Sunday Comes Afterwords

March 13, 2011 4:03 PM

Rebecca Black's Friday is a video single from an artist you may have never heard of, yet it's spawned animated gifs and in-depth lyrical analysis, raised speculation over possible album tracklists, garnered numerous covers, it's received the super-slow treatment (similar to Justin Bieber), and a short movie mash-up. Where did this all start? A magical place called Ark Music Factory.
posted by filthy light thief (284 comments total)

Who's bitching about too many Lady Gaga threads now?
posted by you're a kitty! at 4:12 PM on March 13, 2011 [21 favorites]

party and party and "YEAH!", party and party and "YEAH", fun fun fun fun looking forward to cutting off my ears
posted by localhuman at 4:16 PM on March 13, 2011 [14 favorites]

Oh the horror...
posted by Catblack at 4:17 PM on March 13, 2011

FUN FUN FUN FUN
posted by _Lasar at 4:20 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Via Rhaomi in another thread:

It’s like everyone involved was given cat tranquilizers and then forced at gunpoint to make a video. The expression on her face when she’s saying the “fun fun fun fun” line is somewhere between ‘I’m saying “fun” but that word means something different on our world’ and ‘Help me I am being held hostage by Kim Jong Il and forced to do this.’
posted by you're a kitty! at 4:23 PM on March 13, 2011 [15 favorites]

If you find the Friday terrifying, delve no further into YouTube account trizzy66, for therein lies auto-tuned madness.

For condensed pre-teen music idol ... something, view the Ark Music Factory launch video highlights. 9 minutes and 20 seconds from what appears to have been a whole night of events.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:23 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah. I saw this earlier in the week, it is a masterpiece of a train wreck.

You must read the Ark Music link though. Obviously these guys have a certain level of technical talent to put these videos together, but it is the stark reality of feeding egos in exchange for cash.

The video of their "launch party" is just... creepy.
posted by shinynewnick at 4:24 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Uncanny valley!
posted by willF at 4:27 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY

There's something so offensive about the way that word comes out. It's like they added an echo on the breathy and nasal parts of her voice.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 4:28 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm seeing a crossover movie where she marries Justin Bieber to help him get a green card. In 3d. And space. With zombies, but slow-moving unthreatening ones that are cured by confetti. It ends with a big dance number.

I'll be in my trailer.
posted by anigbrowl at 4:30 PM on March 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

Any producer worth their salt would have asked her in session to stop overprounouncing "Friday" so badly that it would make Liam Gallagher fall off his huge pile of money.
posted by chimaera at 4:31 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Here's the most amazing thing to me after watching the launch video: None of them can sing well. Not even passable. I can't imagine how much their families spent to record these tracks in hopes of hitting it big.

Also, it appears that they are ready to ride this wave of internet irony. Friday remix posted today.
posted by shinynewnick at 4:31 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

It's so irresistibly badgood I get the chills and tear up listening to it. Which I've done about 40 times this weekend. The more you listen the greater its Lovecraftian chokehold on your ka. The last time pop music did this to me was, yes, Lady Gaga. Suck it, haters.
posted by fleetmouse at 4:34 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Mate says:

"I saw this on /b/. I'd rather click on a pic of a dude having sex with a corpse than watch it again."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:35 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh god this gif is the best thing ever.
posted by oinopaponton at 4:38 PM on March 13, 2011 [40 favorites]

Any producer worth their salt would have asked her in session to stop overprounouncing "Friday"

Hahaha, what? That's the hook.
posted by fleetmouse at 4:39 PM on March 13, 2011 [9 favorites]

I saw this atrocity a few days ago on reddit. I have only just stopped fantasising about laying waste to those horrendous teenagers with a variety of edged weapons, flamethrowers and concentrated corrosive liquids. So you can be damned sure I am not about to watch it again.
posted by Decani at 4:41 PM on March 13, 2011

Oh god this gif is the best thing ever.

That made me laugh. Then cry.
posted by you're a kitty! at 4:41 PM on March 13, 2011

I've found my new karaoke go-to.
posted by prefpara at 4:42 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

Hahaha, what? That's the hook.

Oh, God I must be getting generation-gapped. Say it ain't so!
posted by chimaera at 4:42 PM on March 13, 2011

Ark? Do I blame Christians for this?
posted by cmoj at 4:44 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

We so excited!
posted by plastic_animals at 4:45 PM on March 13, 2011

Either Christians or humanity as a whole. Lots of blame to go around.
posted by localhuman at 4:45 PM on March 13, 2011

Youtube.com itself said it best: no description available
posted by BeerFilter at 4:49 PM on March 13, 2011 [29 favorites]

This comes off as a music video and pop song that was written and produced by someone who never experienced either looked up "pop song" and "music video" on Wikipedia.
posted by ShawnStruck at 4:50 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I honestly don't understand how this is any worse than the rest of the vapid pop songs out there. I listened to it expecting some horrid atrocity, but it sounds average for today's music.
posted by desjardins at 4:50 PM on March 13, 2011 [13 favorites]

For example, how is this worse than Party in the USA? Both are equally annoying to me.
posted by desjardins at 4:51 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Well, I think we figured out what triggered that mega quake last Friday.
posted by loquacious at 4:52 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

obiwanwasabi, that gif makes it look like some senior female politician's face is humorously superimposed on hers -- a Meg Whitman or Hillary Clinton, perhaps -- but it isn't.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:53 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Looking at that launch, this Ark Music Factory place seems like the Barbazon of the music industry.
posted by TooFewShoes at 4:57 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I won't be surprised if that Ark Music Factory gets a reality TV show and it becomes the number one show on TLC.
posted by tommccabe at 4:57 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

So flat, nasal and empty. This is exactly the wrong way to use autotune.

But thankfully, I did learn what order many of the days of the week occur in.
posted by klangklangston at 5:06 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

I thought maybe this was made for teaching ESOL students. No such luck.
posted by schoolgirl report at 5:10 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

This is exactly the wrong way to use autotune.

That would imply there's a right way.
posted by inedible at 5:10 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

That days of the week part initially made me wonder if this was part of some kid's show or something. (Teaching kids what the weekend is? I don't know!) At least that would have explained why something like this existed. Very interesting to read about its real origins.
posted by statolith at 5:11 PM on March 13, 2011

I think we need this: Black Friday
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:19 PM on March 13, 2011

Lee "Scratch" Perry needs to show up and burn down another Ark.
posted by Falconetti at 5:36 PM on March 13, 2011 [14 favorites]

Call me when there's a dubstep remix.
posted by Lucien Dark at 5:40 PM on March 13, 2011

"That would imply there's a right way."

There's, in fact, even more than one right way!

When actual AutoTune is used in the way it's designed, you don't notice it at all. There's just a richer, fuller sense to the note and the phrasing is stronger (more in tune).

Then there's the way that she's attempting to use it, the robo-future voice that's similar to the talkbox or vocoder, which comes from setting the envelope too short (if I recall correctly, it's been like four years since I had the class where we messed with this).

But even that can be used artistically, most effectively when suggesting distance, emotional remove, coldness, etc. That's totally valid, and even pop singers can play with that. At least for me, as a listener, it automatically makes me shift from regarding the lyrics as words to the lyrics as sounds, even though there's plenty of space inbetween those two aesthetics where the autotune can hint at the shift without evoking it. When effective, it can be a great device for heightening a sense of irony, too.

Contrast that to Black's song, though, and the autotune is deployed pretty much across all of it (which contributes to the rote, phone-it-in lack of joy that Rhaomi mentioned), and there isn't any obvious irony intended by the song makers — it's more cargo-cult Autotune, where the producers deploy it because it sounds very current, and it's a way to mark the song as "popular" and "with it." Which does play into irony, but only the irony that the audience brings with them — for me, enjoying this song relies far less on what the song brings, and far more on what I bring as a listener. Sort of like earnest drive-in sci-fi movies, which you laugh at more than with.

So, she's not using it in the effective, conceptual sense, unless this is all some meta-fuck-twist, in which case, hats off, Rebecca Black, you trolled the shit out of me.

Which means that the more basic question should be asked: If it doesn't work as an idea, does it work as a tool? It certainly doesn't flatter her voice. It can be argued that it works as a tool in that it makes the song sound current, but that's pretty gimmicky and won't likely hold up to repeated listens, at least for me. I barely made it through one, because I just didn't care where she was going to go — as a side note, it's amazing just how little lyrical tension built up in any of the verses. Bowl of what? Oh, cereal. Sure, I guess.

Since this is a MeFi comment, I'm not going to bother to do any of the research I'd normally do before making sweeping pronouncements about why people who like it like it, but I'd guess that it mostly comes down to identifying with the song — hey, I also eat cereal and wait for a bus! That's my song! — without realizing how vague and manipulative it is, the same way that people can enjoy newspaper horoscopes.

Still, for the first time Watson's written a song (I told you I wasn't going to do any research), it came out pretty well.

Look forward to "Things that I like (Dancing With You)," "I Own Stuff," and "Common Toppings Enjoyed on Pizzas."
posted by klangklangston at 5:43 PM on March 13, 2011 [64 favorites]

Yeah the consensus on reddit was that these guys made auto-tuned pop videos for rich kids. I think we may have a lack of talent level that can't be fixed with auto tune. But, maybe if she'd stayed in a lower register so her voice didn't sound like a duck being strangled it might have been more salvageable.
posted by delmoi at 5:44 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

So this was posted on Friday as a comment in that Techno Guitar thread, and we all suitably recoiled in horror, and now you've gone and made it a front page post you fucking asshole.
posted by hincandenza at 5:44 PM on March 13, 2011 [20 favorites]

desjardins nailed it. This is actually BETTER than half the dreck out there... good lord, I would rather watch this again than gaga's pointy shoulders (which may be the creepiest thing(s) I've ever seen in a music video).
posted by tomswift at 5:46 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Things that I like (Dancing With You)," "I Own Stuff," and "Common Toppings Enjoyed on Pizzas."

