Each month, the BRAG writers pick out a pop culture artefact that they feel has been unfairly slighted; Poppy Reid makes her case for Rebecca Black, a viral star who deserves more love than she’s received.
You’d be forgiven for believing that history has not been kind to one Rebecca Black, the Californian 20-year-old whose debut single was dubbed “the worst song ever” in 2011.
After all, everybody knows Black’s story. It has become one of those internet legends – a proto-myth, embedded deeply into the code of the net itself. Just 14 at the time, Black convinced her mum to pay $4,000 to music factory Ark – an alleged pseudo scam which essentially prays on young hopefuls who’ve watched too much Hannah Montana and have dreams of becoming the next Miley Cyrus. Ark wrote Black’s debut single ‘Friday’ for her, recorded the now infamous video with her in it, and then uploaded the whole thing up to YouTube.
What was meant to be a video for future school projects spread for years to come. ‘Friday’ clocked over 167 million views on YouTube in a matter of months (this is before Black issued a copyright claim against Ark and had it removed). It also hit number one on the Billboard Heatseekers chart in the US, where first-week sales tipped over 40,000. And then shortly afterwards, it hit the Top 40 in New Zealand, and number 61 in the UK. Black even took out a highly coveted Teen Choice Award in 2011, and was named ‘The Number One Most Searched’ on Google in 2012. Should I go on?
Granted, the song was rather lacking substance – albeit in an enjoyable way – was overwhelmingly kitsch, and painted Black as maladroit, but her career ruled much of the early noughties and defined the impact of YouTube monetisation for Gen Z. She quite literally changed the game.
She quite literally changed the game.
For every death threat Black received for the track’s unnerving auto-tune and hapless lyrics (“yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday,” anyone?“), she has also vetted career opportunities from Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, Glee’s music supervisor and the queen of contemporary pop herself, Katy Perry.
Indeed, perhaps what is most shocking about Rebecca Black – and no, before you ask, it’s not that she made in excess of US$1 million in 2011 alone – is that despite starting one of the most criticised careers in recent memory under a global spotlight as an early teen, she has changed the very music industry business model itself.
Following a cameo in Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)’ video, Black blessed Australia with a national tour, sponsored by the country’s biggest telco, Telstra, all just a few months after ‘Friday’ was released.
For every death threat Black received for the track’s unnerving auto-tune and hapless lyrics (“yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday,” anyone?“), she has also vetted career opportunities.
Not one to let one song’s popularity start and end her music career, Black followed up ‘Friday’ with (wait for it), ‘Saturday’ (what else was the follow-up meant to be called?) Rebecca Black had seen the myriad ‘Friday’ parody tracks and raised you her own. Beneath its awkward ‘Disney outtake’ manner, and the failed attempt at legitimacy with YouTuber Dave Days as the featuring artist, the follow-up almost vindicated Black.
Gone was the Ark-controlled mouthpiece who spouted lyrics she didn’t write through the crutch of autotune, and standing in her place was a songwriter who didn’t take herself too seriously, but could hit enough of the notes needed to make it on college radio.
Indeed, ‘Saturday’ received over 32.2 million YouTube hits, hit number 55 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and sold 3,000 downloads in its first week.
Say what you like about Rebecca Black, but her ability to capitalise on accidental success and carve out a place in the music industry for herself remains a convincing argument that she is so much more than a music trivia answer at a beer-soaked pub on King Street.
