YouTube Stars!

Its been a year and a half since Patrice Wilson and Ark Music Factory gave us the song and video, "Friday" - sung by 13 year old Rebecca Black. We all know the story of Friday, but if you somehow missed it, read our coverage here.

Patrice is back on the YouTube scene with a song that is very much a clone of Friday. This song is about Thanksgiving, but features a lot of the same lyrical and video styles from Friday. The video starts with an allusion to time. The lyrics are about time. They even contain the same triple we - "we we we". In Friday, it was, " we we we so excited" and now its "we we we we're gonna have a good time."

Both songs contain wholesome lyrics that do not rhyme (other than "school is out, I can shout") about having fun in groups. "Fun, fun, think about fun, you know what it is!" was in a verse in Friday, as well as "we're gonna have a ball today." It's Thanksgiving puts the fun right in the chorus, "oh oh oh, its Thanksgiving! We we we we're gonna have a good time!"

The mention of sequential time slots is another similarity. In Friday, we heard, "Yesterday was Thursday, today it is Friday..." Now we get a list of holidays and their container months, "December was Christmas, January was New Year, April was Easter, and the Fourth of July, but now it's Thanksgiving, oh oh oh it's Thanksgiving!"

Inside Edition with Deborah Norville said tonight that this is the worst song ever. Many agree and some do not. As of now, the video has 7 million views with 107 thousand dislikes and 13 thousand likes. Who knows how many of the dislikes are from people simply following the crowd and wanting to be part of the In Group that has predetermined that anything put out by Patrice Wilson is most likely terrible.

Have a listen and decide for yourself what you think of this song and video. Singer Nicole Westbrook, 12 years old 7th grader from Los Angeles, seems nice enough and has a pleasant enough voice. She seemed to enjoy filming the video, singing into a Turkey leg, and most likely will make some money on this project, as the song is already available on iTunes.



Also watch this interview with Nicole Westbrook from ABC News.

Labels: ARK Music Factory, Friday, Nicole Westbrook, Patrice Wilson, Rebecca Black, thanksgiving

posted by KennyCrane at 11/14/2012 08:08:00 PM 1 Comments

Back in March of this year, a 13 year old girl from Orange County CA became an overnight sensation! For weeks, everyone had something to say about Rebecca Black and her slightly silly but curiously catchy song, "Friday" and its quirky but fairly well made music video. We wrote several articles about Rebecca Black and you can find them all here. Now, Rebecca is back with her second song, "My Moment" - just released today and already it has over 650 thousand views! I'll have a few things to say about the song and video, below.

But first, The News!

This week's Featured Video on our Top 100 and Top 200 Charts is a great music video parody set to the tune of Christina Perri's Jar Of Hearts, about the new Harry Potter movie! Recently I told you about two Harry Potter fanatics who vlog on YouTube. This Harry Potter parody video is from Kathy, featured in that post. She asked viewers to send in clips and she added them to her own scenes that relate to the new Harry Potter movie that made almost 170 million dollars ($169,189,427) opening weekend in the U.S. alone! Watch the Featured Video of Kathy singing beautifully about Harry Potter right here; click on it!

We have a NEW Featured Video every week on our YouTube Top 100 Chart. If you missed any of our Previously Featured Videos, you can still watch them here.

Check out our Top 100 and Top 200 Charts of the Most Subscribed YouTube Channels every week!



Now, watch Rebecca Black's latest video, My Moment!

Rebecca Black was just 13 when she decided to make a music video like her friend Alana Lee had just made. After getting the okay, and money ($4000) from her parents, Rebecca goes to Ark Music Factory and buys a package consisting of an original song and music video. Ark puts the video on its YouTube channel and the video gets a few thousand hits. Then Tosh.0 mentions it on TV and millions come to enjoy or hate on the video. The dislike to like ratio is about 8 to 1 but the video keeps getting views and comments.
(Read more Rebecca Black history, here.)

