Be Careful What You Ask For: The Rebecca Black Story
So have you heard about the girl who has replaced Charlie Sheen as the top Twitter trending sensation? The girl who is going to be the “next Justin Bieber?”
Yes, it’s Miss Rebecca Black. YouTube sensation whose silly little video “Friday” has received 18 million hits this week. She’s been featured all over the internet and will be in this week’s People magazine. Two weeks ago, no one had ever heard of Rebecca Black.
What piqued my interest was this story about her reaction to the comments left by haters on her YouTube page. She cried. She got distraught. Look, I’ve been around You Tube a long time and outside of Mos Eisley Spaceport, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainry. One could post a video about Mother Theresa saving kittens from being ritualistically eaten by NAZI lepers, and given enough views, someone would comment that Mother Theresa is a Papist cunt who should be sodomized with a crucifex. Yeah. YouTube fame comes with a price, particularly for people like Rebecca (and me) who are clearly amateurs who happen to stumble upon something that goes viral.
What was she expecting? Oh! Rebecca! You’re so awesome! Well, there’s plenty of that too! Most of you probably don’t know what I am talking about, so please, take a moment to view Miss Black’s video before we go any further.
I suppose what I would tell Miss Black would be this: don’t cry. Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame. It’s probably the only fifteen minutes you’re ever going to get. You are NOT the next Justin Bieber. Bieber can play like 12 different instruments, has been a musical prodigy since he was 4 and actually has some talent. Rebecca’s parents paid $4000 for a vanity video that happened to go viral on YouTube. She isn’t even really singing. It’s all autotuned.
It just goes to show, be careful what you ask for. You just might get it. She (or her parents) didn’t post this video on YouTube in hopes that it wouldn’t get attention. It did. Now there are consequences.
In other ways, I sympathize with Miss Rebecca Black. I post stuff all the time that is of questionable quality and it gets 100 views, so it doesn’t really matter. If it gets 1000, I’m thrilled. At the same time, every little of comment that says something like “You suck. You really can’t sing!” from some anonymous person on YouTube who has never posted anything original of their own, well, it stings. A bit. I’m 40 years old. I can handle it. Rebecca, she’s all of 13 years old. Yeah, that kinda changes things.
What kind of “Partying” should 13 year olds with friends driving cars be doing?
Perhaps the most poignant criticism of Rebecca Black comes from the thousands of truly talented people out there. I am friends with some of these people who have been highly critical of Rebecca these last couple weeks. Understandably too. I mean, here you work your ass off for years and years, actually HAVE musical talent and get just a modicum of attention. Along comes a 14 year old girl with bad teeth, autotuning, a song she didn’t even write, a music video that her parents paid for and a bit of a budget and SHE gets the whole world to tune in. Yeah, I can see how that might piss off the serious musician.
Well, to quote my Mom whenever I complained that something wasn’t fair!
“The world isn’t fair.”
“Yeah, I can see how that might piss off the serious musician.”
Such as the maximum #1 FriendBurst non-autotuned ukelele artist in the world?
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for some serious musicians only a chelo, i mean a cello will do..
Well I feel bad now. But I had never heard worse banality. I thought I would go insane before I was able to turn the volume down on my computer.
I hope she doesn’t read this, I would not want her to stop trying.
I have been playing the guitar since I was 14 and I SUCK.
And yep people are mean ass shits on youtube.
I have the reverse problem and live on the QT avoiding fame. It’s been a struggle because I am so profoundly talented in so many areas and everyone simply adores me. It can be quite a cross to bear, but I manage. I frequently resort to self deprecating remarks hoping some will believe me, but sigh. No one ever does. There are two sides to every story.
Why not her? And I don’t believe that Justin turd can play a dozen instruments either. Baby, baby, baby,baby, baby, baby, baby, basby…. The kid makes me sick…he has very little talent…but has the right promotion working for him.
Well they certainly don’t make incomprehensible pop sensations like they used to do they? Like The Shaggs. The group Frank Zappa once called “better than the Beatles” in an obscure Norwegian newspaper. The group that nearly ended the Vietnam War… so that another war could be started someplace else that would have been much much worse.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Shaggs!
I just can’t even care….I don’t get it and I’m extremely glad that I don’t…Makes me feel good about myself….. 😆
I saw a video where that girl sang a little without the auto tune which I am to lazy to look for. It really wasn’t bad, but that one she put out stinks. The youtube crowd is a hard audience, a really hard audience.
I am reminded of wayyyyyyyyyyyy back when chat rooms were in vogue. This was before spazz and before facefuk … welp before any social network. I would be in a chat room and without warning someone would pop in and type out BRitney Spears Britney Spears Britney Spears. I responded with.. Britney Spears… Ka Ka. I wonder now, if she was able to see some of the stuff written about her while doing her promo. Spose it didnt matter, she did acomplish fame reguardless. I think it will probably be the same for this young lady ..n who knows, we might see her five years from now with her head shaved. Might even see a statue of her giving birth…. ya never know.
mornin Joko!