Top 100 moments in Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video

well yeah that's the whole point! she's so young. I made a lot of things when I was 13 that I was really really proud of and thought deserved recognition, looking back now I would be absolutely mortified had any of them actually did

xp dayo this cost 2k. 2k does not mean "they're rich."

― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, March 18, 2011 9:35 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

idk if a family feels they can blow 2k on a what is essentially a vanity music video instead of on, idk a SAT tutoring class or something, I'd say they were at least well off. I guess maybe the closest equivalent I can think of among people I know is a family that blows 2k on little league baseball uniforms for their kid? given where they live I'd say they are not hurting for money.

would you have put a slick professional-looking video for a song you made at 13 on YouTube if you could've, though? i made some shitty demos when i was a teenager but i only played them for like 2 people.

like you can't release a song, especially with a video with 'professional' production values, and then say "ok guys say something nice or say nothing at all." everyone who puts themselves out like that at any level risks ridicule in hopes of praise. that's not a very harsh reality, that's the bare minimum tradeoff for any kind of creative endeavor.

hmm idk i could totally imagine them being like *really poor* and busting their asses to raise the money for a real shot at fame for their daughter, the only golden thing in their lives...

i'm kind of amazed that this only cost 2K. recording, mastering, shooting, post-prod...?

fyi, this is where they live

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaheim_Hills,_Anaheim,_California

Anaheim Hills had an average annual household income of $127,298 in 2006.

probably doesn't cost that much once you already own the recording equipment and some cameras and green screen stuff. they probably paid for the overhead with their first few clients and now it's mostly profit.

idk its hi-def digital edited on a laptop. doubt there was many takes bc the vocals were bludgeoned into shape in post production. green screen is cheap.

yeah the cost of production has dropped dramatically in the last few years hasn't it, this was probably made using iMovie or something

OK fine, the pricetag is still amazing!

i think she seems able to poke fun at herself/the whole phenomenon though - i doubt she's under the impression that her song is anything other than throwaway and ridiculous - ie anything other than what it is.

yeah, in a way Ark Music are kind of impressively cost-effective given that most of the problems wtih the video are aesthetic or creative -- imagine how much more it cost to make that new Britney video that looks like total dogshit

idk if a family feels they can blow 2k on a what is essentially a vanity music video instead of on, idk a SAT tutoring class or something,

lol fuck an sat tutoring class, get outta here with that shit!

per the oc register piece her parents are both veterinarians, i'm sure they're not hurting, but who really gives a fuck?

yeah the interviews w/ her and her mom where they're kind of like "they offered 2 songs and this one suited me more" and "i didn't want to micromanage" kind of give the impression that they had no faith in the song but just didn't think it would matter. i don't know if she'd be taking this better or worse if she actually helped write it or really believed it was a good song and a good performance.

my gf and i just "blew" 2k on a vacation, are we rich?

did this 2k fella pay you for it or was it for fun?

anyway my heart kinda broke a little when the GMA lady asked her if she thought she had any talent and she said "well yes, on some level." I wish rebecca black the best and I hope that she will be able to lead a normal life if she chooses to.

xp lol

Who sends a 13-year-old to an SAT tutoring class? Just let them take the PSAT and see how they do; that's what jjj and I did (hilariously, we got the second- and third-highest scores in our school district).

PSAT tutoring classes exist! if you do well on them you get to be a national merit scholar or something.

127k as an average income isn't even that high for a family dayo - rich people make millions

plus if anyone gives her shit she'll always have the comeback "my song is stuck in your head though"

if you wanna move the goalposts fine - but I wouldn't say anybody whose family made 127k really 'needs' the money, unless they are a family of 10 or something xp

look, sorry to get all cuddlestein about this and for spoiling your lols. all I'm saying is that she has, maybe a little wittingly and a little unwittingly, stumbled into a situation that is pretty abnormal & extraordinary for the average 13-year old, and I hope that it when the dust settles it will have been a net good for her life. that is all.

if you wanna move the goalposts fine - but I wouldn't say anybody whose family made 127k really 'needs' the money, unless they are a family of 10 or something xp

who said they need the money? independent colleges in California are an average of 45k a year, college costs are a real thing dude! parents spend 18 years sweating how they're gonna deal w/that - a 2k gamble toward dealing with that eventuality is money well spent imo

well, if it works it's money well spent

if it doesn't, it's you being a dumbass with yr kid's future

two grand in american dollars for a song + video is a bargain

rather make a song than buy in to the bullshit that is the supplemental education industry.