MeFi Music Challenge!
posted by weston at 5:49 PM on March 13, 2011 [16 favorites]

So, this Ark Music Factory, it is where karaoke goes to die, yes?
posted by madajb at 5:51 PM on March 13, 2011

From the YouTube comments on the stretched/slowed version:

when I listen to this song I imagine a huge 300-foot-tall asthmatic satanic being standing with a bludgeoning weapon and poised to inflict death and destruction on a crystal city of mermaids, with the princess mermaid singing a song of redemption from the top of the tallest crystal tower, pleading for him to grant mercy on their mermaid children.

I can kindof hear it.
posted by weston at 5:52 PM on March 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

That would imply there's a right way.

Um, yes.
posted by you're a kitty! at 5:53 PM on March 13, 2011 [8 favorites]

Come on, Lady Gaga's music is catchy, danceable and something you can sing along to in the shower. This...auto-tuned sound barrage is zero for three using that rubric. Also, the lyrics are fucking atrocious. Oh, really, Friday comes after Thursday? And you have the option of sitting in either the front or back seat of one of your preteen friends' cars? Tell us more of your mundane SoCal existence, blessed children!*

*It's seriously creepy seeing all these kids bobbing along as Rebecca sings about the 'partying' that is going to 'go down' over the weekend. They don't look like the cast of Kids, so what is that party going to entail? "Girl Talk" and prank phone calls to those pre-pubescent boys in the car?
posted by nonmerci at 5:56 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Well, at least Rebecca looks like she's having fun cranking up the autotune and appearing in a music video. It's most likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 5:57 PM on March 13, 2011

My 10-year-old daughter is crying with laughter at the horror of this song. She can't stop repeating "...Sunday comes afterWORDS." She says "I just really don't want to hear that song on the radio."
posted by Rock Steady at 5:59 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Rarebit Fiend: Well, at least Rebecca looks like she's having fun cranking up the autotune and appearing in a music video. It's most likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her.

Christ, I hope so.
posted by hincandenza at 6:00 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Did you all catch that in the "launch" video, the emcee slips up at the 1:00 mark (or is having a little fun) when he proclaims "This next artist got more talent than my little toe in my body got in it!"? That is gold...
posted by hincandenza at 6:05 PM on March 13, 2011

Come on, Lady Gaga's music is catchy, danceable and something you can sing along to in the shower. This...auto-tuned sound barrage is zero for three using that rubric.

Exactly.

Gaga's lyrics have, at the very least, some semblance of a narrative - "Just Dance" is about being too drunk to enjoy oneself, "Paparazzi" is clearly about someone's obsession with fame, and so forth.

This stuff just sounds, for lack of a better word, inept.
posted by tantrumthecat at 6:06 PM on March 13, 2011

C'mon, guys, there's a story. She has to get down to the BUS STOP.
posted by you're a kitty! at 6:07 PM on March 13, 2011 [8 favorites]

Wait, Michael Bay is a now a music producer?
posted by humannaire at 6:20 PM on March 13, 2011

Have you people learned nothing from the history of pop music? Rebecca Black is going to be bigger than God. Her zit will have its own clothing line.

Pop music needs two things: it needs to be memorable, and I forget the other thing. If you watch this video all the way through it is seared into your consciousness like char on a steak. Agents are probably fighting like hyaenas in her front yard.
posted by fleetmouse at 6:21 PM on March 13, 2011 [23 favorites]

I am going to inflict this on everyone I know from now on.
posted by LMGM at 6:37 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Joseph Ducreux weighs in on the dilemma.
posted by fleetmouse at 6:38 PM on March 13, 2011 [18 favorites]

Metafilter: fantasising about laying waste to those horrendous teenagers
posted by Gin and Comics at 6:43 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is so much more wrong with to this song than just autotune.

I keep coming back to the idea that this is pop music, as perceived and regurgitated reinterpreted by an upper middle class Orange County suburbanite.

That being said, I actually kind of liked the Kaya Rosenthal video. She is much more earnest and energetic in her delivery. Now - after thinking that about Rosenthal - the thought hits me that there is a certain nihilism in Rebecca Black's Friday. It's so totally vacuous and insipid, it's gone around the horn and emerged as an ironic punk anthem. A completely un-self-aware piece.

If Sarah Palin sang pop music as a 14 year old girl, this is what it would sound like.
posted by Xoebe at 6:43 PM on March 13, 2011 [8 favorites]

For example, how is this worse than Party in the USA? Both are equally annoying to me.

Swagger.
posted by humannaire at 6:45 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have listened to this 5 times now.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:46 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

fried egg fried egg
posted by bendybendy at 6:48 PM on March 13, 2011 [29 favorites]

Yeah, I have listened to it several times too. Looking for the depth, the layering, the composition. It is so utterly two dimensional it beggars description.

And oh yes, I am inflicting this on everyone I know.
posted by Xoebe at 6:50 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wait, Komar and Melamid aren't involved with this somehow? Or Tim and Eric? This is actual for real bullshit, not somebody's bullshit art project? Holy fuck I give up.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:50 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Witch seed canine steak?
posted by Rock Steady at 6:51 PM on March 13, 2011

They somehow combined two of the worst things in the world: autotune and a Chrysler Sebring convertible. I will share this with my friends and giggle at their discomfort.
posted by tmt at 6:52 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: We we we so excited
posted by tmt at 6:55 PM on March 13, 2011

I thought I'd share my FB post on this with y'all:

"We have reached the pinnacle of pop music - the evolution of thousands of years of human music, lyricism, rhythm, melody, this is the end of the universe. A uniquely un-self conscious post punk piece of nihilistic dada. Lady Gaga has nothing on Rebecca Black, who has single handedly blown the walls off Western Music in one epic blast of saccharin suburban zeitgeist."
posted by Xoebe at 7:01 PM on March 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

Taking banal to new depths.
posted by nickyskye at 7:05 PM on March 13, 2011

Witch seed canine steak?

Is anyone else getting a "Mild Traumatic Brain Injury" banner ad?
posted by The White Hat at 7:06 PM on March 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Modern culture rolls to its side, it struggles to speak, coughs wracking its frail, and dying body.
'Do you want to say something modern culture? Do you have any last words?'
It looks up at you with watery eyes, and whispers... Friday.
posted by codacorolla at 7:08 PM on March 13, 2011 [12 favorites]

Monday! Monday! Monday! Is tomorrow! Today was Sunday! Sun sun sun.....day!
posted by Brocktoon at 7:10 PM on March 13, 2011

Where can I download the mp3 of this? This song is so FUN FUN FUN FUN.
posted by The Castle at 7:13 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

:-)
posted by tomswift at 7:14 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm trapped in the vortex of trizzy66's horrendous and disturbing youtube channel. This might be the greatest awful thing I've seen on the internet ever.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 7:15 PM on March 13, 2011

Holy shit, those demonic growls in this slowed down version (example: 1:44) are amazing.
posted by Dismantled King at 7:18 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

I am in a similar trance-like state, inexplicably watching these videos in no meaningful order until they are finished, shuddering in horror and yet full of wonder as I do so.

Also, what.
posted by nonmerci at 7:19 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh god, that child in nonmerci's link is 12-YEARS-OLD!!! Ugh.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 7:25 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Felicity Rilke, did you watch the performance of "Ordinary Pop Star" featuring CJ Fam? So far it's the most horrifically captivating train-wreck of a video thus produced by Ark, IMO, and the girl looks even younger.
posted by nonmerci at 7:29 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, I am noticing that almost every one of these "songs" involves a couple of simple phrases which are then repeated over and over for some kind of...effect. I wonder if they 'write' these songs using some kind of program, or perhaps a specially-constructed MadLibs form?
posted by nonmerci at 7:32 PM on March 13, 2011

Here's CJ Fam doing Imagine.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:33 PM on March 13, 2011

Don't hate, they just got their girl swag on.
posted by djduckie at 7:34 PM on March 13, 2011

When slowed down it becomes an awesome drone song. I would seriously listen to a band that sounded like that (maybe pitch the singing up a little).
posted by codacorolla at 7:34 PM on March 13, 2011

To quote Mama Rose, I was born too soon and started too late.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:35 PM on March 13, 2011

CJ Fam just wants to be an ordinary pop star...going to school, being a normal girl, having a regular life again...you know, like other ordinary pop stars. Hey paparazzi, give her some space.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 7:36 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I found Imagine after following a link to what I hoped beyond hope would be CJ covering NIN's Hurt, but alas.
posted by BeerFilter at 7:37 PM on March 13, 2011

Where is Willow? I need some Willow Smith right.damn.now. Off to YouTube to cleanse my brain.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:38 PM on March 13, 2011

After watching Beerfilter's link, CJ Fam seriously reminds me of little Britney Spears, with the similarly shrill voice characteristic of underdeveloped vocal cords and a creepy pseudo-adult shtick.
posted by nonmerci at 7:39 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Common Toppings on Pizzas

Been done. Beautifully, I might add.
posted by Tikirific at 7:43 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is why the internet was created.
posted by Stynxno at 7:47 PM on March 13, 2011

I'm showing my sister these videos and she thinks Rebecca Black looks like Selena Gomez but with a smaller head. I see it.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:50 PM on March 13, 2011

I decided to transcribe one of the raps from this gem by Danika. I hope you all enjoy its sheer poetry:

A wry(?) surprise,
Man, open up your eyes,
Feeling your vibe,
You wanna just confess
It's just a show. /
An element of surprise is by your side,
not in front of you or your back,
you gotta watch your back.
Like kryptonite,
heading by the park when you're walking,
He will talk sweet and make you want to believe what he says.
But no intimidation 'cos he got you so frustrated,
When he makes you so deluded, come on girl you gotta l-l-leave.
posted by nonmerci at 7:55 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does this Rebecca Black do TISM covers? I'd watch that.
posted by maxwelton at 7:58 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is exactly the wrong way to use autotune.

inedible: That would imply there's a right way.

you're a kitty!: Um, yes.