People want to know who Rebecca Black is, and her name becomes a the number one Trending Topic on Twitter, even ahead of the Japan natural disaster. Rebecca gets horrible hate comments but wins the friendship of Ryan Seacrest, Lady Gaga and Simon Cowell. She ends up in a starring role as herself in the hugely popular 8 minute mini-movie / music video for Katy Perry's song "Last Friday Night".

Just today (7/18/2011), Rebecca Black has released her second song, "My Moment" - on her new YouTube channel, Rebecca. Rebecca is 14 now, she just had a birthday on June 21. She looks about the same but now we can hear her sing without the same level of autotune as on "Friday". She sings very well! Yes, there are better singers out there, but there are certainly worse ones as well. The song itself is pretty good, it is a fairly typical pop song with no huge hook but I have listened to it several times and I like it. I have already bought a copy of it on iTunes.

The song tells Rebecca's story so far. It has a little of the feel of Taylor Swift's "Mean." Some people are not encouraging at all, but Rebecca will be following her dreams.

The video begins with Rebecca Black sitting in a recording studio (see the picture above). She starts singing some ah-ah-a-ah sounds, recalling the opening moments of "Friday". The lyrics start with, "Weren't you the one who said that I would be nothing? Well I'm about to prove you wrong!" The video continues with shots of Rebecca out and about, with fans and on the roads of L.A. Other scenes show her in makeup prep and at a dance class. The middle of the video contains some nice dance scenes with Rebecca and (according to her recent tweet, seen at the left) several dancers from "So You Think You Can Dance" - the hit dance competition TV show on the Fox Broadcasting Network.

The video winds down with shots of Rebecca Black in a limo with her younger brother, her mother and others, on their way to a Premier event. We see Rebecca getting out of the limo as photographers flashes go off. She has pulled up in front of a club of some sort with her name and "My Moment" on the Marquee. Rebecca has just had some words for the haters in her lyrics - "Haters, said I'll see ya later... I'm doing big things, things you never dreamed of. I hope you are happy 'cause I'm 'bout to blow up! This is my moment, my moment! It's my time!"

The final scene shows Rebecca Black dancing in front of the club as the paparazzi take shot after shot. She is wearing a red dress which comes down to just above the knee, a black belt and black shoes. The dress is very similar to the famous white dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in "The Seven Year Itch" which sold at auction for $4.6 million on June 20th of this year. No, Rebecca's dress did not blow up, but her song, video and career just might!

Now - Watch the video!



Uploaded by rebecca on Jul 18, 2011

GET THE SONG ON iTUNES NOW! http://bit.ly/mymomentitunes

World Premiere Music Video for "My Moment" the new song from Rebecca Black.

Follow Rebecca on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/msrebeccablack

Visit the Official Website
http://www.rebeccablackonline.com

Become a Fan on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rebecca-Black/225253837493603

Subscribe on YouTube!
Category: Music
Tags: * Rebecca * Black * My * Moment * Friday * Pop * Last Night * Singer * recording * artist * musician * charts * song * official * songwriter * db * entertainment * original * new * 2011 * hollywood * los * angeles * all * american * girl * new single * music video * album * pop music * itunes * internet sensation * viral * cool * dance * studio * red * carpet * behind * the * scenes * dream * career * star * celebrity

License: Standard YouTube License

TOP COMMENTS on Day ONE:

• well it's not as stupid, so you get a thumbs up... there you go, +1 thumbs up. Your freaking welcome. but i still won't pay to listen to this.

  ZachariahLogan 2 hours ago 944

• The comments go by so quickly! It's like playing a video game! "Try to hit thumbs up, thumbs down, or reply. XD

  Blackcat51292 2 hours ago 804

• Let's see any of you do better. Get over yourselves. She's made more out of herself as a thirteen year old then any of you will in your whole lives.

  laurennikimel 2 hours ago 583

• hmmm i think this song is a little better than friday ...

  geographicDJspeedy28 2 hours ago 659

• 302 views and 60 000 dislikes, dont know bout you but youtube needs math class

  TheRBaral 2 hours ago 1006

• 888 comments since you started viewing ... dammmm

  hussainaadil 2 hours ago 417

• ahaha she just shits on all your haters on this song lol i have never seen some many trolls come out of hibernation just to hate on a cool kid lol

  DahMasterDebaters 2 hours ago 299

Labels: Friday, Harry Potter, KathyKatInAHat, My Moment, rebecca, Rebecca Black

posted by KennyCrane at 7/19/2011 01:55:00 AM 2 Comments

Hello, YouTube lovers! This time we have 4 videos defending Rebecca Black from all her many critics, and 4 fun fun fun fun covers of "Friday"!

