It's a "uniquely terrible" song, and it may just be music to parents' ears. Rebecca Black's "Friday" says more about the state of cultural values in America, than perhaps her shallow teeny bopper song may let on.
In an age where drug and alcohol abuse [1], profanity [2], oral sex [3], threesomes [4], and sadomasochism [5] are themes in pop culture songs, parents rightfully throw up their hands and wonder where the innocence has gone. Enter: Rebecca Black's YouTube hit, "Friday."
Black has been made fun of on television [6], attacked on blog posts, [7] cyberbullied, [8] and called a talentless "b***h" by viewers who were disappointed by her superficial lyrics and cheesy music video about life as a 13-year-old. According to an interview with Black, viewers have told her to cut herself, get an eating disorder, even end her life [9], "Friday" is a synthesized pop song about a young girl's daily decisions about school and weekend plans.
Black took the internet by storm after 'Friday' was posted on YouTube on February 10, 2011. In a little over a month, Black's video has received more than 69 million hits, [10] and has landed her spots on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno [11], and Good Morning America [9]. While most of the attention has focused on her immature song and video, there is a lesson to be learned and a broader point to be made by her age-appropriate success.
With former role models like Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan [12] turning from innocent Disney icons into raunchy adult stars, Rebecca Black has provided a welcome relief from the relentless sexualization of chidlhood.
"Friday" has been excoriated as "uniquely terrible," [13] "hilariously dreadful," [14] and called the "Worst Song Ever" [9] But Black's "Friday" is exactly what parents are looking for to replace the filth in pop culture. Society has been spending too much time poking fun at her shallow song, and not enough time recognizing that almost 70 million hits means that a popular video flocked with an innocent message can still win out.
For instance, the video for Lady Gaga's chart-topping [15] hit "Born This Way" [16] on YouTube has only garnered a little over 28 million hits, compared to black's 69 million. The 'gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered' anthem from the pop sensation accrued more than 440,000 downloads in its first week. This radio and digital sales record-breaking song [17] has yet to receive even half of the internet hits already obtained by the previously unknown teen.