Thanks to the magic of YouTube links being blind links, I had no idea what that would be. I was thinking of Cher's Believe, back when auto-tuning was a secret weapon. Or maybe something cited by DJ/Rupture's great article on auto-tuning (seriously, it's a great article, take a moment to look it over if you haven't seen it before).

But Double Rainbow also works.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:00 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Maybe my mind is going, (i don't even like this kind of music normally) but after digging deeper and then coming back to CJ's Ark video... She can sing pretty ok on her own. When the Ark autotuners get their mitts on her she sounds just as bad as the rest of this crowd. The best thing CJ's parents could do imo is get her away from the Ark crowd asap.
posted by BeerFilter at 8:03 PM on March 13, 2011

Also, regarding Rebecca's zit mentioned up-thread: All kids get them, even cute rich girls. Lord knows I had my share (despite not being cute, rich, or a girl.

But there is seemingly a lot of post-processing in this video. Is it not possible to remove a flaw like that in post-production, or is that strictly big-boy's territory?
posted by maxwelton at 8:04 PM on March 13, 2011

I can't put my finger on what makes these videos so creepy. They're a grotesque mixture of children's beauty pageants and Bollywood's almost-but-not-quite-right style of cultural appropriation. They've distilled pop music and videos to individual elements, isolated those elements, and then reconstituted it into a horrific almost. This is the uncanny valley from the other direction, reality making attempts at the surreality of pop stardom.
posted by msbrauer at 8:07 PM on March 13, 2011 [30 favorites]

Dismantled King: Holy shit, those demonic growls in this slowed down version (example: 1:44) are amazing.

I skipped over this version for the super-slow version, but I think the half-pitched one is an improvement on the off-key bubblegum pop of the original. The group response of "yeah" is downright spooky now.


hincandenza: So this was posted on Friday as a comment in that Techno Guitar thread, and we all suitably recoiled in horror, and now you've gone and made it a front page post you fucking asshole.

Ah, so it was in there. I skimmed the links. For me, the last link is the interesting part: sure, this is a singularly bad song, but there's a business of making bad songs for little girls (and some young dudes [Google cache, so you can see the Ark Factory profile w/o having to log in]). The video production and level of audio polish is high, but the vocal quality is so very lacking. But they keep making videos for these kids. Some kids, like CJ Fam, have been pushing for stardom without Ark, and now they're polished in a ridiculous way. Other kids look like this is their first time really trying to sing, and their cute looks is most of what is being sold. But I couldn't find a whole lot on Ark Factory, and instead of focusing on the range of weird videos, I stuck with their current "star" by way of internet fixation, and go from there.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:10 PM on March 13, 2011

Is there a word for thanking and damning someone at the same time? No? Well, bless your heart for this post, flt.
posted by BeerFilter at 8:18 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

This sounds like something Flight of the Conchords could parody with great success.
posted by adso at 8:19 PM on March 13, 2011

Amazing. I think this may be the first pop video to have been written and produced which would be identical with itself if given the "Literal Video" treatment.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:41 PM on March 13, 2011 [18 favorites]

Hey, I have a new idea to defeat Scott Walker! It involves lots of boomboxes strategically placed around the capitol...
posted by desjardins at 8:51 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

BeerFilter: Is there a word for thanking and damning someone at the same time? No? Well, bless your heart for this post, flt.

As someone who knows German.

You're welcome, and I'm sorry.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:51 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

When I was much younger, like lots of kids I sang into my hairbrush, gazing wistfully at myself in the mirror, accompanied by my Casio VL-Tone. Now I feel very fortunate that there is no extant evidence of this particular phase. These girls? Not as lucky.
posted by tractorfeed at 8:54 PM on March 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

Oh god this gif is the best thing ever.

Yeah, that made me laugh really hard. Then I watched the video and I lost it again when Black hits "And then Sunday comes afterWARDS."

Good times.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:59 PM on March 13, 2011

To my mind the story here has little if anything to do with Rebecca Black. This is actually a feel good story about these two jokers who, facing a bleak, overcrowded creative economy with nothing but some barely-journeyman video and music production skills, hatched a diabolically brilliant plan to fleece the rich by playing on their vanity, their foolishness, their awful need to indulge their spoiled childrens' every whim.

These guys are my new heroes, and I hope they are laughing all the way to the bank.
posted by chaff at 9:22 PM on March 13, 2011 [36 favorites]

Reminds me of Rodd Keith and Song Poems.
posted by not_on_display at 9:40 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

No, this is the greatest gif so far on this thread
posted by melissam at 9:52 PM on March 13, 2011 [13 favorites]

Who knew that denim outerwear could be the topic of not one but two autotweened music videos?
posted by thatbrunette at 10:06 PM on March 13, 2011

They do the blue-orange thing for a minute-twelve in the Friday vid. Me eyes ain't so good on the colors after that.
posted by BeerFilter at 10:17 PM on March 13, 2011

What really gets me is her big decision-making process re: which seat to take in the car.

"Um, hey, Becky? Yeah. There's only one open seat left. You get to sit on the hump. Just deal with it, and get in already, or we're gonna be late for Geography."
posted by Sys Rq at 10:22 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

OK, if this woman is not famous within the year then this is not the universe I signed up for.
posted by 1adam12 at 10:31 PM on March 13, 2011 [25 favorites]

They somehow combined two of the worst things in the world: autotune and a Chrysler Sebring convertible.

Hey! Don't dog on my Midlife Chrysler!
posted by squalor at 10:34 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

i am shock
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:39 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

nice one 1adam12. Very nice.

Somebody made this reaction video. Looks like the guy on the right set up the one on the left.
posted by Xoebe at 10:58 PM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ark Music Factory appears to be nothing more than a vanity press for teenage wannabe pop stars.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 11:01 PM on March 13, 2011

Wow, it's as if someone decided to answer this AskMe in the form of a song!
posted by biddeford at 11:35 PM on March 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm gonna be singing 'Fried Eggs! Fried Eggs!' all day now... god damn you all, god damn you all to hell!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:12 AM on March 14, 2011

Ha! The song "beats a level of Super Mario World at 0:44". (via)
posted by HerArchitectLover at 3:48 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't understand. Is this like, a vanity press for music videos? Is someone going to make money off this monstrosity or did this girl's parents hire a studio to make this video for her?
posted by Kitty Stardust at 4:26 AM on March 14, 2011

I call this the George W effect...."Hey, if that guy can be president, that means I could be president someday."

That's the only way I can explain Ke$ha---"if she sucks and she's a star, maybe I could be a star one day!"
posted by vitabellosi at 4:48 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Someone please mash this up with The Cure's Friday I'm In Love.
posted by schoolgirl report at 4:55 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Another Acoustic cover
posted by delmoi at 5:02 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

In that Ark release party, near 5:55, they stop to broadcast a phone call from someone who couldn't be there. Can anyone make out who that is supposed to be?

Is it daddy?
posted by Theta States at 5:03 AM on March 14, 2011

I also like that he started the evening by asking who was exited for some "Music Entertainment", which has strong analouges to phrasings like "Wrestling Entertainment".
posted by Theta States at 5:21 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I am laughing so hard I am weeping. They should mnarket this as an antidepressant.
posted by Quiplash at 7:34 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Theta States: "In that Ark release party, near 5:55, they stop to broadcast a phone call from someone who couldn't be there. Can anyone make out who that is supposed to be?"

That was Quincy Jones.
posted by meadowlark lime at 7:40 AM on March 14, 2011

When actual AutoTune is used in the way it's designed, you don't notice it at all. There's just a richer, fuller sense to the note and the phrasing is stronger (more in tune).

Autotune is a pitch corrector. It can be used "transparently," meaning that it shouldn't sound like an effect is being used, to make pitches more true. It doesn't do anything other than affect the pitch. "Phrasing" refers to rhythmic placement and emphasis, which engineers can alter by hand or with tools like vocalign, which I've never used. Creating a "richer, fuller" sound can be done with stuff like EQ, compression, and chorus-type effects, but that's not what autotune does.

Then there's the way that she's attempting to use it, the robo-future voice that's similar to the talkbox or vocoder, which comes from setting the envelope too short (if I recall correctly, it's been like four years since I had the class where we messed with this).

The setting that will provide the most obvious autotune effect will be to use a very fast attack speed, or what's labeled "retune speed" in this autotune control panel. Here's a tutorial on creating a T-Pain-like vocal effect with autotune.
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko at 7:58 AM on March 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

I don't understand. Is this like, a vanity press for music videos? Is someone going to make money off this monstrosity or did this girl's parents hire a studio to make this video for her?

It's like a vanity press, except it's a vanity press that writes the book for you so you can tell people you've written a book without actually doing so. Also the book is bad.
posted by codacorolla at 8:17 AM on March 14, 2011 [30 favorites]

What a wasted opportunity on the little name-drops at the beginning of these tracks...the ones that go "unhh, Ark" or "yeah, Danica" or whatever. Why not just go all-in and make it "yeah, Pine-Sol" or "uh huh, Andersen Windows" - it's like we learned nothing from Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
posted by mintcake! at 8:34 AM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

1adam12's mention of this YouTube artist has redeemed the existence of this thread. Thank you.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:42 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I bet Ark put this guy in charge of the AutoTune. And possibly everything else.
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:59 AM on March 14, 2011

I'm just gonna leave this here.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 9:08 AM on March 14, 2011

These guys seem to rely on less autotune.
posted by bz at 9:28 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Godspeed You White Empress
posted by Babblesort at 9:43 AM on March 14, 2011 [12 favorites]

Umm, the link upthread was broken, so here: Friday Rap Remix.

The guys who made the song / rapped are winking at us here, letting us know they know how stupid it is: the guy raps "fried egg, fried egg" in the background, and says "with the creepy, creepy guy driving the car".