Today is April 13th. It has been about a month since "Friday" began to go viral. Here's the stats right now:

Views: 99,324,828
Comments: 2,089,987
Like: 260,300
Dislike: 1,995,488
#2 - Most Discussed (All Time)
#2 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Music
#34 - Top Rated (All Time)
#23 - Top Rated (All Time) - Music

As "Friday" hits 100 MILLION views, lets recap the story. Last year, Patrice Wilson, a rapper and businessman, team up with Producer Clarence Jey to create Ark Music Factory, a record label and community where people would be safe to follow their music dreams. They advertise for musicians without original material, offering to provide them with a song, video, photoshoot and image consultation. They offer two plans, either pay to buy the song and associated services while Ark retains publishing rights, or pay nothing for the song and services with Ark retaining all rights.

Alana Lee Hamilton, 14 year old student at El Rancho Charter School in California, responds to the Ark ad and goes on to record and make a video for "Butterflies." Alana tells 13 year old 8th grade classmate Rebecca Black about her Ark project and Rebecca talks to her mom about also making a video. Rebecca's parents, both veterinarians, pay Ark $4000 for a song and video. Rebecca is presented with 2 pre-written songs. One was about being someone's lover/hero and the other was "Friday." She chooses "Friday" because she liked the song, felt it went well with her personality and was more appropriate for her level of life experience.

Rebecca records the song, then the video is made at her dad's house with family and friends as extras. Rebecca's mom comments on the cheesy lyrics but Rebecca seems happy enough to sing them and act them out in the video, telling her mom that she sang them as they were written. The video goes on Ark's YouTube channel, trizzy66, on February 10th, 2011. It gets a few thousand views and then people like Tosh.0 begin to talk about it. They brand it as the worst pop song/video in history and people start to ask, "Who is Rebecca Black?" on twitter, tumblr and other social media sites. "Rebecca Black" becomes a Trending Topic on Twitter for several days and the video passes 1 million, then 10 million, then 25 million views.

Many of the viewers feel compelled to comment on the video. The Like/Dislike ratio is about 1 to 8 and the comments reflect that. People seem to enjoy stating their opinion about this video. Although many more people dislike it then like it, it is still the #23 best "Like"d music video of all time (about 5 years since YouTube began their rating system).

Negative comments seem to be of two main types. There are those who think the song/video was a serious effort to produce a high quality pop tune and video, but delight in the epic fail that they decide the video has become. They list the nasal autotuned vocals, cheesy preteen lyrics, less than professional acting and other technical defects as reasons for their opinion. One might say that these commenters take pleasure in what they perceive as someone else's failure. Of course, success and failure are subjective and depend on the original goals. The song has succeeded in attracting popular attention, so in that sense, it is a successful pop song. The original intent of Rebecca Black was to enjoy making a video for her friends and add it to her portfolio of musical accomplishments, and she did seem to enjoy herself.

A second type of comment points out that a "rich" family decided to spend some of their own money so that their child could sing this prefabricated pop song and film the video. People seem to think that you can't and shouldn't try to buy your way to pop success and fame, you should spend years of time and effort honing your skills and improving your talent. Then, and only then, should you receive any recognition for your work. One might say that these commenters are reacting to a perceived injustice. Their internal "cheater detector" mind modules see someone getting a benefit without paying a cost. They get the same feeing as when someone cuts in front of them in a line, or uses some sort of influence to get something they don't deserve. Of course it was not Rebecca's intent to buy her way to fame and success. They paid a very reasonable price for a legitimate product. It may have been one of Ark's goals to get the song, video and singer noticed, and they did let Rebecca know this but without any guarantees - and it seems even they didn't expect such a massive response. There are many examples of people who spent as much or more on videos with no recognition, as well as people who spent nothing at all and have had success on YouTube. Parents are free to spend their earned income in any way they choose; they bought a fairly professional video package and were satisfied with the results. They did not buy any video views, that all came as a result of the final product.

