"Friday"--Rebecca Black.

So, many of you have probably seen the music video for the recently released song "Friday", by Rebecca Black, an 8th grader from Anaheim Hills, California. The song went live on iTunes a few days ago on March 14th and has since made a splash with a music video on Youtube, where many negative comments about the video and the overall integrity of the song have been made. The production was paid in full by the 13 year old's parents and produced by Clarence Jay and Patrice Wilson at ARK Music Factory. I thought I'd add my two cents on the matter:

Personally, I hadn't heard of the song until my 14 year old brother asked me, "So, have you heard that awful 'Friday' song or seen that music video that goes along with it?" I answered no, although I did recall getting some facebook invite to "Friday" with a girl's picture on it. Naturally, I was curious so I watched the music video and began to read the comments.

I must say, teen pop is not my area of expertise and it's not really an avenue of music that I've explored since I was a tween around the time of S Club 7. However, I thought that right off the bat the song's chorus bore a striking resemblance to Beiber's "Baby", which for better or worse, has been stuck in many heads at one point or another during the past months. Although many comments toward Black's video have gone so far as to call it "The Worst Pop Song Ever", it really is as if this particular production is just attempting to carbon copy most other teen pop out there today. Do I think that Justin Beiber or Miley Cirus are that much more talented or capable than Rebecca Black? No, it's really all in the promotion of these young sensations and it's hardly fair to blame Rebecca herself for this production when, really, she had little to do with its outcome overall.

To ask another question, is any press good press? Can this release be considered successful because it's getting such attention from the media, even if the song itself was not necessarily well received? Is Rebecca Black having the last laugh? If the song is for all intents and purposes a bust, can somebody like Rebecca Black, who has now won the media's eye turn it around and come out with a bona fide hit? I suppose that time will tell...

...and hopefully I won't blog about Teen Pop all too often in the future...

Peace.Love.Music

Kara Ali