An actual line from the remix is: "Hey Kids! Wouldn't you rather listen to this song / listen to this song / than Charlie Sheen?"
posted by meadowlark lime at 9:56 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

a poor craftsmen blames his tools. its just another tool, one that i think nothing can be done with anymore, and i mean if you hear the stripped mix, its an incredibly dumb song, done by a vocalist with good but not not spectacular range who has not had a chance to develop her gifts into a place that reflected a genuine voice.

i mean, genuine voice can be reflected into decadent pleasure, it can reflect boredom or pleasure or ennui or electronic noise for the sake of noise, and having a good time on a Friday night has been a subject for rock and roll since it was blues argot for fucking.

It's creepy because its assumed that autotune perfects the voice, w/o the realization that autotune has been used of late to distort the voice for meta-effects for almost half a decade (Ke$ha being the best example of this), and its creepy because she is not nearly self-refential enough about her desires for a svengali, and its creepy because shes really young, but people who are really really young, who are self referential enough, and who know how the machine work do make great pop songs with the equivalent of autotune (whip my hair)

so don't blame the tools, blame her complete and absolute lack of self regard.
posted by PinkMoose at 10:04 AM on March 14, 2011

so don't blame the tools, blame her complete and absolute lack of self regard.


Woah there, there is more than enough blame to go around.
posted by Theta States at 10:09 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Dylanized version. Awesome.
posted by Perplexity at 10:49 AM on March 14, 2011 [21 favorites]

I have the great misfortune of having had to sit through innumerable rehearsals for most of the American Idols as well as any number of these future teen hit factories. The ratio of actual little human beings to snotty, annoying spoiled little robots whose entertainment lawyer daddies or whoever managed to get them onto the teevee and who throw a snit because the call time is early is exactly as high as you'd expect.

Unfortunately, there are far too many acts like this who the crew spends half a day setting up tons of equipment backstage out of the audience's sight to have total control over every sound that comes out of the "talent's" mouth and who we all rolled our eyes at as they worked their way through their crap music without ever hitting a truly correct note that return year after year, like bad pennies.

I give this little creature a 9 out of ten chance to be the next one. And god help me if she comes on one of my shows. I weep for my soul.
posted by nevercalm at 11:09 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Autotweened.

Thatbrunette, you win a cupcake!
posted by Catblack at 11:14 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I have the great misfortune of having had to sit through innumerable rehearsals for most of the American Idols as well as any number of these future teen hit factories. The ratio of actual little human beings to snotty, annoying spoiled little robots whose entertainment lawyer daddies or whoever managed to get them onto the teevee and who throw a snit because the call time is early is exactly as high as you'd expect.

The interesting this is that now we don't even need the snotty teen shows anymore. All you need is youtube. I think (unfortunately) Justin Bieber is an example of someone who became famous entirely via the internet rather then through the traditional media.

I remember back in the day when it was pretty rare for online stuff to bubble up to the mainstream media, people online mostly just talked about what was happening in the 'real' news. But gradually over time that's shifted, and now it's almost the reverse: online stuff drives broadcast news and pop culture.
posted by delmoi at 11:23 AM on March 14, 2011

CNN seems more than happy to devote 50% of their broadcast time to reading tweets and showing youtube videos
posted by Theta States at 11:27 AM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

The interesting this is that now we don't even need the snotty teen shows anymore. All you need is youtube. I think (unfortunately) Justin Bieber is an example of someone who became famous entirely via the internet rather then through the traditional media.

I remember back in the day when it was pretty rare for online stuff to bubble up to the mainstream media, people online mostly just talked about what was happening in the 'real' news. But gradually over time that's shifted, and now it's almost the reverse: online stuff drives broadcast news and pop culture.

Yup. These shows are after ratings so hard that as soon as these videos hit a high-enough # of hits, you have the "pants on the ground" guy on national tv multiple times in multiple time slots.

And even crazier, they won't even try to find the uncompressed source video...they'll basically just tape a laptop screen in high def, so you can see a nice, wide shot of shitty, shitty youtube video.

Jesus, I quiver every time I hear the Bieber creature's name. The reaction of 12 year old girls to him is truly scary to see in person. I never would have believed it.
posted by nevercalm at 11:31 AM on March 14, 2011

I like to pretend Rebecca Black is that girl from Glee a few years ago.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:32 PM on March 14, 2011

Dylanized version. Awesome.

Wow. That was spectacular.
posted by odinsdream at 12:32 PM on March 14, 2011

I'll leave the final verdict on the whole thing to my 7-year-old, a child whose penchant for eating ChapStik suggests she may not have the most discriminating of tastes, who declared of "Friday" that "This is the worst," before stalking out of the room in disgust.

- What's Behind the Worst Music Video Ever

What's most interesting to me is all the bloggers talking about how their 5-7 year-old kids thought it was the worst song ever. (Ever!)

OK, you and me can obviously see the song has little going for it and the lyrics are stupid, but what is it about the song itself that makes normally undiscriminating kids hate it?

OK, yeah, it's bad, but to a child how much worse is it than "Never Been to Me" or "Loving You?" or "Shakedown?"

And, as mentioned, how different really is the song from anything by Selena Gomez or Ke$ha (e.g. Blow)?

So what is it about the song that makes 5-7 year-olds "hate it"? My guess is that these kids don't actually have the advanced level of aesthetic appreciation that their parents think they do--instead, they are simply reading non-verbal cues from their parents, i.e. "doesn't this suck, kiddo?" "Why yes, yes it does, mommy. In fact, it's the worst song I've ever heard!" ;)

/my2c

(also, ChapStik?! really!?)
posted by mrgrimm at 12:45 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

@Lucien Dark at 8:40 PM on March 13 [+] [!]
Call me when there's a dubstep remix.

Here you go...



ad
posted by adamd1 at 1:26 PM on March 14, 2011

It's Pi Day, Pi Day, gotta get down on Pi Day...and Tau Day comes after words....
posted by Gordafarin at 1:36 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

People who are saying this is no different from Lady Gaga or Ke$ha are joking, right? Right?!?

I can understand not enjoying pop music, but I can't take anyone seriously that claims to not see the difference in production values, songwriting, raw talent and everything else between a Lady Gaga video and this Rebecca Black abomination.
posted by imabanana at 2:54 PM on March 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

Seriously, though, does anyone have an MP3 of this? I'd like to have it cranking on the car stereo when I pick my daughter up from school on Friday.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:10 PM on March 14, 2011 [20 favorites]

Rock Steady, maybe try this? I can't vouch for it, though. You could also always use KeepVid to download it as an mp4, and you might just be able to burn it to CD in iTunes...
posted by you're a kitty! at 4:30 PM on March 14, 2011

I was at first skeeved out by the 40-year-old man following school buses around, but then I realized the entire video is the story of a man in desperate need of reconciliation with his daughter, an outwardly outgoing young woman who hides her pain (poorly) in an all too eager quest for "fun, fun, fun, fun, fun." But Rebecca isn't having fun...not really. Will this Friday be the Friday when her father summons up the courage to reintroduce himself to her? Or will he just keep driving on and on, in circles, forever, watching that bus recede into the distance...Rebecca never knowing that he's there...perhaps, in time, no longer even looking back...as she ventures toward adulthood and forever leaves even the memory of him behind, and the man himself is left but a shell, alone...driving...driving.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:44 PM on March 14, 2011 [13 favorites]

They're selling the track for 99 cents here.
posted by fleetmouse at 6:49 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I actually started to feel really sad for her as I scrolled down the thread and found link after link to youtube videos of teenage girls in their bedrooms with acoustic guitars who just knocked the song off as a lark, and every single one of them did it so much better than she did.
posted by Naberius at 7:51 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

People who are saying this is no different from Lady Gaga or Ke$ha are joking, right? Right?!?

Rather than picking on those two, let's consider somebody else for a minute.

I really like both BT and Tiësto. They collaborated and made this track. The production values on both the video and audio are high. The hook in particular is tight -- it's tuned just right, it's an epiphany packed into audio form.

But the more I listen to it, I start to feel like it's kindof hollow in spots. Lyrically, particularly. "Break my fall... I found what was missing inside you?" I'm usually pretty good at following oblique stuff or even mentally bridging disconnected phrases with elaborate backstories, but the best I can come up with here is "Hey, I, uh, managed to figure out what'll fill that void in your soul you've been living with all these years, so, in return, could you help me out with a little love, cause I'm all falling for you and stuff" -- and yes, I'm de-romanticizing it there, but I'm not sure even a more romantic phrasing would really fit together with itself, much less with the sheer epiphany the music is implying. And then, they get really lazy on the immediate reprise of the lyric... "na na na na na na." Total filler. In fact, I suspect the whole chorus -- the hook, the focus of the song -- is filler that they never really polished the problems off of. The verses too, generic fluff, narration of the banal: we move to the floor, you enter the room, you glow because you're my lovely love. None of it's bad enough to be offensive, there's a few moments of near poetry (well, I like the "like motions of stars" bit), but by and large it doesn't really mean much of anything at all.

And interestingly, I think the video is really similar in a lot of ways. It's a collection of images meant to sortof vaguely signify a high status social party with pretty people dressed in nice things with cuts of emotionally loaded glances, oh yeah, with a little extra acrobatic entertainment to boot, but it's more than a little cargo cult. If I were translating it, it'd a slide-show of one or two word concepts: wealth! beauty! attraction! veiled intensity! entertainment!

Now, you can argue that we're talking about genre here that isn't known for its poetry and is meant to be played loudly in a club and generally kindof panders to the senses through texture and rhythm and please just enjoy your trance-dance-pop song, OK? Fair enough. I actually do. Even though I'm picking on it, I've listened to it dozens and dozens of times voluntarily when I could have been listening to any number of other artists who I think do lyrical coherence or poetry or both better.

But now go back and think about Friday. Can you see some of the common problems? Some of the lyrical emptiness has similar roots... filler, repetition, and narrative of the really banal. Single word slide-show: friends! fun! party! weekend! It is considerably worse, but I think this is largely a failure of execution rather than fundamental concepts... or, perhaps more importantly, the target.

