In defense of Rebecca Black
March 25 2011, 7:37 AM
First off, I think "Friday" is a terrible song and the video, though well
produced, is cheesy. But so what? There are a gajillion bad songs written
by 13 year olds like Black. And of those gajillion, many of them find their
way onto YouTube. I know, because when I go to look for a song, I am
bombarded by all these bad covers. So there are lots of bad songs and lots
of bad covers out there. Why should she be singled out for abuse? I think part of the problem is that the song is well produced. The company
that made it appears to be something of a vanity press. They will make your
video, but what they won't do is say: hey, this song isn't very good, let's
redo it and make it better. The result is Friday. To make things worse, the viral hatred and overall dislike has a life of
it's own but now is well out of proportion too. Go look at the other videos
on Ark. Are they a lot better? Nope. But it is easy to hate the Friday
video, and it becomes a totem in a way. By disliking this video, we can
rebel against the viral nature of the Internet and the ability of people
like Justin Bieber to dominate the cultural narrative. In fact I think part of the hatred for Rebecca Black is an indirect
blowback against Bieber. Alas, he is more talented and highly managed and
rarely makes a wrong move. Along comes Rebecca Black and she is none of
those things and people just dump on her like Carrie on prom night. I also thing there is something of rich girl hatred going on. As if to say:
she can't just buy her way to success! We'll show her! Don't get me wrong. I think the video is terrible. She should work harder
and aim lower and get better. And pop music isn't jazz or classical music:
she can get a lot better a lot quicker than she might think. And if she is
going to spend money, do it with people who will be honest and constructive
and help her be a better musician. But all that said, people should let up on her and go back to hating big
pop stars. They can take it. :) she's a 13 year old kid trying to make
music. 13 year old deserve some slack, not condemnation. To paraphrase:
hate the song, not the singer. And hey, happy Friday! :)
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Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.
produced, is cheesy. But so what? There are a gajillion bad songs written
by 13 year olds like Black. And of those gajillion, many of them find their
way onto YouTube. I know, because when I go to look for a song, I am
bombarded by all these bad covers. So there are lots of bad songs and lots
of bad covers out there. Why should she be singled out for abuse? I think part of the problem is that the song is well produced. The company
that made it appears to be something of a vanity press. They will make your
video, but what they won't do is say: hey, this song isn't very good, let's
redo it and make it better. The result is Friday. To make things worse, the viral hatred and overall dislike has a life of
it's own but now is well out of proportion too. Go look at the other videos
on Ark. Are they a lot better? Nope. But it is easy to hate the Friday
video, and it becomes a totem in a way. By disliking this video, we can
rebel against the viral nature of the Internet and the ability of people
like Justin Bieber to dominate the cultural narrative. In fact I think part of the hatred for Rebecca Black is an indirect
blowback against Bieber. Alas, he is more talented and highly managed and
rarely makes a wrong move. Along comes Rebecca Black and she is none of
those things and people just dump on her like Carrie on prom night. I also thing there is something of rich girl hatred going on. As if to say:
she can't just buy her way to success! We'll show her! Don't get me wrong. I think the video is terrible. She should work harder
and aim lower and get better. And pop music isn't jazz or classical music:
she can get a lot better a lot quicker than she might think. And if she is
going to spend money, do it with people who will be honest and constructive
and help her be a better musician. But all that said, people should let up on her and go back to hating big
pop stars. They can take it. :) she's a 13 year old kid trying to make
music. 13 year old deserve some slack, not condemnation. To paraphrase:
hate the song, not the singer. And hey, happy Friday! :)
-----------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.