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HOW A VIRAL SENSATION PARLAYED ONLINE INFAMY INTO A YOUTUBE CAREER
The interesting thing about Rebecca Black, now 18 years old, is how happy she is to talk about Friday. She refers to it not as a song — you know the one: the 2011 YouTube sensation featuring such hamfisted lyrics as “Kickin’ in the front seat / Sittin’ in the back seat / Gotta make my mind up / Which seat can I take?” and a freeway accident of a chorus — but instead as a moment in time, continually referring to “that ‘Friday’ thing.”
“Ever since that ‘ Friday’ thing,” she says, “I’ve spent time figuring out what kind of artist I want to be. In the last year, I started writing, which is cool because I had always been coaxed away from that in the past, which is why nothing had ever worked.”
Not that Friday didn’t work, in its way. The song, written by Patrice Wilson and Clarence Jey, the L. A. record producers behind hit- making company ARK Music Factory, has been streamed on YouTube 88 million times. That video — the one with the front seatback seat dilemma — was apparently never supposed to find its way online, but once it did, it was unstoppable, landing Black slots on Good Morning America at the same time as becoming the target of global mockery.
But for all its awfulness ( and, while Black herself doesn’ t shoot down t he song in so many words, she’s not exactly on the defensive about it), Friday made Rebecca Black a star. Friday made it big — if that’s how you would describe the song’s hot- mess ascent into popculture infamy — in 2011, two years before Billboard began counting YouTube streams in its Hot 100 formula. Which is to say — as Buzzfeed pointed out last year — had Friday come out today, it would have been a No. 1 single.
It’s worth noting that, during our phone call, Black wasn’t really promoting anything since that afternoon’s Toronto stop of the DigiTour Slay Bells Fire & Ice, a sort of YouTube star extravaganza catering to, well, fans of YouTube stars, was already sold out. That’s a lot of what Black’s life is now: in the intervening years since Friday, she’s reinvented herself as just another quasi-famous person with an online video channel, albeit one whose name is, basically, already synonymous with online video content.
“It was, for me, a hobby,” Black continues, of setting up her YouTube channel. “Even though I had the whole ‘ Friday’ thing” — there it is again — “it was me giving myself something to do. I had complete creative control over it, and something that I was lacking so much was creative control. It was a way to really express myself to the fullest. I think for a lot of people, that’s what it is.”
It’s also a way for many young people to try their hand at DIY fame, often at their own peril. Black’s success on YouTube can in no small part be attributed to the viral infamy of Friday, which is perhaps why she’s so open to discussing it: she might not be anywhere without it. In late December, Fusion wrote an extensive feature on the economics of online fame, detailing the product endorsements and part- time j obs many are forced to shoulder to make ends meet. Black isn’t keen to get into personal finances, but she’s got her own apartment ( shared with a roommate, Andrew Lowe, also a YouTube star), more than a million subscribers and ... well, that “Friday” thing.
“Eighty-five to 90 per cent of my friends are involved with YouTube in some way, or are involved in social media in some way,” she says. “What makes us such a community is we all help to build each other up. I had a different story: I had a viral video.”
Black, who debuted original songs slated for an upcoming album on the DigiTour, says that while college isn’t off the table — she’s thought about studying psychology — music is the main priority. At least for the next two years. “I made a deal with my parents,” she says. “They promised to give me two years to try this out, then we can talk about college.”
In the meantime, she’s hoping that, whenever her upcoming material is released, the music-listening public will be amenable to judging it on its own merits, and not simply held up against a five-year-old viral sensation.
“I have an interesting relationship with ‘Friday,’” she says. “I will always hold it close to my heart. As an artist, I’m always going to be proud of everything I do. If I hadn’t made that song, who knows what I would be doing. But I hope that people legitimately give me a chance. It’s been a while since Friday.”