Confused by all the buzz surrounding Rebecca Black, the 13-year-old who has been taking the Internet by storm? Her single "Friday," an ode to the weekend articulated as only a tween can, has received a staggering 37 million views on YouTube and several hundred thousand downloads on iTunes. But her overnight success is not a fluke. The formerly unknown child star is part of the Ark Music Factory, a collection of songwriters focused on churning out music for the next Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus. Black has been working towards this moment, and as "Friday" has swept the nation to a mix of befuddlement and glee, she's been covered by countless music and entertainment sites, and remained an almost constant trending topic on Twitter. But all of this exposure has made her an easy target for critics, who have panned the video and called "Friday" the "worst song ever."
Yet despite the criticism and the YouTube parodies, Black has already won by simply being on the lips of every major media outlet. The tween star stopped by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night—one of her first major media appearances—and talked about her unexpected rise to fame and the mixed reactions she and her music have gotten thus far. “Being a teenager you care about what other people think of you,” she explained, in regard to her negative reviews. “But now I don’t even read them, so they don't bug me.” First rule of pop stardom: Brush those haters off. —EMILY EXTON
Watch the official video for “Friday” below:
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There's a difference between fame and infamy. Right now Black is a funny topic. Perhaps in the hands of the right producer her voice could be autotuned into a real hit song, but right now I doubt anybody is taking her seriously as a pop star. Youtube stars rarely reach real stardom. Tay Zonday is probably still trying to do that himself.