Why is the song so popular? Just like any other easily remembered and transmitted story, it takes a very familiar and relate-able core and adds a counterintuitive twist. The chord structure of I IV V is seen in many pop songs which subconsciously reminds listeners of other hits. The twist is the minor chord in the C, Am7, F, G progression. The lyrics come rapid fire and add to the percussive beat. They repeat phrases and meanings that are understood by any age group. The twist is that the lyrics don't rhyme and the vocals are autotuned which adds an extra syllable to "Fri-e-day" along with crackles and other digital affectations. The video shows kids having fun and has the obligatory verse by a black rapper. The twist is the subtle body language that projects a bit of "what am I doing here?" and the fact that the rapper is not in the peer group of the rest of the actors. Intentionally or not, this song and video follow a known formula for creating a successful meme - something memorable because it is both familiar and alien at the same time.

Even though the ratio of negative to positive comments is skewed toward dislikers, the song has huge numbers of fans. Sales on iTunes have been strong. People are willing to pay a dollar to have this on their iPod. Here are 4 videos from people who generally say, "leave Rebecca Black alone!" They feel that many of the comments on the video are way over the top, much too harsh to be directed at a young teen who didn't write the lyrics and just made the video for fun, fun, fun, fun!









Here are 4 videos that cover Rebecca Black's song "Friday." By listening to the two more serious covers, you can come to appreciate the basic tune without the digital audio effects and video distractions. By watching the two more comedic covers, you can laugh along with the lighthearted humor and leave with a smile on your face!

Labels: ARK Music Factory, cover, Friday, Rebecca Black

posted by KennyCrane at 4/13/2011 02:57:00 AM 0 Comments

Here are the latest stats on the viral video hit "Friday" - sung by 13 year old Rebecca Black, and written and produced by Patrice Wilson, Clarence Jey and Maverik. The video is about to hit 55 MILLION views. The song is at #13 on the iTunes Chart , ahead of Cee Lo Green, Britney Spears, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Diddy, Katy Perry and Bruno Mars.



The video has about a million Likes and DisLikes - about 9 DisLikes for every Like. The comments are in about the same ratio. Why so many negative comments? Maybe "herd mentality", maybe Schadenfreude, maybe honest opinions. In any case, it is very interesting to watch this Sociological phenomenon.

What do we know now about ARK Music Factory? Yesterday, ARK started a new YouTube channel, ArkMusicFactory300. The first video on this channel is a 6 minute interview with Ark owner Patrice Wilson. Patrice talks about his European background, what Ark is, how much they sometimes charge to make a video, how their goal is to make catchy pop music and their plans for the future. Ark will be going out to different places, holding auditions, and looking for the next viral video star. His final comment is that you should follow your dream, no matter what anyone says.

Patrice says not all artists pay for their videos, and the ones that do pay are charged $2000 to $4000, which is a good price for all they get - a song, video, photo shoot, image consultation and promotion. What a musician pays for their song and video package depends on if they elect the "Full 360" or the "Partial 360" plan. Rebecca Black paid for her video and got all rights to it. The song is marketed on iTunes as ©Rebecca Black, which means she should get all of the 70 cents per sale that iTunes pays the artist. From that amount, she may have to pay Patrice and Ark 9.1 cents per sale for a "mechanical license" or there may be some other agreement of payment to Patrice and the writers of the song. Other artists might choose to pay nothing for their song and video, but they may have to assign all rights to Ark. By the way, on her Jay Leno interview at 5:20, Rebecca Black said she will be giving some of her profits to her school and to help Japan.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ARK MUSIC FACTORY. FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT: PATRICE WILSON




As for the song itself, it is true that the lyrics don't rhyme and they are a bit cheesy. But they were written mainly for a tween and pre-tween audience and were intended to be fun and wholesome. Who says all lyrics have to rhyme and make absolute sense or be deep and profound? The goal of Ark was to create a catchy fun song, and it can be argued that they succeeded in this!

