Rebecca+Black-Friday

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====Rebecca Black is starry eyed eighth-grader who became a tween pop sensation overnight after her YouTube video for her song, "Friday" went viral. It was first posted in mid-February. It gained popularity after The Daily What blogged about it on Friday March 11, 2011. By March 15, 2011 the video had more than 3 million views--by March 21, 2011 it had a staggering 30 million views and surpassed Justin Bieber's hit "Never Say Never" to become the 25th most downloaded song on iTunes. ====

The video's success may be for all the wrong reasons: it has received massive amounts of negative comments on YouTube; parodies and remixes of Friday (dubstep, metal, chipmunk etc.) have sprung up all over the internet; Daniel Tosh made fun of the video on his blog and show, Tosh.0; Time.com called the video, "a whole new level of bad." Rebecca Black spoke about how she's dealing with the negative feedback and revealed some of the most hurtful comments directed at her in her interview on Good Morning America:

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Black claims, “At times, it feels like I’m being cyberbullied.” I think she is dealing with the criticism well by sticking to her guns and refusing to pull the video off YouTube. The song and video were written and produced by Maurice Starr and John Bennett Ramsey of the L.A. based Ark Music Factory Company. Rebecca Black seems right up their alley as a look at Ark's roster reveals that they specialize in working with young girls. Black responded to a casting call from Ark Music Factory and paid $2000 to record and shoot the video that was to be posted on YouTube in hopes of Rebecca's discovery. Well guys, it worked. I just hope the Patrice (the rapper in the car at 2:30) has the same success.

There's no denying that Starr and Ramsey produced a catchy pop hit, but with lyrics that clearly outline the order of the days of the week, an existential debate about which seat to take, and nice description of her morning routine it's unclear whether Friday was intended to be taken seriously or ironically. Either way, it's become a target for mass amounts of ridicule and cyberbullying that no 13 year old should have to endure. Rebecca and her friend Benni seem to be dealing with it well.

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Still can't get enough? Catch Rebecca Black on her Mall Tour.

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