^^^

awww my wife does some part-time work with an SAT prep company. not that she necessarily believes she's providing an important service that's above criticism, though.

if RB becomes a cautionary tale that makes a lot of other tweens and their parents think long and hard about going into showbiz unless they're really sure they have the talent, the material and the ability to tolerate haters, then she's probably making the world a better place.

lol cad I agree the supplemental education industry is worthless - however if you are all really trying to make this seem like her parents had their daughter's future prospects first and foremost in their minds when they wrote that check, I'm just pointing out that there are about a million things that would have been a better investment than a vanity song + music video

I don't think dayo is wrong to point out that all of this might be too much for a 13-year-old to handle but I think the way he's doing it misses a larger point; this may be too much for ANYONE to handle, regardless of age.

As has been pointed out by how she's handled her interviews, Rebecca herself seems very capable and smart; she is not coming across as someone who thought what she was doing was great art, rather as someone who was trying out something she really wanted to pursue that she knew wasn't super great who then watched it balloon out of control. The steps she and her family have taken (retaining rights to the song, setting up a college fund, setting up an arts fund, donating to Japan, using the backlash as a platform to speak about cyberbullying) have been uniformly excellent.

I am concerned about many things in this modern world but I'm not concerned about Rebecca Black. She'll figure out how to get through this.

Quite right.

When it comes to ridicule and exploitation and all, it'll be all the crazy parents and wannabe Ark Magics who will have seen this story, weighed up everything and thought "WE can do that!" and then wonder why it didn't work for them, whatever it might be.

haha i'm not saying that at all! just that maybe this was a frivolous investment, but there's really nothing "objectionable" about it.

do you guys have any idea how many powerball tickets they could have bought with $2000

if RB becomes a cautionary tale that makes a lot of other tweens and their parents think long and hard about going into showbiz unless they're really sure they have the talent, the material and the ability to tolerate haters, then she's probably making the world a better place.

i kinda think the RB story is going to do the exact opposite TBH

And I mean -- the other amazing thing is not just how quickly this has become a thing, not merely all the many ways people are reacting to it, but that we're at a point technologically where, for instance, last night I was completely and happily lost in that YouTubeDoubler combination of the fun loop and slowBieber because it just plain worked, and that's the kind of happy accident that could never have happened until recent times anyway unless you had a lot of patience, your own home studio setup and knew about obscure vanity videos as well as pop hits.

do you guys have any idea how many powerball tickets they could have bought with $2000

2000

they weren't looking to get rich quick, though, from what I can tell; they were looking to allow Rebecca to explore an interest

Guys remember the part where HER PARENTS OWN A FUCKING AIRPORT?

if they are really rich enough to own an airport, then dropping $2k on this video is admirably parsimonious

pfft who doesn't own an airport

regular blue collar folks own airports all the time, remember the lady on northern exposure

I own several airports

btw "airport" is what I call a closet, because of all the hangers

you own enough clothes to require multiple airports?

Guys remember the part where HER PARENTS OWN A FUCKING AIRPORT?

I'm beginning to wonder about that -- is that actually confirmed anywhere? (I do like the idea of a husband and wife team of vets who own an airport so they can fly in sick chinchillas at a moment's notice.)

This thread is about to get awesome again.

she tweeted about it (i'm still not 100% sure the account is actually her but it was datestamped way before she was at all known)

Yeah I remember the tweet but I'm almost wondering if that was some weird joke.