Now, back to Kesha for a moment. Say, Tik-Tok. More troublemaker-rebel than Black, more lowbrow than BT & Tiësto, but it's the same slide-show. Better executed. But Friday is exactly what happens when someone who isn't as good at execution aims for the same target as Kesha and producers did, and I'd argue the distance between them isn't as big as you might think.

Stefani Germanotta is arguably something else. Boy howdy does her Gaga stuff have lyrical weaknesses -- I burst out laughing the first time I heard the introduction to Disco Stick and that's not her biggest gaffe -- and some of her songs are similar slideshows. But there's some relative depth, plus she has a conceptual artist's flair for spectacle. I don't like her much but she does higher stakes and higher quality ephemera and probably has the potential to do better if she ever chooses to aim higher.
posted by weston at 8:05 PM on March 14, 2011 [9 favorites]

Man, I actually got this song stuck in my head. The whole back seat/front seat which seat should I take, friday friday friday thing. Unreal.

I really like both BT and Tiësto. They collaborated and made this track

I found that track incredibly boring. A lot more boring then Friday which was at least interesting in it's badness. It just sounds like a markov version of every bland technopop song ever.
posted by delmoi at 8:50 PM on March 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Lady Gaga can actually sing and write songs. Her schtick is well-rehearsed. She hides her real life behind the glam and the show, which is kind of amazing.

These little girls, they've been duped. They didn't seem to get vocal lessons (well, CJ Fam actually rocks for a little lass) or even half-way decent lyrics written for their songs. But it's all polished to a high gleam in post-production.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:51 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Golgafrincham B-Ark Music Factory
posted by mintcake! at 9:12 PM on March 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Boy howdy does her Gaga stuff have lyrical weaknesses -- I burst out laughing the first time I heard the introduction to Disco Stick and that's not her biggest gaffe

Her comically surreal phrase made you laugh out loud and was memorable to the point where you forgot the name of the song was actually Love Game? Yeah, that's quite a gaffe.

Oh, I remembered the other important thing pop music should do. It should tickle.
posted by fleetmouse at 10:37 PM on March 14, 2011

It just sounds like a markov version of every bland technopop song ever.

Seems like something of an exaggeration to me, but I think you're more or less correct that the song has a lot of recycled idioms. I have mixed feelings on this point, which is why I didn't bring it up: behind this curtain is the realization that the vast majority of even pretty good music is recycling idioms in one way or another. But there do seem to be degrees of laziness. Genre music probably tends to the lazier side. So does pop music, but the focus tends towards currency and genre-du-jour, which is why people tend to get tired of it.

Her comically surreal phrase... pop music should do. It should tickle.

Ah, the "it's a joke"/"she's winking at us" defense. Fair enough, I guess, but there's a whole rich area for discussion here and among other things it's related to why a lot of people don't find Tim and Eric funny. But more importantly, to the extent that it's a valid defense, it implies a number of potential personal and critical standards by which the work is enjoyed and judged. You're welcome to yours, but don't get too huffy about mine.

[It] made you laugh out loud and was memorable to the point where you forgot the name of the song was actually Love Game?

Ah, you got me! I didn't remember the name of the song! The non-contradiction between retention of the its title and the problems of its opening line if it is indeed even quasi-earnest will expose me as a fraud! Curse you and the rhetorical force of your non-sequitur, fleetmouse!
posted by weston at 10:57 PM on March 14, 2011

I'm sorry weston, I didn't mean to imply a number of potential personal and critical standards by which the work is enjoyed and judged.
posted by fleetmouse at 11:18 PM on March 14, 2011

This song is really taking off fast. It was used as a bumper in a live stand-up show I saw tonight. And I can't get the song out of my head and am starting to like the damn thing for what it is.

You know what? This song is going to chart. Miss Black will have her day in the sun and make some money off of at least one tour from this. Good for her.
posted by meadowlark lime at 12:42 AM on March 15, 2011

The bad thing is that this song is so bad in so many ways, but it's hooky, that Fry Day Fry Day chorus just sits in your head just like a proper pop hit... So I think it will be! I mean, is it worse than My Humps?
posted by dave99 at 4:14 AM on March 15, 2011

ONTD has a Rebecca Black tour poster, though I'm suspicious of the low quality (I know, I know, why?) and the fact that her performance venue in NYC is "Times Square".
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:22 AM on March 15, 2011

That's gotta be fake. Fifteen malls and Times Square? Plus, I'd imagine if it were a legit poster the designer would have access to images other than video screenshots.

However, in the unlikely event Rebecca Black comes to sing at the Natick mall, I am there.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:30 AM on March 15, 2011

Q: Rebecca, what's the best part of going on tour?
A: The per diem, per diem (yeah).
posted by mintcake! at 6:49 AM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

I was thinking about going to see her at the Natick Mall as well in hopes that she sounds better in person.
posted by lilkeith07 at 7:00 AM on March 15, 2011

Sunday evening, the YT video had 1.1 million hits. It started picking up about 100,000 hits an hour into Monday, and was at 1.5 million on Monday. Tuesday morning, it's at 5.4 million hits.

I wonder how many hits by...Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday....?
posted by Xoebe at 7:17 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

The reason people are reacting so strongly to this song is that it's only a little worse than most Top 40 music these days. The lyrics aren't any less vapid, the music any less soul-less, and the video any less annoying. It barely misses the mark, showing how little talent there is in pop music these days. Sure, there are exceptions (Gaga the first one that comes to mind), but pop music is a wasteland these days.

We're laughing at this now, but it won't be long until someone gets a hit out of a scam like this. (I'm sure FridayFridayFriday is going to make good money for them, in fact.) It'll be a reality show, soon.
posted by papercake at 8:49 AM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wow. How many "these days" can I cram into a post, these days?
posted by papercake at 8:50 AM on March 15, 2011

You can get the single on iTunes now! It cannot be stopped!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:47 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's gotta be fake. Fifteen malls and Times Square? Plus, I'd imagine if it were a legit poster the designer would have access to images other than video screenshots.

Right, plus I checked TicketWeb and there were no tickets for sale. Why would there be, if it was a mall tour? Alas. :(
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:48 AM on March 15, 2011

The lyrics aren't any less vapid, the music any less soul-less, and the video any less annoying. It barely misses the mark, showing how little talent there is in pop music these days. Sure, there are exceptions (Gaga the first one that comes to mind), but pop music is a wasteland these days.

Well, it barely misses the mark for you, but you are not a fan. I showed this to my 10-year-old daughter (who basically only listens to Top-40 and the various Disney Channel tween stars) without any framing other than "You've got to check out this video." Before Rebecca even got to the party, my daughter was cackling with laughter and asking me who could possibly have made such a nightmare. Its ineptitude was clearly apparent, and it was obviously not even in the same league as your Demi Lovatos and your Mitchell Mussos. The lyrics are FAR more vapid, the singing/autotuning is FAR worse, the video production standards are FAR lower if you expose yourself to a lot of this type of thing.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:52 AM on March 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

I wonder how much they'd charge to redo the video and song exactly, but with me in it?
posted by MegoSteve at 10:32 AM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

I wonder how much they'd charge to redo the video and song exactly, but with me in it?

Kickstarter campaign!
posted by Theta States at 11:23 AM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Gotta love commentary.
posted by varion at 11:28 AM on March 15, 2011 [5 favorites]

Metafilter needs two things: it needs to be memorable, and I forget the other thing.
posted by jbickers at 12:28 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Friend on the right replaced by Sad etsy hipster.
posted by vespabelle at 5:03 PM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

varion: Gotta love commentary.

"Wheel well is an invalid seating location"
posted by filthy light thief at 8:32 PM on March 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

(or option, I forget. Ooh, fried egg!)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:32 PM on March 15, 2011

Disappointing, really. The music and video were simply mediocre, I can't see what's particularly funny about it. The production values quite good for a vanity production. The song is somewhat catchy but not particularly.

If this appeared as a mainstream video, I'd never have noticed it - it sounds very little different from what's on the radio right now.

I was really expecting something dramatically bad. Well, I see none of this. It's a regular, boring pop video with slightly cheaper production values.

Look at this quote: "It’s like everyone involved was given cat tranquilizers and then forced at gunpoint to make a video. The expression on her face when she’s saying the “fun fun fun fun” line is somewhere between ‘I’m saying “fun” but that word means something different on our world’ and ‘Help me I am being held hostage by Kim Jong Il and forced to do this.’"

It's like he's talking about some other video entirely - or perhaps he's just trying to show off his fairly mediocre writing skills - or perhaps a little money has been distributed to writers...

I don't see what all the fuss is about - I think you guys have been viraled.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 10:34 PM on March 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

But see this analysis.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:49 PM on March 15, 2011 [6 favorites]

As a counterexample to my point above, this similar vanity video, "My Jeans", is equally bad when it comes to the singing/autotuning (if not worse), but the lyrics and the video production standards are actually approaching a reasonable simulation of the type of song and video you might see out of a lower caliber Disney star. I realize that if you are not exposed to this kind of thing on a daily basis like I am (please, please help me) they may kind of blend together, but to a 10-year-old connoisseur of tween pop like my daughter, the gap is vast.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:55 AM on March 16, 2011

Apparently it sounds better backwards. It actually sounds... pretty interesting.
posted by delmoi at 9:13 AM on March 16, 2011

Despite how horrible the song is, and everything else, I still feel sorry for this girl. No one her age deserves this level of hate and scorn. Here's to the hope that she won't be scarred for life.
posted by crunchland at 10:59 AM on March 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

Here's to hoping she can skim a few thousand in profit from this fiasco to make the medicine go down easier.
posted by Theta States at 11:19 AM on March 16, 2011

I was really expecting something dramatically bad. Well, I see none of this. It's a regular, boring pop video with slightly cheaper production values

Yeah, I'm still feeling this way. I've only listened to the song twice, and not even all the way through (I assume it repeats a lot), and I woke up this morning with the chorus stuck in my head.

CJ Fam is far worse, in my opinion, yet she doesn't have the je ne sais quoi of Rebecca Black.

