Sweeney’s tween takeover began with her decision to make the Disney Channel part of the basic cable package in 1997. Seeking to connect with the bill payers (adults) rather than with kids, the channel had been programming costume dramas that weren’t exactly tween fodder—like Ike and Mamie: The Eisenhower Years. “We began trying everything,” Sweeney says of her reboot. “We wanted tweens, but there was no formula out there for how to get them. We tried animal shows, game shows. We put Mad Libs on the air.”

Nothing stuck until Sweeney began airing Disney Channel Concerts, televised pop-music showcases at Disney theme parks that helped propel the careers of Christina Aguilera, the Backstreet Boys, ’N Sync, LeAnn Rimes, and Britney Spears, among others. Sweeney and Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide, soon realized that after launching those acts, Disney wasn’t in a position to profit from the many millions in CD and product sales it helped generate. At the same time, Disney found itself at risk as those acts began to alienate fans—hello, Britney!—and, even more worrying, parents. Sweeney and Ross came up with the idea of creating their own acts. “We’re not naive or coy about saying that we knew if we could do it for others, we could do it for ourselves,” Ross says.

The prototype was, in many ways, Hilary Duff, star of the sitcom Lizzie McGuire, about a self-conscious middle schooler dealing with predictable teen issues. The show, created by Terri Minsky, was the Disney Channel’s first big hit and became the testing ground for Disney’s multiplatform approach to colonizing my life. Television soundtracks had historically never been big sellers; before Lizzie McGuire, networks didn’t even bother to release them for most of their shows. But Disney Music began selling millions of Lizzie McGuire soundtracks, setting the stage for Hilary Duff, pop star. “Lizzie McGuire was our first success,” says Disney Channel’s president for entertainment, Gary Marsh, who Sweeney insists shares credit for the channel’s success, along with Ross and other executives. “But Hannah Montana makes Lizzie look like a drop of water.”

Indeed, you haven’t seen pure excitement if you haven’t been at an elementary-school dance when the D.J. drops Hannah Montana’s “The Best of Both Worlds.” Montana’s hits are infectiously simple—sugary, big-hook R&B songs with heavily processed vocals and rousing “you go, girl!” choruses—and they drive tween girls to demand ever more iterations of basically the same product. In my house, there are at least six Hannah Montana CDs, including Hannah Montana 2: Non-Stop Dance Party; Hannah Montana: Karaoke From the Hit TV Show; Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus; and Hannah Montana 2: Rockstar Edition, each of which, as far as I can tell, contains the same songs remixed to annoy me in a slightly different way.

And here’s the added genius: Since I don’t want my kids to troll peer-to-peer sites for free music—who knows what else is out there—I dutifully order the stuff from Amazon or plunk down my plastic at one of the few remaining CD stores. At Wal-Mart, Disney benefits from being one of the few brands that retailing’s biggest bully doesn’t dare push around. What Disney seems to have figured out is that tweens may be the last group of consumers who will buy music—or throw a fit until it is purchased for them. In other words, at a time when most consumers expect music to be either free or dirt cheap, Disney now owns one of the last corners of the planet where people actually pay for CDs. “Parents will buy two or three Disney CDs to give one to each of their kids,” says Abbey Konowitch, vice president of Disney’s Hollywood Records, “whereas at a college dorm, one person might buy a CD, and 10 people will copy it.”

Of course, Disney has already rolled out the Hannah Montana franchise across its various divisions. Her national tour was sold out, and tickets to the 3-D movie of her tour were almost impossible to get. The film was No. 1 at the box office on its opening weekend and went on to gross $70 million; another feature film is in the works. Her likeness appears on everything from cereal boxes to musical instruments to digital cameras, and she is moving more product than a Chinese container port.