Rebecca Black similar to most of today’s hits
Posted March 22, 2011 at 9:05 pm in Columns, Lifestyle
(Votes: 8; Avg: 4.38) 
Loading ...By now you’ve probably heard about Rebecca Black, the new teen pop singer who’s been terrorizing the Internet with her auto-tuned, android-like voice on the relentlessly mocked viral video for her song “Friday.”
I’ve been doing my best to refrain from chiming in with my own opinion on the singer, mainly, since my opinion greatly differs from the resounding negative criticism the singer has received.
Yes, I’m somewhat ashamed to admit it, but Rebecca Black is not that bad. Relatively, at least.
If for some reason you haven’t heard of Rebecca Black, she’s a young teen pop singer who suddenly rose to internet fame after the release of her video “Friday,” in which she sings what many have criticized as dumb, senseless lyrics over a simple pop beat.
Some initially thought the song was a joke or parody, but further investigation revealed the video was released by Ark Music Factory, a company that produces videos for similar, unknown teen pop artists.
It’s true, Rebecca Black is terrible. Her voice and lyrics like Yesterday was Thursday, today it is Friday / We so excited we’re gonna have a ball today / Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards are cringe-inducing and sadly hilarious.
Needless to say, Rebecca Black hasn’t exactly written the next “Imagine.”
She has, however, written a modern pop song. Admittedly, her chorus of It’s Friday, it’s Friday and Fun, fun, fun, fun isn’t what most would consider lyrical poeticism, but it’s not far from the mainstream pop songs being produced.
Singers like Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus and the elder crew (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, etc.) have been crafting pop songs with simple yet catchy lyrics for years, and, although they’re not necessarily music snobs’ artists of choice, they haven’t caused the same uproar as Rebecca Black.
I found myself laughing and shaking my head at some of the lines in the song, but I couldn’t help but realize many songs on Top 40 radio are not that different.
Black’s lyrics aren’t even that far from older, more respected pop songs. Fun, fun, fun, ’til her daddy takes the T-bird away is not that different from It’s Friday, it’s Friday … Fun, fun, fun.
If it’s Black’s lack of guitars and heavy use of auto-tune and simple electronic pop beats that’s making her such a mockery, that’s one thing.
But why choose Black to mock when others are doing the same thing and have been for more than a decade?
It’s hard to understand why there’s such a fuss over this particular video. Yes, the lyrics are horrible and her voice is awful, but it’s no more ridiculous than any other teen pop song. It’s simple and over-worked, yet catchy in its own, strange way.
There are actually some people on the Internet who are standing up for Black. On Rolling Stone’s website, Matthew Perpetua wrote an article entitled “Why Rebecca Black’s Much-Mocked Viral Hit ‘Friday’ Is Actually Good.”
Perpetua makes statements such as, “[Black] sounds like anything else in pop music,” and “[the lyrics] may not seem as ridiculous if, say, Katy Perry was singing instead.”
Though Perpetua generally pans the song in the rest of the article, he still maintains that it’s fairly similar to many other songs that proved popular.
Perpetua also makes a good point of calling into question the nature of pop, saying “Black and Ark Music Factory have made a video that forces its audience to reckon with a particular formula for pop music.”
Hopefully he’s right, and Black’s song will change the public’s opinion of pop’s simplistic, over-effected formula.
It’s more likely, however, the song will simply entertain Internet meme followers and then fade out of public consciousness.
But the amount of negative attention given to the video is undeserved. Black is dealing with it well, as she largely shrugged off the negative comments on her appearance on Good Morning America, and didn’t do so bad on an a capella rendition of the national anthem and an acoustic version of “Friday” during the segment.
If “Friday” has caused such an uproar, people need to start looking at the pop genre as a whole.
Will Hagle is a sophomore majoring in narrative studies. His column, “Feedback,” runs Wednesdays.
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This article is tagged: autotune, friday, Hagle, pop music, Rebecca Black
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Rebecca Black is an awesome roll model for young girls. The public took a single negative connotation and ran with it. I love this girl!! She is sweet as can be in her interviews. Jealously reigns with all these young adults out there looking for youtube fame themselves by posting a terrible cover performance of some song from of there PC cameras.
“….. is an awesome roll model for young girls.”—- role*
Roll = directional mobility
Role = status or social position
I disagree with you chastising other youth for attempting cover songs. Especially since, Rebecca, couldn’t even cover her own song on the Tonight Show…….
Rebecca is a 13 year old girl, who, it turns out, has a voice on her that’s as passable as any other teen artist on a major label today. The problem is with the song…which she didn’t write. Along with the video, the writing and production was the work of Ark Music factory, a couple of guys, who, if they were honest, have not had the kind of career in the music business that they would have hoped for…and simply became very lazy in the songwriting department. Super-lazy, in fact. Have a go at them, leave Rebecca alone.
umm I disagree …
In my opinion the backlash is more focused on the idea that if you want something bad enough you only need to do it once and then you’re a star, right? It’s the whole American Idol culture that has pervaded our society that you don’t have to be good at something–you just *gulp* have ta want it bad enough!!!
Wanting it badly is NOT enough and people who have money to throw at projects like this often haven’t invested the time it takes to become, uhhh, actually GOOD. The stars she emulates get just as much criticism, but unfortunately for us (and fortunately for her) they pander to the lowest common denominator of taste.
We’re as sick of people like Rebecca and the stars she emulates as we are of advertising. It’s invasive and it’s trash. It demands to be loved and paid attention and we’re tired of it. We being people who care what goes in their ears, eyes and mouth. Sick of crappy music, food and aggressive advertising.
Bottom line is you’re talking about/to the people who are already aggressively against the pop genre as a whole. We’re already doing what we should–being vocal, not buying/listening. But just like people who love good TV but haven’t been assigned a Nielson Box–we have NO say in this. This is the fault of the masses who will buy this crap in droves.