You heard me right. Love it or love to hate it, unless you’ve been living under a rock buried deep deep in the earth, you have no doubt heard of Rebecca Black and her hugely (un)popular viral track, “Friday.”
Her song was so famous in fact, that the cast of Glee performed it in their prom episode, and Katy Perry featured Rebecca in her music video for “Last Friday Night.”
Rebecca’s video on YouTube got something like 160 million hits before it was taken down, and the funny part is that over 75% of the ratings were “dislikes.” It was also dubbed by many as the “worst song ever.” So why did we keep watching it?
Because it had terrible lyrics and a nasally voice set to a beat you just could not get out of your head. And you refused to believe that someone could take that song seriously. With lyrics like:
“Gotta be fresh, gotta go downstairs
Gotta have my bowl, gotta have cereal”
And:
“Kickin’ in the front seat
Sittin’ in the back seat
Gotta make my mind up
Which seat can I take?”
And my favorite:
“Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah)
Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah)
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Lookin’ forward to the weekend.”
Now take a minute to listen to her new song, “My Moment.”
Even though teen pop might not be your favorite, you can admit that the song isn’t bad. In fact, if it had come from Taylor Swift or Selena Gomez, you might even say it’s good.
But it’s no Friday.
In my opinion, she forgot why she was became so famous in the first place. And instead of trying to make a true career out of her song’s phenomenon, Rebecca should have owned it for what it was and wrapped up her 15 minutes of fame.
After all, how can she top “Friday?” (Except maybe with “Saturday”…) Simply due to the nature of the song, I have a lot of trouble seeing a viable music career in her future.
So even though I’m sad to say that I think her “Moment” is over, us at Casanova will still continue to play “Friday” every Friday around noon to get pumped for a “fun fun fun fun” weekend.
I’d love to know what you think- do you see a future music career for her?
I am one of the people glad to see Rebecca back at it. I don’t think that she needs to wrap up her 15 minutes, but I do agree that she shouldn’t take herself so seriously. I think she needs to keep making joke songs and become unique and loved for it. This new track is no “Friday”, true, but seeing her back on the mic makes me sing “We So Excited!”
I’m going to disagree that RB’s 15 minutes are up.
Although I think her sophomore effort should have been a catchier, more upbeat song, that’s besides the point.
It used to be that you had to have real talent and work much harder to “make it” in the music biz. Everyone from the Beatles to Eminem crafted their art through hours and hours of practice and playing live shows. This is the 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell talks about in “Outliers” — what it takes to be truly great.
Things are different now.
The Internet and the ease at which we can generate and share content has greatly reduced the barrier to entry, making it easier for any talentless hack to garner attention.
Pop music’s always had the same formula: catchy melodies and lyrics. It’s just that we’re no longer dependent on the record companies to provide them, when people like RB can create their own pop hits.
@DennisDemori
Thanks for the comments! I am a huge fan of Friday and all the ridiculousness that comes along with it (and I listen to it weekly on the appropriate Friday occasion), but I’m just not sure if I’m going to be listening to “My Moment” again any time soon. It will definitely be interesting to see how a career does or doesn’t play out for her.