This is an interesting piece from Good Morning America with overnight YouTube star Rebecca Black, whose video "Friday" attracted over 20 million views in just a couple of days.
While the song is by almost all standards an incredibly stupid mix of painfully ridiculous lyrics without much musical worth, the unfortunate reality is Rebecca can actually sing, as she demonstrates on yesterday's show.
Furthermore, she's an eighth grader who now has people telling her to cut herself, develop an eating disorder to "look pretty," and in some cases, commit suicide. This is not only cyber bullying, but sexist, gender-targeted cyber bullying that relies on normalized double standards for women. A male with an equally insipid song would not have received the same kind of specifically cruel commentary.
In the long run, while I would never defend "Friday" as artistic speech, the fact of the matter is, the song is an unintended parody that reveals the music industry's ability to market anything (Rebecca even notes it's good that a person who insulted her song said it was "stuck in their head" because that's what it's "supposed to do"). I'm not sure if her low-brain lyrics and auto-tuned singing is any different than most of our radio's top 40. It's simply an exaggerated version. Why should I insult a girl whose work is, in many ways, the same as most of the other singers I dance to? Rebecca doesn't seem to be the problem here.
My point is, if we want to find something to critique from this entire experience, maybe it should be the music industry, the economic structure of listening to music in the U.S., and whose authority and monopolized control dictates what comes up on our iPod.
Most tragically, our complicity with attacking and viciously "slut-bashing" (a term coined by some authors to reference double-standard name-calling and bullying toward women) Rebecca as a person needs to addressed. 76 percent of the respondents to a poll issued by Good Morning America thought the comments on Rebecca weren't harsh. Apparently bulimia is the new "butt head."
An attack on an individual clearly caught up in a sudden world of negative fame is totally unproductive and misplaced, especially when it consequently reaffirms that it's okay to slap hurtful and stinging words we reserve exclusively for women.
I have blissfully avoided this video, so I can't speak for the idiotic things people are saying to this girl. All I know is I'm all about taking down the music industry's grip on our iPods. PLEASE.
ReplyDeleteThere's so much cyber bullying; it disgusts me. It has really become a problem...regardless of content, people feel the urge to say horrible things to strangers, simply because they can (or what's the reason?!?!)
ReplyDeleteIt confuses me so much but sooooo many people do it. I wish there was some kind of psych study that analyzed and attempted to explain this phenomenon.
And yes, I absolutely think the music industry is what needs to be critiqued. I want a revolution! You hear so many rappers saying something along the lines of being able to rap about anything/nothing and make millions of dollars. It's disgusting the quality of music that is played incessantly on the radio.
There was also a recent situation with Lupe Fiasco....it's interesting, the record company was horrible to him, Lupe's fans petitioned (completely by their own motivation) and basically forced the company to release the album...and Lupe claims to "hate" the album....interesting article about it:
http://www.sohh.com/2011/03/lupe_fiascos_lasers_beams_distress_i_hat.html
oooh, thanks for the article, Monica!
ReplyDeleteI COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS. I JUST posted the good morning america video and I made similar comments on the cyber bullying on my facebook right before seeing this. Glad you felt the same way.
ReplyDeleteHer song is awful and really annoying, but the things that people are saying are completely unacceptable and so cruel. It upsets me.