Black sings Today is Friday, tomorrow is Saturday!

By Joanne Santomauro

You've seen it on YouTube. You've made fun of it with your friends. You've tried to quell the endless echoes in your mind of "fun, fun, fun" to no avail — and now it's a hit. Rebecca Black's song "Friday" is the newest pop culture sensation.

The song illustrates a typical Friday morning and ends in a celebration of the weekend and the opportunity to hang out with friends. As far as the premise of the song goes, there is nothing too exciting about the lyrics.

What has pushed the video to 60 million views (and counting) on YouTube? Well for one, the lyrics are so bad they're good. My personal favorite would be the revolutionary statements: "Yesterday was Thursday/today is Friday/tomorrow is Saturday/Sunday comes afterwards." Thank you, Rebecca Black, for clarifying when each day of the week occurs; we had forgotten until you sang — I mean, AutoTuned your voice — about it.

Even without its terrible lyrics, the song's musical quality suffers greatly from excessive post-production. Black puts T-Pain to shame in the AutoTune recordbook — her vocals are digitally enhanced throughout the entire song. However, like a car accident that you can't peel your eyes from, "Friday" is disturbingly catchy. The song follows the standard four chord progression that often moves me to put pop songs on repeat. But unlike other singles, "Friday" has invaded my consciousness, cursing me (and other listeners, I'm sure) with broken-record whines of "Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday."

You have to give the song credit for attracting such a large audience, though. Immediately after its release, "Friday" spurred hundreds of YouTube viewers to upload responses, covers, and parodies about the song. One YouTube user uploaded a parody singing "fried eggs, fried eggs." Notorious YouTube user "ItsKingsleyBitch" rants, "It is so irritating, it is the most annoying song/video I've heard/seen in my twenty years of existing on this planet."

Many critics have pointed out that Rebecca Black and "Friday" are not unlike many other pop sensations. Using auto-tune voice technology and unoriginal, party-themed lyrics has been popular since the nineties. Perhaps the most captivating aspect of "Friday" is its astounding success in capturing the worst aspects of contemporary pop in one song and video. "Friday" has been deemed by Rolling Stone as an "unintentional parody of modern pop."

So, the song is terrible — but what about 13-year-old Rebecca Black? She posted an acoustic performance of "Friday" that was recorded in her home. The taping featured a set of Black's friends chiming in on the chorus. After watching it, I will admit, Black has vocal talent. Video clips of Black singing the national anthem reveal that she doesn't sound as bad as "Friday" makes her out to be.

Black has been featured on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." She has allegedly donated all the proceeds from the video to the Japan relief effort.

In an interview on Good Morning America, Black responded to mean comments that were posted on YouTube, "Okay. It doesn't bother me... I think that's an accomplishment, even a person who doesn't like it, it's going to be stuck in their head, and that's the point, it's a catchy song."

Black has received support and attention from celebrities like Ryan Seacrest and Jay Sean. In response to the music video, R&B artist Chris Brown stated, "Look, I'm no hater... I actually like it, I'll be jamming to it on ‘Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday.'"

"Friday" is currently #44 on the iTunes Top 100, beating out Black's favorite celebrity, Justin Bieber.

"I didn't like anything about it, other than the fact that I found it entertaining," said sophomore Briana Mitchell. "[If I met Black] I'd ask her if she ever figured out what seat to sit in. It seemed like a big dilemma for her."

With similar sentiments, sophomore Aakash Agarwal said, "She made a lot of money without talent, which seems unfair."

Agarwal later pondered, "I wonder if I could make a song and be famous… I'd call it ‘Monday.'"

"Friday" was produced by Ark Music Factory. AMF is a record label based in Los Angeles that recruits young singers aged 13 to 17. Parents of aspiring artists pay thousands of dollars to AMF for them to record an original song and music video in hopes of making their son or daughter the "next big thing."

Whether you like it or not, it looks like "Friday" will be around for awhile, along with Rebecca Black.

Contact Joanne at jsantomauro@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.