Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today is Friday, Friday…
Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes afterwards
Sound familiar? Other than being the natural progression of time that we humans adhere too, these are lyrics to the recent internet sensation, Rebecca Black’s song “Friday.” Though Black’s name has elicited groans, screams and laughs, her video for “Friday,” has already achieved approximately 22 million views on YouTube (as of March 19). This does not include the views of parody videos or fan-made music videos for the same song.
The video was released on Feb. 10, 2011, but was posted on the blog “The Daily What” on March 11, 2011, which began its circulation on social networking sites such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. As a result of these sites, the video has been one of the most popular Google searches within the past week. Black has already been interviewed on “Good Morning America” and The Daily Beast. The song was even played during WJ’s Spring Pep Rally on March 18, causing many sarcastically enthusiastic dances and exclamations throughout the crowd.
So how has this 13 year-old from Southern California risen to such levels of fame?
By being awful.
According to Time magazine, the song is “a whole new level of bad.”
Even without the over-auto-tuned sound quality, the lyrics seem more like a parody of a pop song than an actual attempt at music. For example, in addition to singing the days of the week (see above), Black also discusses the ridiculous conflicts of her day, such as choosing which seat to take in a car (“Kicking in the front seat/Sitting in the back seat/Gotta make my mind up/ Which seat can I take?”).
“Once you listen to the lyrics, you start to realize what a train wreck we’re really dealing with,” said Time’s “NewsFeed” writer Megan Gibson.
To be fair, Black claims that she did not write the lyrics herself, and she only got the gig after her mother paid $2000 to the Ark Music Factory, which is a company that promotes aspiring tween singers.
According to the company’s website, “ARK’s main objective is to discover future #1 artists and produce the next outstanding star.”
The success of this company, this video and this girl are honestly a constant string of amusement for me, but I admit that the public’s harsh response should not be condoned. It is never okay to wish death upon someone else, no matter how bad her voice may be, and comments such as “I hope you go cut and die” are unacceptable.
Before posting hurtful comments like these, people need to consider the negative repercussions of them, and resort to the age-old aphorism: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. But feel free to mock inwardly and watch incessantly, as long as the rudeness stays in your head.”
Editor’s Note: In case you physically live under a rock and have no idea how truly horrendous this song is, the video is embedded above. Enjoy. Or don’t.
