Please, PLEASE Let This Be Satire

[filkertom]

For, if it is not, then "And They Say I've Got Talent" is pretty much obsolete. Quaint, even.

This is the new viral video on YouTube. Over 6.6 million hits since Friday.

Ladies and gentlemen, the worst song I have ever heard: Rebecca Black's "Friday".

(If you don't want to hear it -- and, believe me, I completely understand this -- here are the immortal lyrics.)

Other opinions on the matter from CNN and Yahoo Music.

Comments

[mythochromos]

Oh gods. Even if it's a parody, it doesn't come close to Sunday Afternoon.

Which I must now hear again.

[filkertom]

That, at least, does seem to be a satire. And has some funny bits. So hey.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sucked, all right. I gave up after less than a minute.

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to watch/hear this right now. But if it's really a thirteen-year-old unknown, good for her. Not horribly impressed with the lyrics. But that's the age group I teach, and most are incredibly self-conscious, so to put something like this out there is hard.

Now, how do I get my kids' videos to go viral?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Apparently, you sign them up with Ark Music Company, which hires 13-to-17-year-olds to come to L.A. and make a video. And then they throw 'em against the YouTube wall, in hopes that one will stick. Apparently, this one did, albeit because of its The Room-level awfulness.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

And there are how many rabid Twilight fans?

Some people have no taste, but if an artist can appeal to the zombified masses, they can become rich and famous. It disgusts me.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

There's an author who has been writing "teen paranormal romance" novels and selling them via Kindle. She's 24 and is apparently pulling down six figures A MONTH.

[arensb.livejournal.com]

I can't quite figure out whether they've cranked the auto-tune up to "I don't care how obvious it is that she can't sing" levels, or whether this is a prototype of a next-generation voice synthesizer.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I made it as far as the rap segment. Luckily, the ice-pick is across the room.

You have to feel sorry for this kid. She's getting used by this "Ark Music" thing, and now is known internationally for being a terrible singer who needs autotune to get through a simple song.

It's just more of the Disney market. Selling to the Tweeners has become today what selling to teenagers was twenty years ago. And tweeners want cute, repetitive, non-threatening and simple. This fulfills all those requirements.

Horrific video, but is it as bad as this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8)?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Different species. That one's so bad it's good. It's the difference between Batman and Robin (a surprisingly entertaining film in its atrociousness) and Battlefield Earth (which induced migraines in two of our viewing party).

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I couldn't make a minute. It just goes to show that autotune is here to stay.

[jeffr23.livejournal.com]

Without having heard it sung and going just by the lyrics, it doesn't seem to be measurably worse than, say, 'Summer Girls'. (Faint praise; I have damned with it.)

And, judging by the current state of the radio, being autotuned to hell and gone is no impediment to success.

Is a future in which the only way to discern actual musical talent is live performances in intimate settings really all that nightmarish?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Not for me. ;)

[solarbird]

Really? That's your Worst Song Evar? I mean, sure, the lyrics are incredibly generic (and superficial, but no more so than any other two dozens songs I could toss off the top of my mind), the music is throwaway crap autotuned to hell and back, and they clearly recorded her because of a superficial resemblance to Rachael from Glee:



...but I've heard worse. Or at least, a lot of not-all-that-substantially-better. (Technotronic, anyone?)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I think she looks more like a black-haired Britney Spears myself.

Yeah, I can pick out things that I like listening to even less than this. But they haven't become worldwide YouTube sensations (for good or ill). This girl is likely to have a career of some kind now, and just for that this song exceeds any other's badness.

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

Excuse me while I go clear this ear worm out with some Leonard Nimoy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04)

[misterseth.livejournal.com]

Ce N'est pas Spock!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Poor thing, this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fCtDO7OcRM) will take your mind off your problems. Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHeooi4c8hY&feature=related). Part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YwVyXJz5os&NR=1).

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

Over 6.6 million hits?

It's true. People really do love watching trainwrecks.

