http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0
I think most people who use social networking sites on the internet (ie Facebook) will have seen the youtube video for Rebecca Black's song ''Friday''. This song basically became popular because people think it's really terrible.
Rebecca Black is actually a 13 year old girl whose parents (both veterinarians) paid a couple thousand dollars for their daughter to record this song and make a video. She's taken a couple years of vocal lessons, and she did not write the song. When she went to record a song she chose between ''Friday'' and a song about ''adult love'' but she related more to Friday since she said she hadn't experienced ''adult love'' yet. I watched her interview on ''Good Morning America'' and she seemed really sweet and humble and said that she didn't think she was the best singer, but she didn't think she was the worst singer. They asked her about the meanest online comment she'd had and she said that someone told her to go cut herself.
Rebecca Black: there is nothing wrong with you or your song. The lyrics are in no way more inane than any other hit pop song that is released nowadays. If this song had a bunch of references to drinking and sex nobody would even have commented on the vacuousness of it. I think this is a catchy pop song. I think the lyrics are appropriate for a 13 year old.
As far as people who say that this is the worst song they've ever heard, I don't know if they sit at home listening to Beethoven all day, but there is a lot of really terrible music being made nowadays. For example, I hate metal or punk music. I can't listen to music that lacks a melody. There is music being made that is just like being slammed against a wall of angry noise. I wonder that people enjoy this. I wonder if there is something very dark and twisted in their souls to make them want to self-flagellate with this aural punishment. Dark and twisted like the souls of people who want to tell a 13 year old to cut herself because her song captures the meaninglessness of pop music quite aptly.
Hi Laura. It's an especially bad song, a near caricature of pop at it's worst. I thought at first it was a parody. But it's too bad how much abuse she has received personally, unfair actually. Your blog helps to cast her in a more sympathetic light. I feel shitty about having told her to go cut herself now.
ReplyDeleteComing home soon aren't you?
Conrad
*its worst
ReplyDeleteComing home in June. So not that soon. I barely want to leave, I love the DEFLE that much, and the fact that today I walked around picking flowers and chez vous it's still snowy.
I watched the video and can't help but agree with most people that it is really, overly bad. Not a whole lot worse than Lady Gaga's garbage though. (I hate most current pop in general.)
ReplyDeleteI didn't read any of the comments, but I can't say I'm surprised. It's one thing for people to say the song is horrible. But I think it's pretty fucked that people are being so vicious to her. I hope that she doesn't take it to heart. She's cute and could probably go somewhere with her singing if she can find/write better songs. Hopefully someone will take her under their wing or something.
Also, I don't really like punk or metal either, but I think your comments about the people who do being dark and twisted are quite unfair. I don't think it's any group in particular who are being so hateful to this girl. It's just the "cool" thing to do, apparently. :/
Yeah I'm not saying I think people who listen to punk or metal are the ones being vicious to Rebecca Black. I'm just saying that if I was picking a type of music to be disdainful of, I would pick metal and punk. I think the people who hate on Rebecca Black probably listen to pop music and in some way the vapidity of this song exposes that of pop music in general... because it was not meant to be a parody but it really blurs the line between parody and genuine pop music. As in, pop music does not need to be parodied because it is already a joke.
ReplyDeleteI think the people most likely to be affronted by this song are pop music lovers who must recognize at some level that the music they listen to is maybe only marginally better than this song. Otherwise why would this song have gotten such a strong reaction from people?
Hey Laura, I mostly agree with you. I don't think anyone deserves the abuse this girl is getting, and that it's even worse that adults are saying these things to a young teenager. Has everyone forgotten how hard it is be a teen?
ReplyDeleteI think the reason people are getting so worked up about it is because it is actually an innocent song, lacking the usual misogynistic and overtly sexualized and violent lyrics of most pop songs right now. I think it's disturbing that she probably would've received fewer bad reviews had she gone with the "adult love" song. Why is it more acceptable in our culture for a young girl to sing about sex than about friday night?
Also, I like how the video presented her as a normal girl, reminiscent of degrassi - her friends had braces, and were actually the right age for the role they were playing..
Great post, but I don't see how you can argue that the song is a normal amount of crappy. It comes off as a parody as someone said, and I almost wonder if the song writer was out to make a fool of this girl. The reason it's gotten so much attention is because it IS so bad it's mind boggling. That's not to say she deserves the verbal abuse, but if she's a 13 year old, she should have some adults looking out for her to avoid a situation like this.
ReplyDeleteBeing a 13-year-old girl, really none of the song is her fault. It's probably more worthwhile looking at the music production company or her parents, who shelled out the money for the video. I fully blame the con-artist-esque production company and bad parenting for the awful video/song (because there's really no denying how bad the song is. Not her voice, per se, but the parody quality of the lyrics and production).
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting article on the production company:
http://www.bohemian.com/citysound/?p=7181
Every time I read that comment I think you are a 13 year old girl until I get to the end of the first sentence.
ReplyDeleteWell, being a 13-year-old girl, I can't really refute that, can I?
ReplyDelete