What gives Friday its universally agreed on most horrible status? It's fascinating to me.

As a counterexample to my point above, this similar vanity video, "My Jeans", is equally bad when it comes to the singing/autotuning (if not worse), but the lyrics and the video production standards are actually approaching a reasonable simulation of the type of song and video you might see out of a lower caliber Disney star

Really? I'd say the gap between Rebecca Black and Jenna Rose is far, far less than the gap between either of them and, say, Miley Cyrus or Ke$ha. Honestly, the Jenna Rose video has slightly better pacing, but I still don't grok the fuss about how bad Friday is. It's fairly unremarkable to me.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:27 PM on March 16, 2011

the je ne sais quoi of Rebecca Black.

Je ne sais quoi? There's nothing mysterious about it. She's stunning, confident in front of the camera, effortlessly projects good vibes and appears to have a centeredness that's rare in people twice her age.

99% of the reason this video has captivated the world is the tension between the silliness of the material and her raw stage presence. It's like listening to Barack Obama telling knock knock jokes.

Bigger than God, ladies and gentlemen. Mark my words.
posted by fleetmouse at 2:13 PM on March 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

She's stunning totally generic, confident locked into a soulless rictus in front of the camera, effortlessly projects good vibes light onto the retina and appears to have a centeredness selfish cynicism that's rare in people twice her age.

So, you're exactly right about her prospects.
posted by cmoj at 3:47 PM on March 16, 2011

fun ^∞
posted by WCityMike at 8:17 PM on March 16, 2011

It's fairly good rave music.
posted by WCityMike at 8:19 PM on March 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

That rave mix is so fucking good. Best part is the rap section.
posted by codacorolla at 8:24 PM on March 16, 2011

The awkward dancing girl with braces has a tumbler now
posted by delmoi at 1:44 AM on March 17, 2011

I prefer Golf Wang's Tumbler. I don't even want to imagine what those guys would say about these girls.
posted by djduckie at 1:50 AM on March 17, 2011

Oh, and Rebecca Black has a twitter account now.

I think the reason she became so popular isn't that it was bad but that it fell into this sort of uncanny valley between being 'professional' and being amateur. The production quality (aside from the flipbook part) was pretty good and you could tell that her voice was being autotuned. So it functioned as some weird parody of 'pop music' except it was totally ernest in it's presentation. People just calling it bad are missing what makes it special.
posted by delmoi at 2:53 AM on March 17, 2011 [7 favorites]

Rebecca Black interview with The Daily Beast

Acing a casting-call audition, Black was invited to record one of two songs label heads had written for her. And, as part of a $2,000 package her mother paid for, they offered to produce an accompanying video in a bid to make a splash on YouTube. The song she picked: “Friday.”

“I didn’t write it at all,” Black said, clearing up a major misconception. “The other song was about adult love–I haven’t experienced that yet. ‘Friday’ is about hanging out with friends, having fun. I felt like it was my personality in that song.”

But the lyrics and production don’t necessarily reflect the real her. Black’s voice arrives sounding heavily processed through pitch-correcting computer software called Auto-Tune. Her unique phrasing renders the word “Friday” as “fry-ee-day.” And such affectless lyrical couplets as We so excited/We gonna have a ball today/Tomorrow is Saturday/And Sunday comes afterward, prompted many to wonder if the whole thing was some kind of elaborate Borat-style prank.

“A few times, when I heard some of the lyrics, I was like, ‘That doesn’t make sense,’” Kelly recalled. “Rebecca said, ‘I sang it as they wrote it, Mom.’ So I didn’t micromanage it.”

posted by Rhaomi at 1:51 PM on March 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, and Rebecca Black has a twitter account now.

Should I have cereal or fried eggs?

"... Black's plan going forward is to record an acoustic version of 'Friday' to showcase her vocal range in a non-Auto-Tune environment."

YES!
posted by mrgrimm at 2:57 PM on March 17, 2011

I think the reason she became so popular isn't that it was bad but that it fell into this sort of uncanny valley between being 'professional' and being amateur. The production quality (aside from the flipbook part) was pretty good and you could tell that her voice was being autotuned. So it functioned as some weird parody of 'pop music' except it was totally ernest in it's presentation.

It almost felt too.....clean. Like something that was designed to be aired on ABC Family, or as a Disney Channel after-school special. A production company with tons of money, talented technicians, but no real artistic direction or idea of how to market something to its intended audience. (Like that time when your high school teacher made that misguided attempt to be hip and relate to his students)

I was half-expecting it to be some sort of "Clean Pop for Teens" initiative from Focus on the Family, or some other big Christian organization with gobs of money. (Not to detract from Christian music -- even though I no longer do churchy things, I'll readily agree that there's actually some surprisingly decent stuff in that genre)
posted by schmod at 10:00 PM on March 17, 2011

This just in: Rebecca Black vs. Amon Amarth.
posted by jbickers at 2:50 AM on March 18, 2011

Quick update guys: IT'S FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN IT'S FRIDAY!
posted by GuyZero at 7:46 AM on March 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Shit, I almost forgot. It is Friday.

The other, much more obvious movie mashup, a.k.a. "Ice Cube Version" (should actually be "Chris Tucker" version)
posted by mrgrimm at 8:18 AM on March 18, 2011

Shit, I almost forgot. It is Friday.

Memebase is calling March 18th, 2011 The Most Anticipated Friday of All Time.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:53 AM on March 18, 2011

Friday on SongMeanings.net.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:56 AM on March 18, 2011

Mmm ... LyricsForever's analysis of the song is pretty brilliant.
posted by jbickers at 9:06 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Deadmau5 remix
posted by empath at 9:06 AM on March 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

For posterity: I posted new "Friday" stuff to the blue today because I had missed this post. Ba-leeted.
posted by hermitosis at 9:10 AM on March 18, 2011

LyricsForever's analysis of the song is pretty brilliant.

I was going to say he/she cribbed it from somewhere, but now I think that might be the original.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:13 AM on March 18, 2011

Im surprised how well the "girl in pink" is taking all the criticism shes getting thrown at her in those questions. I know at that age I wouldn't have been able to handle it. After reading her tumblr and Rebecca's Twitter I can see that they are both bright kids who are taking this all in stride.

It seems like the internet is taking this way more seriously than they are. They said they had fun and were doing what the producers told them to do. They don't care about living up to the internets expectations, which is amazing to see in this day and age.
posted by lilkeith07 at 9:14 AM on March 18, 2011 [7 favorites]

It's like listening to Barack Obama telling knock knock jokes.

Please can someone make this happen
posted by Zozo at 9:42 AM on March 18, 2011

Oh god. This is going to be the new rickroll, isn't it?
posted by schmod at 9:50 AM on March 18, 2011

I was going to write up an extended riff on Ark Music "Factory" as a vehicle for the proletariat to grab the means of production, etc., etc., but I got distracted. Friday, Friday, Friday, Friday....
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:01 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

I bought the single on iTunes to celebrate my FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:22 AM on March 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

Friday by Rebecca Black is now #24 on the iTunes Singles Chart.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:31 AM on March 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

That Ke$ha video linked by mrgrimm contains the line "That's the time / that the enema comes alive". I didn't really want to watch much after that.
posted by Grangousier at 10:39 AM on March 18, 2011

She was on Good Morning America this morning. She just posted the video on her Twitter feed. Oh shit, this video made me knock over my speakers, choke on water I was drinking and almost fall over from stepping to pick up my speakers.

It is supposed to be funny, but there are just so many points of utter incredibleness, to make up a word. From her goofy expressionless expression that perfectly mirrors her goofy expressionless expression in the video, to her actually having a nice singing voice, to her mom saying "Honestly, I could have killed a few people, but where would that get me" in a serious voice in response to YouTube comments, to the reporter reading those comments to her and actually saying "Oh Em Gee" at the end. Throw in the dramatic reporter tone describing the "cyber" bullying which aside from the usual internet ridiculousness comes off more as "We hate this catchy song like we hate most catchy songs" and this is just too much to even take in.

She seems nice enough, and good for her and I hope she meets Beibz like she wants to but damn that was funny as shit.
posted by cashman at 10:48 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh god. This is going to be the new rickroll, hymn that unites humanity in peace and love and fun, isn't it?
posted by Rock Steady at 10:49 AM on March 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

er...It is *not* supposed to be funny.
posted by cashman at 10:49 AM on March 18, 2011

According to a report in the Independent one of the song's writers claims to have completed exams at the Trinity College of Music. I'm sure they must be proud.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:59 AM on March 18, 2011

God, that Good Morning America is insufferable.
posted by odinsdream at 11:04 AM on March 18, 2011

Today is Friday March 15, 2011. The YT video is up to 16.5 million hits, up from just over a million when this FPP was posted.

Nicely done, filthy light thief!
posted by Xoebe at 11:12 AM on March 18, 2011

As a general rule of thumb, Good Morning America makes me despair far more about humanity than 13 year olds being goofy and inane in ways that echo the world they're born into. The kids are just kids; GMA is the result of thousands of man-hours of deliberate purposeful effort by grown-ups in both in response to and in shaping the consumption demands of millions of other adults. And that's not FUN FUN FUN at all when you stop and really contemplate it.

What I'm saying is, the society that results in Good Morning America has far to go, just like Thursday's child. And until it's a distant historical footnote, Friday isn't yet here.
posted by Drastic at 11:15 AM on March 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

March 18. March 18. /smackself
posted by Xoebe at 11:23 AM on March 18, 2011

Goddamnit. This song is actually catchy as fuck. You win this round, Rebecca Black.

It's FRIDAY _{FRIDAYFRIDAYFRIDAYFRIDAYFRIDAYFRIDAY}


ALL HAIL THE BRAIN SLUG.
posted by schmod at 11:33 AM on March 18, 2011

You know, last year I paid quite an astounding amount of money for a few of my friends to get out hair and make-up done by a professional stylist, and have a professional photographer take our pictures.