One last observation... "Here's another clue for you all"... After the title shot, the very next image in the "Friday" video by Rebecca Black references the song, "Another Pleasant Valley Sunday". Pause it at 3 seconds and see. What does this mean? Maybe the producers of Friday were giving a wink to those in the know - they realized their song could be seen as another "satirical commentary on middle-class society".....



Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday (watch the video)
Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King

The local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn their song
Seranade the weekend squire, who just came out to mow his lawn

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
And no one seems to care

See Mrs. Gray she's proud today because her roses are in bloom
Mr. Green he's so serene, He's got a t.v. in every room

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand

Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away
I need a change of scenery

Ta Ta Ta...

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday...

from monkees.net



Here are a few videos related to Friday by Rebecca Back:


'Friday Too' (based on 'Friday' by Rebecca Black) - AlFord Acoustic Cover

Here is a touching song by a really nice guy and talented musician. It is based on the Friday lyrics, but sung from the perspective of someone who is either shunned or bullied. It describes how it feels to he hated. This is the comment I left on this video at YouTube:

Interesting variation on the Friday song. I'm a supporter of Rebecca Black and ARK Music Factory. I think the song is catchy and realize it's targeted at tweens and younger who really like it. I've heard from parents who like it too because the lyrics are wholesome. Who says every song has to have deep rhyming lyrics? Its a fun song, Rebecca sings it well, the video is well made. If a person doesn't like it, of course that's their right, but why attack an 8th grader the way some have?





REBECCA BLACK OBSESSION!

Michael Buckley does a comedy series on his WhatTheBuckShow channel. Here, he talks about how he is obsessed with the song and video. He says that when a video goes viral, you have to have a thought something like "what just happened?" after you see it. He appreciates the non-sexual content where kids are just having fun. "Low brow brilliant!" "A cute little anthem for kids!" "You made my day!"




Important Message to Rebecca Black From Comedian Kyle Cease

Stand up comedian Kyle Cease gives encouragement to Rebecca Black. He says reactions like this come with success. He says their anger is not directed at Rebecca, they are just trying to find a place to direct it. "It's so much easier to knock down other people's building than to build your own." "What does 'best' or 'worst' even mean? It's just an opinion." A very insightful video; check it out!




MORE Links from people who have been visiting the chat room at ArkMusicFactory. This list is a continuation of the list I started, here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUprUlL6iPg
http://twitter.com/#!/miketailor
http://www.reverbnation.com/bahjat
http://www.youtube.com/BahjatOfficial
http://www.youtube.com/user/xryzgaming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2AkSwi2Uww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP-QPsgjdJI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNig6k2XKDo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dcoq9u9wVE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDL_UTK40oU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-M-hG1Tp9s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2AkSwi2Uww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ll9s89uXA
http://arkmusicfactory.com/video/rockin-pop-practice
http://www.youtube.com/DavidStevensonMusic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1oJ8tdQkl0
http://www.facebook.com/radionation.ca

Labels: doctorford, Friday, Kyle Cease, Monkees, Pleasant Vally Sunday, Rebecca Black, WHATTHEBUCKSHOW

posted by KennyCrane at 3/26/2011 05:22:00 PM 0 Comments

Its been a fun fun week, watching the Rebecca Black "Friday" video go from 1.5 Million views when I wrote about it on Monday, to over 17 Million views on Friday! I am here to follow up on the story.

We now know a bit more about Rebecca, the song, and the company that produced it. Rebecca is 13 and goes to a charter middle school in Orange County CA which provides "technological skills, fine arts and health exploration and multi-cultural awareness." She played the lead role in her school play, "Oklahoma." She contacted ARK Music Factory, which offered her a choice of two songs they had written, and she chose Friday to record and make into a music video.

