Stop Hating On Rebecca Black

There’s no denying that Rebecca Black is not the best singer in the world. Nor does her music video come close to the big-budgeted super-videos of Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Britney Spears or Lady Gaga. Black’s world-known song “Friday” has received the worst reviews seemingly ever and has inspired some of the nastiest responses from the public.

In an interview with Good Morning America, Miss Black, who’s not even in high school yet, said that the worst comments she had read about herself was "I hope you cut yourself and I hope you get an eating disorder so you'll look pretty, and I hope you go cut and die."

Really? Really! The extremely negative popular response that Rebecca has gotten is typical of America’s obsession with bringing down people who are in the spotlight. Because Rebecca’s parents paid ARK Music Factory $2000 in order to get the song and the video made. I guess this is what made people so angry with Rebecca; she isn’t a “hidden talent” but the daughter of parents rich enough to buy her way to stardom.

To me, that shouldn’t enough to aggravate people so much that they feel compelled to write such hateful YouTube comments, Tweets and Facebook statuses. Rebecca is just a young girl with a dream and the means to follow her dream. Even though the song is really terrible, I find it utterly ridiculous that people decades older than Rebecca should be so mean to her (especially while hiding behind social networking sites).

The most surprising thing about this phenomenon is that the music community is supporting her. Pop icon Lady Gaga said during a Q&A with Google, “I say that Rebecca Black is a genius and that anybody telling her she’s cheesy is full of s**t.” No surprise that Gaga is behind Rebecca ; the Lady is an advocate of free expression and being true to yourself. Former American Idol judge and music executive Simon Cowell is also behind Rebecca. “The fact that everyone’s getting upset about it is hysterical," he told Entertainment Weekly. "The fact that it’s making people so angry is brilliant.”

Cowell is pointing to a very curious aspect of this whole extravaganza. No matter how much people may say they hate Rebecca’s song, they’re still talking about it. Her video garnered enough hits and her song had enough downloads that she quickly made back the money she gave to ARK Music Factory and more (she said she’s giving the money to Japan relief funds, which is honorable). All celebrities (especially those who are infamous like Rebecca) want to be remembered. Wouldn’t ignoring her—not watching her video countless times, not buying her song on iTunes, not Tweeting about her—make her go away like so many comments/messages have been asking her to do? Haters gotta hate—that’s the moral behind Rebecca ’s weeks in the spotlight.

The question is: will she make it as a legit pop star? Should she? My answer: if she takes voice lessons, ditches the obvious Auto-Tune and writes her own songs (or even finds some new songwriters), then why not? And if all she wants to create are fun pop anthems (allegedly, her next song is entitled “LOL”), then she should go for it.

If there is one thing I like about Black is that she perfectly nails that pre-teen obsession with Fridays and the weekend. Remember back when life’s only problems were homework, group projects and tests? And then, when the weekend came, it was like a weekly paradise. Why shouldn’t Rebecca sing about that? That’s what her life is, along with everyone else her age. It’s the execution of the song and the poorly made music video (featuring a rapper/possible pedophile) that fails her, not the theme or the concept.

To me it seems downright silly that one young California girl should receive so much web hatred for one song. Having seen and read some of her interviews, she seems like a nice girl with a good head on her shoulders. So I will support any new musical endeavors coming from Rebecca—but only if they’re colossally better quality-wise.