It was fun. We all have prettier facebook profile images now. None of us came away from the experience imagining we were going to be America's next top model, or even contestants on America's Next Top Model, but did I mention? It was fun.

I don't get the impression that either Rebecca Black or her parents were that deluded either. She's just unfortunate in that people troll YouTube looking for shit to hate. Or I'm fortunate that people don't troll flickr to look for shit to hate. Or perhaps they do, and they just missed me.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:50 AM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is exactly why I listen to pop radio. To have my expectations blown by stuff like this. I listen for the stuff that elevates the medium, or so I claim, but I really love when a truly terrible song hits it big. I like to think the nature of the Top 40s being the, you know, top of something would act as a crude filter to prevent awful music from getting through, and those expectations are always shattered.

Thus, my official stance towards Rebecca Black is this.
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:05 PM on March 18, 2011

She's just unfortunate in that people troll YouTube looking for shit to hate.

Well, how many $.99 singles has she sold so far? And how much of that does she get (I'm guessing $.01-.05 of each sale?). Not so unfortunate.

I have a feeling that she signed away all that revenue, however. Who would think a vanity video would result in a best-selling song?

Up to #23 on iTunes. Selena Gomez is currently #13. Golly I hope she catches her.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:29 PM on March 18, 2011

I bought it (go ahead-- judge me). This song and video (and the resulting hilarious discussion threads on ONTD) have consistently delivered so much laughter for me this week that I felt Rebecca Black earned it.

I still break out laughing at various parts of the song whenever I hear it; it's the best antidepressant out there on the market ;-)
posted by Quiplash at 12:37 PM on March 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

She's giving most of the profits from the song to the recovery effort in Japan, according to this article. Good for her!

Now I feel sort of guilty for laughing so hard. But if people ironically buying the song (and they should, it's FUN FUN FUN FUN to make fun of) gives money to people in need, perhaps we should snark on.

Her family also paid $2000 to record the song, and the song was sort of half-pre-written apparently. Her mom doesn't sound that fond of the lyrics.

That said, if $2000 is all it takes to get professionals to put together a decent looking music video along with an autotuned song, it shows how much easier and cheaper post production is becoming. If they kept out the cheesy calendar flipbook, I'd not suspect it of being done on the (relative) cheap.
posted by mccarty.tim at 2:25 PM on March 18, 2011

Acoustic version from Black.

I like the original better. Or the plethora of other people who did acoustic versions.

I really wanted to like it, and I really don't want to be another person saying "Hurp, she can't sing so she uses computers, but she still ruins music!" I love the absurdity of the original, the laughter it has given me and my friends, and I sincerely hope she/Ark decides to make another video.

I didn't catch on to the phenomena until today.
posted by mccarty.tim at 3:23 PM on March 18, 2011

I like the original better.

Yeah, that was a seriously bad move. Let the original speak for itself ... for a while.

Up to #22 on iTunes Singles Chart. Just passed "Misery" by the Glee Cast ... only 5 more Glee songs to pass!
posted by mrgrimm at 3:43 PM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

No, no no no no. Wrong. Bad Rebecca Black. Bad Ark clowns. That was very very bad.

You should have taken the time to record a proper non auto tuned "acoustic" version in the studio with multiple takes, some nice warm tube preamps and proper pro musicians.

This, ech. You're making a hash of it. Get this girl some proper management stat. That was an out of control mess.
posted by fleetmouse at 5:05 PM on March 18, 2011

Her family also paid $2000 to record the song,

$2000??? That's it, for the song and the video? Well, color me impressed.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:12 PM on March 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah I was going to post the acoustic version.

I have a feeling that she signed away all that revenue, however. Who would think a vanity video would result in a best-selling song?

To be fair, though, Ark music factory did most of the work. But it's impossible know how revenue will be distributed, I mean, we have no idea. It's likely that no one had any idea how big this would get, and probably didn't plan for it. Also I'm stunned that this whole thing only cost $2000. I had figured like 2 or 3 times that much.
posted by delmoi at 8:32 PM on March 18, 2011

This, ech. You're making a hash of it. Get this girl some proper management stat. That was an out of control mess.

The girl needs parenting, not management. She's just being exploited at this point, and she doesn't look like she's having fun.
posted by empath at 8:46 PM on March 18, 2011

The 'condensed' version.

I find this whole thing immensely entertaining
posted by delmoi at 10:27 PM on March 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

> She's just being exploited at this point, and she doesn't look like she's having fun.

Give. Me. A. Break.

"Exploited" is kids working for $2 a day making shoes in a sweatshop factory. Exploited is 12-year old prostitutes in Thailand.

For $2K, this couldn't have taken as much as a day to film - I'd guess an afternoon, actually. She looks pretty stiff and nervous in the videos, but I can't imagine it was any big deal, and given that this place turns out a gazillion of these, I imagine they have the mechanism down totally and have zero stress on the "talent".

Frankly, this is pretty damned good for $2K. She got MILLIONS of views!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:17 PM on March 18, 2011

Brutal Metal Cover
posted by delmoi at 5:02 AM on March 19, 2011

So it's only $2000 to do that? Ark is about to get a lot of business from all the moms and dads who think their sons and daughters are the most talented and special kids on the planet.

I'm really puzzled by the low cost. I watched the other videos of other Ark Factory kids (all made me throw up a little) and they appear to have all kinds of costumes, setting changes, lighting, other child actors in it. All those things have to be paid for, right?

I watched the other videos by aspiring pop stars manufactured by Ark. They're all here: http://rumorfix.com/full-entry/2011/3/18/more-undiscovered-talent-from-ark-music-factory.html

she thinks Rebecca Black looks like Selena Gomez but with a smaller head.

No, she looks like Rachel Lea. They are twins nearly.
posted by anniecat at 1:11 PM on March 19, 2011

Here is another Ark Music Factory "product." It's so depressing. Kaya Rosenthal. Man, I can't believe parents pamper their kids' vanity so much.

Is the rap artist they put in the videos the same rapper? Also, is the "crush" guy the same boy?
posted by anniecat at 1:16 PM on March 19, 2011

COLLECT ALL SEVEN
posted by Rhaomi at 1:28 PM on March 19, 2011

I actually really liked the dramatic storyline of Without Your Love. Especially the gross line of drool.
posted by amicamentis at 1:42 PM on March 19, 2011

Oh no, this is a sampling of a lot of the Ark kids at the Ark Music "Launch Party".

I've officially turned to "feeling sorry for these kids and their easily manipulated parents."
posted by anniecat at 2:15 PM on March 19, 2011

They even have a Katy Perry knockoff in that video! And the male singers are atrocious.

I'm jealous of the founders of Ark. They are pretty smart to pick up on how some rich parents will open their wallets for their kids. They are going to be sooooo rich if they already aren't. They don't have to promise to make the kids stars, just crank out a lame song and a video and give them a web page.I bet they can charge them all kinds of additional fees to do some paltry promotions.
posted by anniecat at 2:25 PM on March 19, 2011

Bear in mind that this pay-for-production deal is exactly the same as what's practiced in the "real" music industry. Many artists never see a dime in profits by the time the upfront costs are paid back. Sheeit, Steve Albini talked about this yonks ago. If Kaya Rosenthal's parents want to give their money to a couple of producers instead of buying a new home theatre rig, I am totally cool with that.

Now it looks like most if not all of these girls will get a shot because of all the attention. Hell, Simon Cowell says he's interested in meeting Rebecca Black. I bet he'll check out some of the other gals too, or someone else will.
posted by fleetmouse at 2:26 PM on March 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

Bear in mind that this pay-for-production deal is exactly the same as what's practiced in the "real" music industry. Many artists never see a dime in profits by the time the upfront costs are paid back.

You know, it kind of reminds me of some questions I had when I read a profile of Taylor Swift. It seemed that before she hit it big, her parents had bought her song writer-collaborators or some kind of coaches who were professional song writers. It seemed curious, like her parents had bought her a number of advantages. Taylor Swift's parents were very well-to-do, but that shouldn't come as a surprise. I don't know any actors or singers who really didn't have financially well off parents with the resources to support their kid's dream of becoming famous and gives them an advantage over the people who have to stop because their parents recognize that fame is really unlikely for most people.
posted by anniecat at 2:35 PM on March 19, 2011

Sorry, I don't mean to over comment, I've gotten sort of obsessed with finding out more about Ark Music Factory and the parents involved in these little pop starlet wannabees.

I found this article in a legitimate regional newspaper about Kaya Rosenthal. She's from Madison, WI, and her dad is a musician and her mom is an attorney. The way the piece is written, the journalist spins it to make it seem like Kaya actually is talented and he doesn't mention that her mom paid for Kaya to be packaged and professionalized.

Her parents are paying for more than that, but the article makes it appear like she's being discovered, instead of her parents quite literally paying for her every "achievement" in getting a music career going:


She is also not yet a sensation, although some pretty smart people in Los Angeles think it just might happen, including the savvy producers of that first single and the high-powered entertainment law firm that recently took her on as a client.

Okay, her producers are Ark Music Factory and her mom paid them to make her a video and an original song. Secondly, the entertainment law firm didn't likely seek her out as a client for free; Kaya's mom is paying them and they are probably thrilled to get paid by rich parents.

Additionally:

This past April, the producers Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson offered a deal that made sense financially and artistically. On the strength of Kaya's single — recorded in May — the entertainment law firm that handles Justin Bieber and Christina Aguilera agreed to represent her.

$2000 goes a long way with Ark, obviously. And I'm pretty sure the firm that reps Justin Bieber and Christina Aguilera probably also represent anyone willing to pay them a lot of money to be represented by them.

I'm assuming this journalist is either a family friend who is spinning the facts or just a guy who didn't delve that deeply into the "daughter is a young Britney" thing. And Kaya's mom's a lawyer and obviously intelligent (Rebecca Black's mom is a veterinarian and obviously no dummy), and somehow they both got suckered into this and supporting what is truly a superficial endeavor.