Some have said that the song has non-rhyming lyrics that make no sense, too much autotune was used and the green screen video effects were poor. I have kept and open mind and decided after I had heard the song several more times that I like it! The video is good too, for what it is; it is fun to watch! Friday is being market on iTunes, classified this way: "Genres: Pop, Music, Children's Music Released: Mar 14, 2011 ℗ 2011 Rebecca Black" In the past three days, I have seen it go from #68 to #54 to today at #31 on the iTunes Top 100 chart, so obviously people are buying the track.

If you can understand that this is a children's song, written by a very new production company, and sung by an 8th grader - then you may be able to appreciate it for what it is. Rebecca Black, and ARK, are just starting out, let's see where they go! Rebecca has already been a Trending Topic on Twitter all week, had millions of views of her video and been on Good Morning America - thats a pretty good start!

There are some nice people at ARK's website, as well as a fair share of trolls that come into the chat room and act outrageously for attention. The ARK site is powered by the Ning Social Networking engine and has the ability to post pictures, music, and video, and there are blogs, forums and a chat room. You can Friend people and message them, just the same as any other social site.

We spent some time in the chat room this week, using our Ning "TJ" account name and met some enthusiastic musicians at all levels of development of their musical skills. There was a wide range of opinions exressed in the chat room about RB, Friday, ARK, and the other ARK musicians. Just like the video, people seemed to either love or hate the song, the video and ARK. Most were able to act civilly and provide their opinion respectfully.

Here now are a bunch of YouTube videos from some of the people who visited ARK this week and put a link to one of their YouTube videos in the chat.




Here are many more links of musicians who were at ARK this week, talking about their music. Click a few and have a listen to them!

http://www.youtube.com/OMGypsy
http://www.youtube.com/user/xxVickyMontielxx
http://www.youtube.com/user/rockboy95bahjat
http://www.youtube.com/user/shinoiscool
http://www.youtube.com/user/chloshan
http://www.youtube.com/user/rickybergermusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/ohheyitsmaria
http://www.youtube.com/user/AshlyOfficial
http://www.youtube.com/user/itsjerryworldxd
http://www.youtube.com/user/sH3cKl3R122
http://www.youtube.com/user/Squishpig2
http://www.youtube.com/user/chloeangelidesmusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/JoshuaGottlieb
http://www.reverbnation.com/mremb
http://www.youtube.com/user/syrineist
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hussein-Ezzeddine/140550875979890
http://arkmusicfactory.com/profile/ErikBriganty
http://www.youtube.com/user/definitionThr3e
http://www.joshuagottlieb.com/Site/Home.html
http://soundclick.com - Beats
http://BeatsByMarkus.com - Beats
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - Free recording/mixing program
http://youtube.com/user/theseveredsaints
http://youtube.com/user/seefourband
http://www.reverbnation.com/#!/drinkardnapoleon
http://shaymusic.tumblr.com/
http://www.stevenspassov.com
http://youtube.com/user/TaeBrooks
http://www.reverbnation.com/whitetee
http://www.myspace.com/laurawintermusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/CoreyDixonOFFICIAL
http://dical.bandcamp.com/album/fokuz
http://arkmusicfactory.com/profile/LenaMacias
http://arkmusicfactory.com/profile/steffiledbetter
http://www.youtube.com/user/singingfool14
http://youtube.com/KayleeDuncanMusic
http://arkmusicfactory.com/profile/rachellereome
http://www.youtube.com/user/LyonLowell
http://arkmusicfactory.com/profile/MarkVital


If you want to be added, or deleted from this list, or if you need to make a correction, please email Kenny at Kenny@YouTubeStars.com - thanks!

#WhosThatGirl?

Labels: ARK Music Factory, Friday, music, Rebecca Black, viral

posted by KennyCrane at 3/18/2011 07:04:00 PM 1 Comments

It is the middle of the night, Sunday night or Monday morning. Then comes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then FRIDAY! Yayyyy!

