Ever since 13 year-old Rebecca Black has her first music video go viral with a song about a weekday; she has been just on the edge of the public’s consciousness. Videos that have ranged in views from hundreds of thousands to millions. Her latest effort has gotten the young artist props for getting better. In 2011, Black’s song Friday went viral and her name became synonymous with simplistic lyrics and negative comments.
Despite the fact that the $4,000 video was wildly popular to make fun of, the fact remained that just by the views alone, the video made the young teen a YouTube star. The video is at the end of the article for your viewing pleasure.
Part of the credit belongs to the ARK Music Factory. The song was written and produced by them featuring Black as the singer in what has been dubbed “the worst song ever.” Rebecca’s mother paid $4,000 for the privilege of allowing her daughter to star in the music video. Unfortunately one of the downsides to “instant fame” is getting the wrong kinds of attention.
Rebecca began to receive death threats; mainly in the form of phone calls and emails. Black had been bullied at school and eventually withdrew from public school to participate in homeschooling because of her old classmates taunting her.
Black and her viral song/video Friday has thus far had almost 92 million views since it first appeared. The teenager has continued to post to her YouTube Channel – Rebecca – with varying degrees of success. Two years ago she uploaded another song/video titled My Moment. Her second song has pulled in over 38 million views and rising.
Her latest musical effort, Saturday, is a sort of metaphorical return to her roots. The only real connection between the two songs is her “tongue-in-cheek” references to both her earlier song and a quick little poke at Miley Cyrus’ with her passion for twerking. Since her video has gone viral, rather quickly it must be pointed out, she gets props from a lot of folks who were quick to diss her first effort.
Rebecca Black is back and her latest viral video may be another tune about weekdays, or to be exact a day in the weekend, and she’s not just three years older; she has gotten better.
The Saturday song features a Miley look-a-like; YouTube personality Dave Day; and a lot of young people who appear to like Saturday’s as much as Rebecca does. Black and the participants in the video are not the only ones who like Saturday. Since the video was posted two days ago, it has had almost 10.5 million views. Viral for the third time and Black is only 16, quite an accomplishment.
Another difference between her first song about the last day before the weekend and her latest one about the day immediately following is who produced the song. ARK Music Factory have been banished from the Black’s sphere of creativity. Mrs Black sued the music production company for not honoring their contract terms which were meant to transfer the song and its rights to Rebecca and family.
ARK Music Factory claimed that the original agreement was null and void and to prove it they sold a Friday ringtone. All the “behind the scenes” legal bickering made the video persona non grata on YouTube and it was pulled from the site. Later YouTube allowed the video to be posted on Rebecca’s own channel.
One thing has not changed from her first viral hit. The “likes” and “dislikes” on the video look pretty familiar. On her Friday debut, the dislikes on the video were in very, very high figures. Negative comments were as numerous as the positive ones. At this point, her latest video has around 119,000 “likes” and around 66,000 “dislikes.”
The comments, however, on Rebecca Black’s viral weekday video are surprisingly good. Sure the haters are back, but, more than a few commenters have given Black some “props” for not only singing better, but, having a slightly better tune lyric-wise. You have to give the 16 year-old credit (props) for not giving up and remembering that it was a day of the week that set her in the right direction. You can watch the video below.
By Michael Smith
United Kingdom
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