[sdelmonte]

I am not going to make fun of a 13 year old striving to create. The bad here lies with whoever made this viral at her expense.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

That was truly horrendous, but not quite as bad as 96 Teardrops. There are some really wonderful videos on YouTube as well. My favorite viral YouTube artist is Julia Nunes. Amazing singer. Her videos are mostly covers, but she's also done a couple of CDs of original songs.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

That vocal is straight out of the Uncanny Valley. It could have been done to good effect with equally-bad CGI, but not pretending to come from a live person.

[bonnie-rocks.livejournal.com]

My fiance trolled me with this song over the weekend. I wanted to go on a murderous rampage as soon as she opened her mouth.

I *hate* autotune with a passion. Curse you, Cher, for "Believe" and hence the reason why autotune took off, otherwise it would have faded into obscurity never to resurface again.

~*::Meow::*~

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Eh could be worse. When I saw the blog post my first was that it was about that evil woman on YouTube who claimed the quake in Japan was God's way of telling Atheists he exists and was HAPPY about the thousands who died.

Compared to that, a manufactured song about a manufactured pop star isn't that bad. (I'd provide the link but I only saw it on Pharyngula http://www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ which still does not work on my computer and I have to read it at the office during lunch.)

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

Meh. It's pretty bad, but no worse than many other bubblegum pop songs produced over the years.

Now for a palate cleanser to get that of my brain. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLrKdPOyva4)

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Ok your palate cleanser is made of pure win. I'd never even heard of her before. I'll have to track down some more info.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Absolutely hilarious bit of commentary on the lyrics from the Encyclopedia Dramatica:
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Rebecca_Black#A_Sociopsychological_Analysis_.28With_the_words_of_Rebecca_Black_in_green.29

(Uh, that page is NSFW, but this link goes directly to the lyric analysis)

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/awesome_of_the_day/2011/03/what-rebecca-blacks-friday-would-sound-like-if-it-was-sung-by-bob-dylan.html

I'm really very sorry - the devil - no wait, someone on Eric Schwartz's facebook page - oh, OK the devil - made me post this.

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is if you're ever at Incon again I should perform open recitations of the lyrics from this song next to your table? ;)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I KEEL YOU WEETH MY BRAIN

Oh shut the musical fuck up

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User greyweirdo referenced to your post from Oh shut the musical fuck up (http://greyweirdo.livejournal.com/2714702.html) saying: [...] but everyone [...]

[batyatoon]

Eh, I've heard worse. The song's your basic content-free dance music; the words are basically standing in for "la la la" and serving the same purpose.

The video, on the other hand, made me want to spork my eyes out for the few beats I actually watched it.

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

"Who are these young punks today and their crappy talentless music with meaningless lyrics?"

"Who are these old squares who don't get youth culture?"

Welcome to the Stan Freberg (losing) side of that endless argument, Tom. And it's almost certainly more of a loser in an era in which we can all listen to whatever we want. Technology opens new channels, new art flows in. People's standards are upset.

Yeah, that was the worst set of lyrics I have heard since the last worst set of lyrics. All they did was sing some empty crap about the days of the week, right?

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days.
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days.
The weekend comes,
My cycle hums,
Ready to race to you.

These days are all,
Happy and Free. (Those Happy Days)
These days are all,
Share them with me. (oh baby)
Goodbye grey sky, hello blue.
There's nothing can hold me when I hold you.
Feels so right, it can't be wrong.
Rockin' and rollin' all week long.

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days.
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days.
Saturday, What a day,
Groovin' all week with you.

These days are all,
Share them with me. (Those Happy Days)
These days are all,
Happy and Free. (oh baby)
These Happy Days are your's and mine.
These Happy Days are your's and mine, Happy Days.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Hey. At least those crappy lyrics had a great chord structure, building musical tension. They were also written in the 70s, for a show about the 50s.

[batyatoon]

...

Okay, this will help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FISHEO3gsM

IT'S THE DYLAN VERSION.