a time when former Playboy center fold, Jennie McCarthy, becomes the latest ‘legit’ host on The View, sharing a sofa and air time with her new colleague, Barbara Walters, and the Kardashian sisters ‘punk’ their sixteen year old sibling with potty profanity, this seems like more ‘keeping up’ versus taking America down,” said image consultant Tamara Jacobs. “Haven't we already seen this movie with bad girls like Paris Hilton? Not to mention bad boys like Anthony Weiner…”