What? Have I lost my mind? No, I've just watched some reaction videos to a slightly strange but catchy pop music video I saw a few days ago, by 13 year old Rebecca Black. Don't know who Rebecca is? Well, she's trending right now on Twitter!

I'll show you the "love it or hate it" music video for her song, "Friday" as well as two videos inspired by it, below.


But first, The News!

This week's Featured Video on our Top 100 and Top 200 Charts is a music video for a 60s inspired Indie Rock tune from 2007 that never got many views. I happen to LOVE this kind of music! It reminds me of 60s Garage Rock and modern bands like the Dandy Warhols and Blur. Excellent harmonies and trippy reverb fuzz guitar, have a listen! The video is sparse, just the band playing and cameos of the girl who is "my new source of fascination." #WhosThatGirl ??? Dig this groovy music video for The Cons' "You'll Be My Baby"! Check out our Top 100 and Top 200 Charts of the Most Subscribed YouTube Channels every week!


Now, here is Rebecca Black's Video and 2 related vids...


A few days ago, I came across this video for the song "Friday" sung by 13 year old Rebecca Black. It was uploaded on 2/10/11 and it already has 1.5 MILLION views. The tune is decent; it is fairly bland but not the worst pop song I ever heard. The chorus, "Its Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday" vaguely echoes Justin Bieber's "Baby, Baby Baby oh." Other lyrics include, "I see my friends kickin' in the front seat, sittin' in the back seat, gotta make my mind up, which seat can I take?", "partyin' partyin' yeah! partyin' partyin' yeah! fun fun fun fun lookin' forward to the weekend" and "Yesterday was Thursday Thursday, today it is Friday Friday, ... tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards..."

Two and a half minutes into the the 3:48 video, after we get the recitation of the days of the week, the song switches to an older black man (singer Pato) cruising down the highway rapping to the beat. ItsKingsleyBitch, see below, asks if he is heading to the teen party where Rebecca and her friends are. "This is just not acceptable!"

The song is released on the trizzy66 YouTube channel, which seems to belong to ARK Music Factory in L.A. - a label that mostly signs young female artists. Yesterday, 3/13/11, they released a rap mix of Friday which seems to poke fun at the song. It riffs on lyrics like "which seat should I take" and "Fried Eggs".

So what is going on with this song and video? Is it all a spoof, an internet gag? Is it a new teen singer's first try at fame, with awkward results? After all, she is ONLY 13! I think this will continue to blow up on the net this week - it is already becoming a meme with people putting up parodies, speeded up and slowed down versions, reaction videos and commentaries. This reminds me of previous YouTube controversies, like the Lonelygirl15 debate (real or actress) and the reaction to misguided young video girl Jessi Slaughter. It will be interesting to see how this plays out!

Rebecca Black-Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)





Rebecca Black - Friday (Groundhog Day Remix)

Looks like mseales is not a fan of this tune. He made this mashup of a clip from Groundhog Day backed by this audio track.

Description: "Even Phil can't escape the burbling inanity of the internet's latest mockery. If Purgatory is Sonny and Cher, Hell is surely Rebecca Black."

Comments: "This is why Bill Murray kept killing himself later in the movie." "i almost did this to my computer when i first heard the song" "Funny how all the teeny boppers have to use auto-tune these days. Can anyone sing anymore?" "I dont think I can watch this without cracking up!"





OVEREXPOSED: REBECCA BLACK

Comedy, satire, commentary, or hater? Here's an f-bomb loaded discussion of Friday by ItsKingsleyBitch who seems to like calling Rebecca a bitch. Do you think a 20 year old man calling a 13 year old girl a bitch is "acceptable"? Do you agree or disagree with his opinion of Rebecca and this song?

Description: "It's not TOO Overexposed yet, unless you have a Twitter or Tumblr, so this will only make sense to certain people. If you're lost, watch Rebecca Black's stupid ass "Friday" video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0"




#WhosThatGirl?

Labels: Friday, itskingsleybitch, mseales, Rebecca Black, trizzy66, WhosThatGirl

posted by KennyCrane at 3/14/2011 02:14:00 AM 5 Comments