West Springfield High School Newspaper

The Oracle

West Springfield High School Newspaper

The Oracle

West Springfield High School Newspaper

The Oracle

Black Plague replaces Bieber Fever

YouTube is a hot spot for talented artists who have the potential to be famous, but just need to be discovered.

Rebecca Black is not one of those singers.

A month after being uploaded, the video for her song “Friday” is still getting thousands of hits on YouTube. At first, I promised myself I would not watch it. My Facebook News Feed was already flooded with complaints, and I heard a few people imitating it in school; let’s just say the impression I got wasn’t too promising.

The first time I tried to watch the video, the sound was not working—clearly a warning sign. I looked up the lyrics and was surprised that people did not appreciate their poetic genius. I felt a deep connection with Black seeing as I too have a hard time deciding where to sit in the car, and have the ability to list the order of the weekend (it’s Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then Sunday comes after…wards.)

Story continues below advertisement

Finally, I managed to watch the video. First off, there are so many words in the world that rhyme. According to Dr. Seuss, you can even make up words. So why was there not a single rhyme?

Black claims that the reason her mom dropped $4,000 to make the video was to get her foot in the door of the entertainment world. I think the real reason was to prove she has friends. Why else would she feel the need to point them out so much?

Still, people should cut Black some slack. She just wants to have fun (fun, fun, fun…). At least she’s trying to get her footing in an extremely competitive industry.

Black responded to all her “haters” in a Us Weekly interview, informing them that nothing was going to stop her because she has the “drive.” I do have to question Black’s integrity when she does not even have enough “drive” to write her own songs.

“Mean Girls” best captured this idea when a girl said “I don’t hate you because you’re fat; you’re fat because I hate you.” Similarly, the public doesn’t hate Black because she’s famous; she’s famous because they hate her.

There is speculation that she has even started producing a new song called “Prom Night” (although an 18-year-old taking 14-year-old Black to Prom sounds like the foundation of a court case to me).

Black is not even the first of her kind. Ten-year-old Jenna Ross made a YouTube video called “My Jeans,” with lyrics like “ABC, 1,2,3 she wore those jeans like me” including a mini rap portion.

I would never discourage children from following their dreams, but you still need to be realistic. If you can’t sing or compose music, do not expect to be an over-night Justin Bieber.

On the other hand, Black has landed interviews with ABC and she is just a kid. While she may not have any talent, at least she is enjoying her Fridays.

More to Discover