Rebecca Black is all over the Internet, and has been for a couple weeks now. In case you haven't heard, her music video for the song, "Friday" has created buzz for all the wrong reasons. But any publicity is good publicity, as this has proven true through Black's blow-up on YouTube. "Friday" now has more views (38 million) than Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" video (24 million).
So how does such a bad song/video become so popular? "In part because Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black are two sides of the same Internet fame coin: Black is like the anti-Justin Bieber; her “Friday” video has all the trappings of pop star gloss, with none of the talent," says TechCrunch blogger Alexia Tsotsis. While Black's parents paid $2,000 to have a professional video made, Bieber was discovered through homemade YouTube videos. Each star is at the opposite end of the extreme, and both are successful.
What does this say about our society? That we'll popularize a music video because of how terrible it is? It means we are hungry for entertainment, whether that takes talent or not. I don't know how many status updates and tweets I've seen lately referring to "Which seat can I take" or "Tomorrow is Saturday/And Sunday comes after...wards." Even celebrities are tweeting about her. Rebecca Black has remained a top trend on Twitter since March 13. Whether or not Black wanted this much fame, and for these reasons, her name is well-known and everyone seems to be talking about her.
Becoming a YouTube sensation overnight really is true! It's pretty ridiculous to see how fast this girls "popularity" has grown in a such a short amount of time, all thanks to social media. I had been hearing about this video everywhere and decided to finally YouTube it last night after they were talking about it on the radio. After only a few seconds of watching the video, I understood all the "hype" behind it. Here, you have a girl who is finding fame for singing...when she really has no singing talent! 5 or 10 years ago, this wouldn't have been popular online...but thanks to others like you mentioned, the Beib's, videos go viral a lot faster these days!
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that apparently she doesn't mind the negative attention. I can't remember where I read it exactly, but she had said something along the lines of how people were still seeing the video and were singing the song because it was catchy. The article I read made it seem like she was happy with the fame. Then again, I've also seen her featured in cyberbullying articles as well, so I wonder how she really feels about it all.
ReplyDeleteI would not necessarily say that Rebecca Black is successful, but she is definitely popular. Like you said, today’s society will popularize something because of how terrible it is. Negative attention is still attention and has just the same power as positive attention. To be honest, I am more likely to tell my friends about a video that is funny, embarrassing, or just stupid than about a video that has positive feelings connected to it. It really is unfortunate that that is my tendency, but obviously many other people (especially my age) are the exact same way. Social media has catapulted the popularity of this video. I have seen numerous Facebook statuses and Tweets about it. It would not have been possible for the popularity of this video to explode as it has in such a short time without social media sites. Numbers do not lie. Rebecca Black’s video currently has over 43 million views and is the #10 most discussed music video on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy to me. I just watched her video for the first time and was almost embarrassed for her. She's really not that good, and she's singing about FRIDAY. Seems pretty lame to me. But I guess I could see how a younger crowd would be into it. I can also see how this video has gone "viral." Anytime there's any type of "new sensation", be it good or bad, people are dying to check it out. And a lot of times the worse it is the more people watch it.
ReplyDeleteWow-I can't believe she has been gaining so much popularity, because I agree she is not very good. Although, she and Justin Bieber are a prime example of how youtube can launch a successful career. Even Taylor Swift thanks Myspace to her claim to fame. Social Networks have proven to be an useful and successful tool to get your name out there.
ReplyDeleteThis video has definitely gone viral...because it's so bad. I hadn't watched it since I just saw this post today, but I had heard my friends talking about it and how stupid it was. Until I watched it, I thought she was TRYING to be bad and make a funny video, just to make fun of people like Justin Bieber. After viewing the video, I'm pretty sure she posted it in a serious attempt to become famous (in a good way). This video just goes to show how social media makes it easy for anyone, or any product, to gain attention...fast.
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