Back to our strange tale. “Friday” picked up steam a couple weeks ago when The Daily What blog posted it. And hated it. Next thing you know, it gets re-posted on Tumblr, Twitter – all over the place, really – to the point that with virtually no warning, this cheaply-produced but professional enough-looking video has soared to heights absolutely no one could have guessed.
Put it this way: as of this past Thursday, March 24, Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way” – the song that premiered at the Grammy Awards and received so much fanfare – had not quite 25 million views. Rebecca Black’s “Friday?" 45 million. And that’s been only since reaching the two-million mark a mere ten days earlier.
With numbers like that, you’d think this girl would be a huge star, right? The next Justin Bieber? Not so fast. The blog City Sound summed up the “popularity” of the video as such: “Is it sad? That depends on your point of view. Is it hilarious that “Friday,” Ark Music Factory’s biggest hit, has gotten famous for being mercilessly made fun of on the internet? You bet it is.”
Apparently, people did expect too much of a 13 year-old girl because the hatred for this girl online has been nothing short of ruthless. Imagine the angry mob going to lynch Dee Snider’s character about halfway through the movie Strangeland. Now substitute Snider for Black and the mob with your typical, vicious, “hide-behind-the-keyboard-and-be-an-asshole-because-the-internet-lets-you-get-away-with-it” pack mentality and you have a great idea of what’s happened to this girl. Describing it would not only be redundant, but a screencap from Black’s appearance on “Good Morning America” tells the story much better than I could:
Where has all this come from? The hatred, probably from having something this innocuous catch on just as the world is in the throes of BieberMania, and many are sick of having to hear this annoying type of pop every time they turn around. The obsession, from the fact that we’re a culture that’s become obsessed with it. I really hate to tell Bob Geldof this, but if he’s looking for his defining statement of a generation, “Friday” could very well be it.
I said it last week: “Let’s look at the landscape today. This is a time when being a celebrity for the sake of being a celebrity and the culture’s obsession with that is the big issue of the day. Small but powerful nations are rocked by earthquakes, human rights are being trampled all over the world, including here at home, but the one thing that unites everyone is the love or hatred of a teen pop star...The only statement people seem to be interested in making revolved around the idea of celebrities and how easy it may be to become one.”
Article comments
1 - weesnaw25
sooo.... rebecca died??
2 - zetus
yes she died. It's been confirmed. such a young kid
3 - kristina gjolaj
wait soo she seriosly died?
4 - captain stupendousnessman
Sounds like Mike's trying to make the case that the only thing that unites people is popularity, and the hate-Rebecca-Black movement is the proof.
Not so fast, my music industry friend. It's a lot more plausible to think of this as monkey wrenching the process of contrived popularity. This is precisely the kind of girl who should be popular, but now she'll only enjoy a pyrrhic win; she'll only be famous for being hated. What's interesting here isn't whether she's famous or not, it's the mechanics of fame being ripped by brute force out of the hands of people that would ordinarily control it and manufacture another teen idol.
The real lesson here, though, is how anonymity makes people cruel. To think that millions of people commenting online could drive this poor girl to suicide is tragic... just tragic. My thoughts go out to Rebecca's friends and family. She's in the front seat in heaven now. God bless.
5 - boehmi
yup she died, she hung herself cause of the depressions.
6 - trololol
Ding dong, the bitch is dead
7 - Robert Hansen
I guess it's true. On the news here in Denmark. Said they suspected suicide.
RIP sweet princess :'(
8 - Kimmo Rauttapaa
also on the news in Finland. So young, so sad.
9 - grimmless
Get a fucking life people.
10 - Jason
I think that we (the haters) are wrong in despising her - but her voice is absolutely terrible. I think that her "record" company is more to blame for this entire situation.