What I feel worst about is that there are so many young girls out there who want to be models, pop singers, actresses (not like Meryl Streep-serious-actress but more like "I want to play myself and be rich and pretty" actresses), and their well-educated parents (moms, even) appear to be supporting them in these superficial goals.

I hope someone, like a team of social psychologists, does a study of why young girls want so much to be pop singers and models. Is it the money? Is it the hope that everyone will love them? Is it a desire to be pretty or feel important or special? I'd like to understand more about this phenomenon.
posted by anniecat at 3:11 PM on March 19, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think it's just the way of the world. When fish fry hatch most of them are gobbled up but a few survive. Oh the circle of liiiiiiiife....

Justin Bieber came out of nowhere with a poor background. There's your exception to the rich parents paying to have their kids groomed (which immediately sounded sick as soon as I typed it)
posted by fleetmouse at 3:15 PM on March 19, 2011

Justin Bieber came out of nowhere with a poor background. There's your exception to the rich parents paying to have their kids groomed (which immediately sounded sick as soon as I typed it)

Good point. And his mom is a fundie Christian and anti-Semite to boot, so that's some unlikely success. Though I think his mom's crazy is probably swept under the rug to some extent.

I'm jealous. I wish I'd been a rich 12 year old with overindulgent parents. Then again, I'm fairly certain 25-year old versions of these kids are going to be extremely embarrassed by their videos, especially when their parents play them over and over at family get togethers.
posted by anniecat at 3:21 PM on March 19, 2011

The notorious girl in pink posted a video response.
posted by fleetmouse at 4:27 PM on March 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Benni Cinkle (Girl from the gif) does a video FAQ on youtube.

Oh and they apparently cranked out this video in a week. Heh.
posted by delmoi at 4:29 PM on March 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

The notorious girl in pink posted a video response .

Someone dubbed her the "Awkward Girl in Pink."
posted by anniecat at 4:47 PM on March 19, 2011

Awkward for a reason. She says they told her to dance in a silly, weird manner. That's the first hint I've seen that the whole thing is deliberately retarded.
posted by fleetmouse at 5:04 PM on March 19, 2011

IIRC, Shia LaBeouf grew up poor (or at least considered himself such), so it's not like every successful person in the media starts off rich. You can argue that he's not a megastar (true), but he's had some good, steadily increasing success. I mean, he did some cute sitcoms and TV movies for Disney, and now he's in one of the more successful action movie franchises.

Pity its a dumb one that makes everyone in it look bad.
posted by mccarty.tim at 5:05 PM on March 19, 2011

Yeah, I just read about LeBeouf's childhood on Wikipedia. I'd say it's more than accurate to say he wasn't coddled by a rich family into fame, to put it mildly.
posted by mccarty.tim at 5:09 PM on March 19, 2011

IIRC, Shia LaBeouf grew up poor (or at least considered himself such), so it's not like every successful person in the media starts off rich.

Not every person, but most successful child stars and actors and actresses are either from wealthy families or their parents were in the business anyway.
posted by anniecat at 9:39 AM on March 20, 2011

I was going to say he/she cribbed it from somewhere, but now I think that might be the original.

I believe he/she plagiarized it from a /b/ poster.
posted by WCityMike at 12:48 PM on March 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is supposed to be a song about handling bullying.

I'm not sure it will work. First of all, she calls herself J'Rose, and secondly, I couldn't make it through the entire video without feeling bad.

(I'm a terrible person. Totally desensitized by having seen too many baby videos, Ark Music videos on YouTube, and those videos of stage kids who are precocious and come off as creepy.)
posted by anniecat at 3:43 PM on March 20, 2011

Yeah, I just read about LeBeouf's childhood on Wikipedia. I'd say it's more than accurate to say he wasn't coddled by a rich family into fame, to put it mildly.

Holy crap. I hate the guy a whole lot less after reading that.

(Also, does anybody else think that a Shia LeBeouf biopic would be infinitely better than anything that Shia LeBeouf has ever been cast in? His life story sounds like it's make a pretty compelling film.)
posted by schmod at 4:41 PM on March 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Benni Cinkle yt (Girl from the gif) does a video FAQ on youtube.

This girl is truly an expert at internet-based phenomena. Seriously, perfect response.
posted by odinsdream at 5:12 PM on March 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Friday - Voice Dub (YT). The challenge is to see how long you can make it through without laughing.
posted by cashman at 1:28 PM on March 22, 2011

That makes sense, WCityMike. I assume. /b/ is not in google's default search.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:48 PM on March 22, 2011

(anniecat, if you read upthread, a lot of that stuff has already been covered...)
posted by mrgrimm at 1:52 PM on March 22, 2011

Years before Rebecca Black, Boney M released "The Calendar Song".

Complete lyrics for this song:

"January, February, March, April, May
June, July....

August, September, October,
November, December"
posted by iviken at 3:46 PM on March 22, 2011

"The apparent frivolity of "Friday" is only its most cunning aspect, a bubble-gum Trojan horse containing a radical text throwing itself against the gears of a death-bound society. And in Ms. Black’s voice we hear the full cry of a revolutionary age, Benghazi echoing across Orange County, the ancient wail of all who have ever wanted more."

Rebecca Black's "Friday" As Radical Text
posted by dephlogisticated at 5:07 PM on March 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Rebecca Black Might Be A Millionaire Soon -- in which Rebecca Black is compared to Spaghetti Cat and STAINS, and where a a Forbes blog post noted that $2,000 paid by Black's mom to Ark Music Factory went from two songs and one video into a possible $20,000 from YouTube ad revenue and more from iTunes sales (the Forbes blog post first stated there were 2 MILLION downloads on iTunes, which was then revised to be 37,000 in the first week of sales).
posted by filthy light thief at 3:44 AM on March 24, 2011

I wonder what kind of contract she signed with Ark, though. It's probably $2000 as a near loss-leader to create this kind of 1-in-1000 sensation.
posted by Theta States at 8:07 AM on March 24, 2011

Death Metal Friday
posted by cashman at 12:49 PM on March 24, 2011

Interview with Rebecca's Mom! I'm a little too happy that she confirms my theory that the part in the song about which seat to take is, in fact, about the bus, and they just couldn't afford to get one for the video rental.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:03 AM on March 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Mustn't miss: Rebecca Black's Friday as interpreted by a bad lip reader: Gang Fight!
posted by progosk at 2:04 PM on March 25, 2011 [17 favorites]

Gang Fight!

Favorited SO HARD.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:06 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

progosk winned the thred
posted by not_on_display at 6:10 PM on March 25, 2011

I'm a little too happy that she confirms my theory that the part in the song about which seat to take is, in fact, about the bus, and they just couldn't afford to get one for the video rental.

And that car: it was her dad's.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:39 PM on March 25, 2011

Now you go away, na-na-na.

Very good.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:11 PM on March 27, 2011

Brooker on Black - How to tweet bile without alienating people. Or making 13-year-old girls cry
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:39 AM on March 28, 2011

I saw Rebecca Black on Jay Leno and she is just such a adorable person. Seems like a really sweet girl.


And that car: it was her dad's.

Those kids weren't really driving it,were they?
posted by anniecat at 5:47 PM on March 28, 2011

Friday in Hell. Very impressive, not for the easily unnerved.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 2:05 PM on April 1, 2011

Busy Old Fool: "Friday in Hell. Very impressive, not for the easily unnerved."

Seems to be another take on this, which predates it.
posted by WCityMike at 11:04 PM on April 1, 2011

Stephen Colbert sings it on Jimmy Fallon with The Roots.
posted by Gary at 12:17 AM on April 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

“Friday” now appears to be at the center of a legal showdown over who owns the copyright. Some of you may be thinking: who would admit to liking this song, let alone owning it? But, as they say, 50 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong. And when you have a song that people are paying for just so they can talk about how bad it is, well, my friends, now you’ve got something worth fighting over.

...

Last Friday (really!), Rolling Stone reported (in a story I’m assuming was not an April Fool’s joke), that Black’s mother was accusing Ark Music Factory of copyright infringement in connection with the song. A letter from Black’s lawyer alleges that Ark failed to provide Black with the master recordings of her song and video as required by their November 2010 agreement, has been exploiting her likeness on YouTube, iTunes, and Ark’s website without permission, has falsely claimed she is exclusively signed to Ark, and created an unauthorized “Friday” ringtone.

Ark’s Wilson reportedly said that Black’s mother “will get the masters and the song. They can have it all,” and agreed that Black was not exclusive to Ark. But Ark’s lawyer is casting doubt on the validity of the November agreement, saying it was not “court-approved,” and adding: “They say they own the composition. Nothing could be further from the truth. If they go forward and license it or attempt to copyright it in their name, that would be copyright infringement and we’d act accordingly under the circumstances.”
So, how do we sort out this mess so everyone can get back to dealing with more important issues (like figuring out what a 13-year-old girl is doing partyin’ partyin’ and riding in her friend’s car without a seatbelt)?

Rebecca Black 'Friday' Controversy: A Serious Legal Analysis, The Hollywood Reporter
posted by mrgrimm at 3:53 PM on April 7, 2011

Teen music sensation Rebecca Black Blue and her internet hit Friday are actually a viral marketing campaign for a new movie, it has been revealed.

A press statement from Universal Studios says Rebecca Black is a character from the family movie The Music Factory, due for release on April 29.

Little-known 15-year-old actress Jessica Jones, who has portrayed Black in the Friday music video and in several television appearances, stars in the film.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:29 PM on April 10, 2011

Hoax, UbuRoivas.

Though it would be quite a fitting final flourish, there was something just a little bit thin about it, not least that there was no actual other trace/source of this "statement to the press" other than that site.

All in all, though, I wouldn't put it beyond them/us to game/have been gamed...
posted by progosk at 11:50 PM on April 10, 2011

Whoops, "instantfreesite.com" should've been a dead giveaway.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:18 AM on April 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I wonder how many hoaxes have been attempted since Bieber took off.
posted by Gary at 10:51 AM on April 11, 2011