Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Rebecca Black's "Friday"

It is hard to write about this topic without including phrases such as “worst singer ever” and “what did I just listen to?”, as well as taking a bitterly sarcastic tone throughout the entire blog post. However, based solely on facts alone, Rebecca Black’s song “Friday” has reached an insane amount of 120,000,000 views on Youtube, more than pop stars such as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. What this says about our country and internet fads…well…I don’t know. But I do know that this girl has attracted more attention in just a couple months than some artists have spent years building up to or have never achieved. The video was posted on Youtube roughly two months ago by Rebecca’s production company called “Ark Music Factory”, where it quickly gained attention as “the worst song ever.” While the attention it received was predominately negative, it was enough to spark attention from big time artists, as well as interviewers and talk show hosts wanting to sit down with Rebecca and discuss the reaction to her song. As media attention grew, so did the number of viewers not only for Rebecca’s video, but for all other artists associated with Ark Music Factory. How is this affecting the economy you might ask? With all of these views, Black is having a serious affect on the music industry. Stars such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have given her attention, and famous bands have even taken to covering her song. There are also rumors that the show “Glee” will be covering her song on an upcoming episode. All this attention means big bucks for Ark Music Factory. The more attention Rebecca receives, the greater the demand becomes for her song. Sales of her song and covers of her song have shot up on Itunes, earning the production company an amount of money well in the millions…and the number is only climbing. With the continuous attention, demand will always be increasing. Rebecca also plans to release an EP, which, I’m sure, will earn big bucks from virtually everyone whom curiosity will get the better of.

Allie Armstrong

3 comments:

  1. I can't believe this song became as big of a hit as it did. But I agree with you in that the demand for this song has hit the sky. SO many people, whether giving positive of negative attention, has made this song what it is. As the demand goes up, it is true that she will continue to make more money as well as the Ark Music Factory. But I disagree that the demand will ALWAYS be increasing. Eventually people will get sick of it (like me!) and only become annoyed by it. Therefore, people will no longer want to buy it or listen to it. Do you think that if she produces another song, it will become just as popular? It makes sense at first thought that a new song would, but I think eventually everyone will block her out and forget about her. Maybe only her first song "Friday" will be a hit.

    I'm not so sure that Lady Gaga and Katy Perry would get positive attention from covering her song either. Not to be confused with attention in general. If they are only looking for money, covering her song might be good. But if they are looking for fans, I would try something different. Haha

    Amber Stephens

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  2. Rebecca Black has the potential to make a huge impact on the music industry as we know it. Her song has become increasingly popular for being so bad and so quotable. It would not suprise me if she started coming out with products that had the phrases "Gotta Get Down on Friday" or "Which seat shall I take". Rebecca Black could possibly make millions if she sold merchandise. Charlie Sheen can do it, so it wouldn't suprise me if Rebecca Black could too. Who knows maybe in the near future shirts with "What Seat Shall I Take?" will be as popular as the ones that say "Duh,Winning." She is also obviously making tons of money for her record label because she is bring tons of publicity to the company. However, I do agree with Amber and eventually people will get sick of her song and the demand will go down. It is very unlikely that she will be able to come up with another song that will force people to remember her. She is probably just a fad and her demand will decrease soon enough. Hopefully she can come up with merchandise to make money before the song's popularity decreases.

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  3. I think this situation just goes to show that the idea that any popularity is good popularity is a solid, relevant one. Obviously, whether ultimately good or bad, there is a demand in the world for something that everyone can inference to and discuss, whether because of a shared dislike or a shared affection. Even though Rebecca Black's song was awful, the demand for something just that awful made it an incredibly successful hit.

    And maybe this song is beginning a new generation of music. There have always been those that like and dislike a certain genre of music, and record labels have always worked to appeal to their audience to sell their music. However, from Ark, there seems to be a consistent theme of music that everyone dislikes, and what if that's the new thing? Labels creating music so bad, garnering the most amount haters, as opposed to the old system of split interests? Would this drastically change the music business? Would the supply and demand of legitimate, good music plummet, as labels are focusing on making the worst song of the day? How would the demand for bad songs be affected in a world where bad songs are the only ones heard on the radio? Who knows?

    Zander

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